News Releases

It was anything but business as usual when PPL Corporation reconnected Unit 2 of the Susquehanna nuclear power plant to the electrical transmission network early this morning (3/24).

It was business better than usual.

Employees and contractors safely completed a 26-day refueling and inspection outage - the shortest in the plant's 20-year history.

"This achievement is the result of significant improvements to processes and planning that we have made over the past several years," said Bob Saccone, vice president-Nuclear Operations. "Employees thoughtfully reviewed and researched plant and industry experience to identify improvements that would not sacrifice safety."

The improvements include better planning, earlier inspection of equipment, performing more work simultaneously and using new equipment to perform routine tasks more efficiently.

"A short outage, however, is worthwhile only if the unit operates safely and reliably until its next refueling outage two years later," Saccone said. "Because our workers routinely perform high quality work, Unit 2 operated continuously for 677 days from its last outage in 2003 until we shut it down in February for this outage."

During the outage, employees replenished about 40 percent of Unit 2's uranium fuel, conducted more than 2,000 inspections and performed routine maintenance on key equipment to ensure the safe, reliable operation of the plant. In addition, the plant upgraded the unit's two moisture separators, which remove moisture from steam passing through the turbines, to increase the plant's generating capacity.

Another outage success was the lowest level of employee exposure to radiation in the plant's 20-year history. "The company has always adhered to strict exposure limits that are well below federally mandated limits," said Saccone. "The company has invested significantly in technological improvements and training over the past several years to reduce exposure even more."

Susquehanna's units are refueled every two years.

The dual-unit Susquehanna plant, located 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 Susquehanna is one of PPL Corporation's generating facilities. Headquartered in Allentown, Pa., PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) controls more than 12,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to nearly five 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 of PPL Corporation, +1-570-759-2285, or fax,
+1-610-774-5281

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