Susquehanna Unit 1 Shuts Down, Expected to Return to Service Soon

BERWICK, Pa., June 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Unit 1 reactor at PPL's Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Luzerne County, Pa., shut down automatically early Thursday morning (6/15).

The shut down occurred at 3:02 a.m. while the unit was operating at full power, and there were no safety issues with the shutdown, said Lou Ramos, community relations manager for PPL Susquehanna. All plant systems responded as designed.

"While we are investigating the cause of the shutdown, preliminary indications are that we will be able to restart the unit within the next couple days," said Ramos.

At the time of the shutdown, the unit had been in service for 65 consecutive days since the end of a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage in April. Susquehanna Unit 2 continues to operate at full power.

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

PPL Susquehanna is one of PPL Corporation's generating facilities. Headquartered in Allentown, Pa., PPL Corporation controls about 11,500 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/.