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The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration recognized the outstanding health and safety programs of PPL's Susquehanna nuclear power plant during a ceremony Monday (8/29) at the plant.

OSHA recertified the plant as a "Star" facility under the federal Voluntary Protection Program. VPP recognizes companies that go beyond compliance to protect worker health and safety. The VPP Star certification is the highest safety achievement recognized through the program.

"PPL is a leader in our state, having so many of its work sites certified through VPP," said Marie Cassady, deputy regional administrator for OSHA in Philadelphia. "Through my work, I see a lot of companies that do not value employee safety. At PPL, I see exactly the opposite - the company clearly cares about the safety of its employees."

To determine if a facility is worthy of Star status, OSHA evaluates these components of a safety and health program: management leadership, employee involvement, work-site analysis, training, and hazard prevention and control.

"Being recertified is as difficult as the initial certification, because we must improve our program since our last inspection, as well as meet or exceed OSHA's safety requirements," said Britt McKinney, senior vice president and chief nuclear officer of PPL Generation. "The active involvement and commitment of all our employees made this achievement possible."

Only 13 of the nation's 103 nuclear reactors have earned VPP status.

Both units at the Susquehanna plant initially earned Star status in 2002. Every three to five years, OSHA re-evaluates VPP Star sites for recertification to check for continued improvement in their safety and health programs. OSHA conducted Susquehanna's recertification evaluation this spring.

Companies that qualify for VPP status view OSHA standards as a minimum level of safety and health performance and set their own, more stringent standards for effective employee protection. VPP participant sites generally experience 50 percent fewer lost workday injuries than would be expected of an average site in the same industry. Of the more than 7 million work sites that OSHA monitors, only about 1,300 have earned recognition in the program.

Other PPL facilities that have earned VPP Star status include PPL's Martins Creek, Montour, Brunner Island and Holtwood power plants in Pennsylvania; the company's Corette power plant in Montana; PPL Interstate Energy, which operates a pipeline that transports fuel to the company's Martins Creek and Lower Mount Bethel Energy power plants; PPL's System Facilities Center, a testing, repair and laboratory facility near Hazleton, Pa.; and all field worksites for PPL Electric Utilities, PPL's electric distribution company in Pennsylvania.

The Susquehanna plant, located in Luzerne County about seven miles north of Berwick, Pa., is owned jointly by PPL Susquehanna LLC and Allegheny Electric Cooperative Inc., and is operated by PPL Susquehanna.

PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL), headquartered in Allentown, Pa., controls about 12,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to nearly 5 million customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America. More information is available at http://www.pplweb.com/.

SOURCE: PPL Corporation

CONTACT: Lou Ramos, PPL Corporation, +1-570-759-2285

Web site: http://www.pplweb.com/