During this outage, workers replaced about one-third of the uranium fuel and completed a large number of equipment maintenance tasks
- By Stephen Heiser -
Exelon Nuclear’s Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station Unit 3 resumed generating electricity on Oct. 13 at 1:16 a.m. ET for Pennsylvania and Maryland consumers and businesses after a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage was completed successfully. Unit 3 operators safely shut down the plant on Sept. 13.
“During this outage, workers replaced about one-third of the uranium fuel and completed a large number of equipment maintenance tasks and upgrades that will ensure Unit 3 continues to operate safely and reliably,” said Bill Maguire, site vice president.
Employees and supplemental workers performed more than 15,000 inspection and maintenance activities on various components of the plant. Many of the activities performed during the shutdown cannot be performed while the unit is running and all are designed to ensure the continued safe and reliable operation of the plant.
The upgrades included installing new electrical windings in the main generator and replacement of one of six main power transformers. Transformers raise the voltage of the electricity that is generated before it is sent to the grid. By 2011, Peach Bottom will replace all of its main power transformers with new and improved transformers.
More than 2,000 additional workers were on-site to support the outage. The outage provided temporary employment opportunities for local trade professionals and others who travel to Peach Bottom from outside the area.
“These additional workers provided a benefit to the economy as they stayed at regional hotels and ate at local restaurants,” said Maguire. “The Peach Bottom team is also very appreciative of our local neighbors who have dealt with the increase in traffic at our site over the past few weeks."
Exelon schedules refueling and maintenance outages for one of the two units at Peach Bottom every year.
Peach Bottom has two boiling water reactors that jointly produce over 2,300 megawatts of electricity, power over 2 million homes. Peach Bottom Unit 2 continued to operate at full power during the Unit 3 maintenance and refueling outage.