BERWICK – One of the nuclear power units at the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station is off line for refueling. Talen Energy reports Unit 2 was disconnected from the electrical grid Saturday and it will now undergo refueling and maintenance. They hope to have the unit back on line later this year. They say they’ll replace one third of the fuel and do thousands of maintenance tasks.
It’s a bit of an economic boom in Luzerne and Columbia County, as 1,800 new temporary workers and millions of dollars in locally purchased supplies are needed for the outage. The company says they choose this time of year to start the outage because it is typically not near the peak heating season, nor the peak cooling season.
Talen Energy is the former PPL Corporation; Talen owns the Berwick nuclear power plant along with the Allegheny Electric Cooperative.
