Situated in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, the Susquehanna nuclear facility is co-owned by PPL Susquehanna and Allegheny Electric, and is operated by PPL Susquehanna.
During the outage, the company employees replaced approximately 40% of the unit’s uranium fuel and also carried out maintenance and ongoing upgrades.
PPL Susquehanna chief nuclear officer and senior vice-president Timothy Rausch said: "We made significant investments to further improve the safety and long-term reliability of Unit 2.
In addition to installing more than 200 new turbine blades to address blade cracking issues experienced in the past, the company replaced 24tpump and motor that circulate water through the plant’s reactor.
Rausch said: "Susquehanna has invested more than $90 million in portable equipment and supplies that are housed in a steel-reinforced concrete building designed to survive catastrophic events.
"Along with the facility and components, we have completed training with our team of dedicated nuclear professionals to ensure the safety of our facility."
The Unit 1 of the plant, which already received similar modifications in 2014, is continuing to operate at full power.
The two generating units of the Susquehanna nuclear facility will undergo planned refueling and maintenance outages every 24 months.
