By Bob Bauder, Times Staff
Published: Friday, April 18, 2008 10:40 PM EDT
SHIPPINGPORT — For a first time in 21 years, workers removed the massive rotor from a high-pressure steam turbine Thursday at the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station’s Unit 2 reactor as part of scheduled maintenance during a refueling outage.
The rotor is being replaced by a new one weighing 63 tons with a life span of 40 to 50 years. The old rotor was original to the Unit 2 reactor, which went online in 1982.
Steam produced by the reactor turns the rotor, which helps turn a generator to produce electricity. In addition to the high-pressure rotor, Unit 2 has two smaller low-pressure steam turbines.