Stage 2 alert declared at PPL plant

PPL Susquehanna Stage 2 Alert reports a Freon leak in a primary cooling system at the nuclear plant, triggering worker evacuations, community notifications, backup cooling activation, while Unit 1 reactor operations continued normally.

Pennsylvania Power and Light declared a Stage 2 “Alert” event at its Susquehanna 1 nuclear plant located near Berwick, PA in Luzerne County roughly 120 miles north of Philadelphia.

PPL advised the Stage 2 Alert resulted from a Freon leak in one of its primary cooling systems used to provide air conditioning to a Unit 1 operating building.

Officials said they don't know how the leak started but they added the building does have a back-up cooling system so it is able to operate as it should. The Stage 2 Alert caused evacuations of the workers in that part of the plant and required notification of 19 surrounding towns and municipality officials that an event was taking place within the nuclear complex. The alert was ended August 10, 11:35 PM as officials advised the leak had been stopped and Freon gas used in the cooling system had been successfully transferred into on site holding tanks.

PPL officials insisted throughout the Stage 2 that the public was not in any danger and that the Unit 1 reactor continued to operate, reflecting continuous operation seen at other units, at normal capacity. Joseph J. Scopelliti, community relations manager for the Susquehanna plant stated, “There have been no injuries. All plant workers have been safely accounted for.”

There are four mandated classifications of alerts when something goes wrong at a nuclear plant, such as a leaky pipe at Vermont Yankee prompting operators to act. One, the notification of unusual event two, an alert which involves notification to surrounding communities, three, a site area emergency and four, a general emergency. The stage 3 and 4 notifications directly involve the public living within a certain radius of the nuclear plant.

The Stage 2 event alert comes on the heels of a July shutdown of the same Unit 1 reactor to make repairs caused by a one million gallon water leak which flooded operating areas of the plant. The reactor was shut down on July 16th, similar to a pipe leak shutdown at Peach Bottom, and did not come back on line until August 4th, a period of 20 days. Operators shut down Unit 1 after water from the Susquehanna River flooded into the turbine building basement from hatches that provide access to its condenser according to company release. This part of the plant operating system uses river water to cool down steam leaving the turbine before it returns to the river.

Regarding the July incident, PPL Susquehanna Plant Manager Jeff Helsel said, PSEG A-plant reopening served as an industry example, "While the unit was shut down we made repairs to the circulating water system and assessed the equipment in the turbine building basement,”. He further stated, "The equipment was repaired as needed and thoroughly tested to ensure that the unit is ready to run safely and reliably."

The Unit 1 reactor is now 27 years old having begun commercial operation in 1983 and has been recently upgraded to increase its generating capacity now making it the largest water boiler nuclear plant in the nation. PPL has announced planned upgrades to its Unit 2 reactor and in 2008 filed for a third nuclear plant, amid rising interest in nuclear plants across the industry, called Bell Bend near the current Susquehanna nuclear units.

PPL has recently announced large electricity price increases to its customer base, while projects like Brunner Island scrubbers progress, as state price caps expire at the end of 2010.

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