One of the most challenging projects during Utilities Service Alliance (USA) member Susquehanna Station’s Unit 2 18th Refueling and Inspection Outage (U2 18RIO) has been to remove and replace three Feedwater Heaters on Unit 2. And because the station learned lessons from last year’s project FWH Replacement Project during the Unit 1 outage in 2016, this year’s effort has been executed with even more confidence.

FWH Replacement Project Manager Dan Amatucci recently discussed the progress of the project—and what’s left to do – to help Susquehanna meet its goals of safety, dose, duration and budget during U2 18RIO.

“Last year, the station was not aware that the insulated end caps of the Feedwater Heaters were affixed with glue that contained small amounts of asbestos,” said Amatucci. “While we avoided any safety issues on the project through testing and environment analyses last year, this year, we prepared for the removal of the insulation by setting up encapsulation tents to make certain any glue or residual insulation was captured appropriately. The difference between last year and this is that we built the encapsulation tents and the removal of the insulation into the plan. No surprises, no issues,” said Amatucci.

Three old Feedwater Heaters were successfully removed through the west wall of the Reactor Building.

The remainder of work on this major project include:
– Re-installing pipe removed to get FWH’s out of the Turbine Building
– Installing the Condenser wall seal plates
– Commencement of re-insulating the piping and heaters

Rigging platforms—which are located next to the transformers, next to the Reactor Building—are also being disassembled. When the team is done with that, they will begin re-installing the isophase duct and overhead transmission lines. Currently, the project is on schedule and slightly under budget.

The project success, thus far, is the result of the hard work and dedication of the entire Feedwater Heater team and the many individuals throughout the Talen Energy organization who have helped contribute to our success. Our goal is to complete the project safely, under budget and ahead of schedule. So far, so good.