Control Rod Issue Discovered at Florida Nuclear Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--An issue was discovered this past weekend at one of Florida Power & Light's (Miami) nuclear generating plants. Engineers have been performing refueling maintenance activities at the Saint Lucie power station since October 2007. The station was preparing for start-up when an issue occurred with the control rod assembly. Officials have indicated that they will work to resolve the problem over the next several days and that they hope to have the unit online by next week. "The control rods control the nuclear reaction," an official said. "It's very difficult to investigate and repair the problem."

The Saint Lucie nuclear station is on Hutchinson Island in St. Lucie County, Florida. The plant consists of two nuclear reactors capable of producing 839 megawatts each. The first unit began operations in 1976, and Unit 2 started up in 1983. In 2003, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission extended the operating license to March 2036 for Unit 1 and April 2043 for Unit 2.

Florida Power & Light Company is the largest investor-owned Florida electricity company. It provides power to more than 4 million homes and is one of the subsidiaries of FPL Group Incorporated (NYSE:FPL) (Juno Beach, Florida). FPL Group has annual revenues of nearly $16 billion and has a growing presence in 26 states. It is recognized as one of the nation's premier energy companies and has more than 13,000 employees.

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