Unit 2 at Luzerne County, Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna nuclear power plant resumed operation on June 15. The unit was shut down on May 30th by plant operator PPL Susquehanna in order to inspect the turbine after a small number of cracked turbine blades were discovered on Unit 1 during planned inspection earlier in the spring. The damaged blades were replaced and Unit 1 returned to service on June 7th, upon the completion of other maintenance work.
PPL Susquehanna senior vice president and chief nuclear officer Timothy S. Rausch said, “Shutting down Unit 2 to perform the inspection reflects our commitment to operate the plant safely. While the unit was shut down, we installed additional diagnostic equipment on the turbine that, along with the engineering analysis already conducted, will be used to validate the suspected causes currently under review.”
The Susquehanna plant is located in Luzerne County, north of Berwick, PA and the two units have a generating capacity of about 2,500 megawatts. The plant is owned jointly by PPL Susquehanna LLC and Allegheny Electric Cooperative Inc.