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News

Several USA plants have completed or have refueling and maintenance outages ongoing this spring. Below is a brief recap of USA outage activities.

Fermi’s Outage

Fermi 2 completed its 16th refueling outage early this year. The plant completed more than 15,000 separate activities during the outage, including inspections and equipment maintenance activities.

In addition to replacing about a fourth of the reactor fuel, Fermi 2 replaced one of its reactor recirculation pump motors — a 23-ton motor that was original to the plant.

Two dozen workers — including mechanics, electricians, I&C technicians, quality assurance inspectors and others — joined Fermi 2 from other USA plants, as part of the fleet’s personnel-sharing program. An additional 1,500 supplemental millwrights, boilermakers, iron workers and carpenters from area locals joined Fermi’s normal staff of about 850.

Another major project during the outage was a power uprate, the result of Measurement Uncertainty Recapture. The improved measurement technology allows for more accurate techniques for measuring feed water flow and, therefore, calculating reactor power.

It is a cost-effective way for Fermi to obtain roughly 1.6 percent more power for customers, which is about 15 to 20 extra megawatts of electricity.

One down, one to go: PPL Susquehanna schedules two outages during Spring 2014

On Saturday, March 1, 2014, Unit 2 was taken offline safely and event free and, in conservative fashion, its three Low Pressure (LP) Turbines were inspected for potential Turbine Blade root cracking. PPL Susquehanna has experienced blade cracking since initial findings in 2011 causing an increase in unit outages to conduct inspections, among other activities. Root cause analyses by Turbine manufacturer Siemens Energy and PPL Susquehanna’s Turbine Blade Recovery Team have resulted in changes to each unit’s LP Turbines – including state-of-the-art Turbine Blade Vibration Monitoring Systems (making it the most highly monitored and measured turbines and turbine blades in the world according to Siemens), newly designed, manufactured and installed exhaust hoods on three turbines and improved turbine blade material. Although no cracked blades were identified this spring, 64 blades were proactively replaced in alignment with Siemens Energy recommendations.

On Saturday, April 12, 2014, PPL Susquehanna’s Unit 1 was taken offline to safely commence its 18th Refueling and Inspection outage, which will include significant motor replacements, including the 1 ‘B’ Reactor Recirculation Pump and Motor set – original equipment when the unit began commercial operation in 1983. Unit 2 received a new Reactor Recirc Pump and Motor set last year during its 16th Refueling and Inspection Outage – and lessons learned from that evolution have been applied to this year’s work. Unit 1’s LP Turbines will also undergo the same invasive inspection as Unit 2, as well as to receive modifications aimed at reducing the blade vibration that is suspected in the ongoing root cracking. More than 10,000 discreet work tasks, a majority of it focused on Equipment Reliability – a station focus area – to address and improve Station performance, will be completed when the unit returns to service.

STP Unit 1 Outage

STP’s Unit 1 refueling and maintenance outage began in mid-March. This is the 34th scheduled refueling and maintenance outage in STP’s 25-year commercial operating history.

To more efficiently utilize resources and schedule work, the outage has been divided into three phases. The initial outage phase – just completed — included reactor disassembly, core offload, inspection and testing and core reload.

The second phase – led by Siemens — will include a Main Generator Rewind project and high-pressure turbine inspection. The final phase will include post-maintenance inspections, unit restart and return to full power operation.

STP’s units are on an 18-month refueling cycle. In addition, thousands of maintenance activities are scheduled.

“Our focus is on conducting a safe and event-free outage,” said Dennis Koehl, STP President and CEO. “Safety is our highest priority. It’s our primary focus during this outage.”

Approximately 1,100 contractors have been mobilized to assist during the scheduled refueling outage. More than 70 percent of these contractors – who come from across the nation – have previously worked refueling outages at STP.

Salem Unit 2 Outage

PSEG Nuclear’s Salem Unit 2 began its 20th refueling outage on April 12. The unit is on an 18 month refueling cycle with its last outage occurring in the fall of 2012.

More than a thousand contractors will join with existing PSEG employees to perform more than 19,000 activities during this refueling outage. Utilizing resources across PSEG, the outage will also be supported by more than two dozen employees from the company’s fossil stations.

During the refueling outage, one third of the 193 fuel assemblies in the reactor core will be replaced. Major work includes replacing various valves, relays, actuators and seals. Major inspections include the main condenser, a service water header, a containment fan coil unit, moisture separator reheater tube bundle and two of the station’s three emergency diesel generators.


Reactor core offload/reload was one of the major activities completed during the first phase of STP’s spring outage.