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News

In early May, the FLEX Electrical Deployment Validation – part of the process to prove USA fleet member PPL Susquehanna could respond to an unimaginable disaster the size and scope of Fukushima – and all the work that has been done by a dedicated group of nuclear professionals in the past three years – became real. On that day, Susquehanna Station demonstrated and documented for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) its ability to deploy replacement equipment and power to specific locations onsite with a minimum of staffing to keep Susquehanna powered and cores cooled in the event of a disaster of unimaginable proportion.

Security, Operations, Engineering, Chemistry and Effluents personnel and contractors were involved in demonstrating whether or not, with staffing as light as Christmas morning, it would be able to move equipment from the FLEX Storage Building to pre-determined locations (like the Echo Diesel Generator Building) to ultimately keep the Units’ Reactor Cores cool, and our personnel and our communities safe.

The Fukushima Project Team held meetings recently, led by team members John Emmett and Jim Williams, to evaluate the plan and inform more than two dozen team members who would be participating in the day just how the disaster response would unfold.

Tasks the team demonstrated successfully that day included: safely moving the switchgear trailer and pumper trucks from inside the FLEX Storage Building without delaying the delivery of the Turbine Marine Generators; delivering fuel from fuel trucks to the generators; stretching 65 feet of heavy cable and landing connections between the switchgear trailer and ‘E’ D/G Building; and establishing longer cable connections between the turbine generators and switchgear trailer.

“This was the culmination of hard work and planning by members of the Fukushima Project Team and a great deal of input and support from many groups in the Susquehanna organization,” said Fukushima Project Team Member John Emmett. “We learned an awful lot about ourselves and our equipment – and in a disaster of beyond design basis proportion, you want to know everything that you can.”

Susquehanna is at the forefront of beyond design basis preparation among nuclear power stations in the US. In fact, following the NRC’s FLEX audit visit focused on Fukushima Project disaster preparedness at the Station Dec. 8-11, 2014, inspectors left with no open audit items, setting the standard for FLEX-related disaster preparation.

For now, the cabling has been stowed and the rolling gear has been returned to its sheltered space in the FLEX Storage Building. In the coming weeks, the Fukushima Project Team will share lessons learned from this event as they review, compile and evaluate from the validation.

(Left to Right) NPO’s Joe Schappert and Kenneth Keck land connections between the 4160 Switchgear Trailer and the ‘E’ Emergency Diesel Generator. Station Communications’ Patty Horn (right, rear) catches the action on video.