Florida Power & Light Nuclear Unit to Replace Thimbles During Refuel

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Saint Lucie Nuclear Station, located in Jensen Beach, Florida and owned by Florida Power & Light Company (NYSE:FPL ), will be replacing thimbles on it’s 850-megawatt (MW) nuclear Unit 01 during a refueling outage in April of 2007. Officials have stated that they expect to spend $12 million on this project. The thimbles are power indicators around the reactor head that send readings to parts of the control system. They are essential to the generation of the plant. The plant officials stated that the indicators have become corroded and brittle due to vibration and the environment within the reactor vessel. Once this happens, they begin to grow within themselves and this creates cramping. At that point they can no longer give out accurate readings, which leads to replacement.

Because this project is taking place during the normal refuel outage, plant officials have stated that the outage is expected to be extended by 25 days. A normal refuel outage would normally take about 25 days to 30 days. The nuclear plant has one other generating unit and a total generating capacity of 1,700 megawatts when at full load. Saint Lucie Unit 01 began operating in 1976 and Unit 02 began operating in 1983.

Florida Power & Light is among the largest and fastest-growing electric utilities in the United States. FPL is an industry leader in managing cost as it expands its electric system. The company’s operations and maintenance cost per kilowatt-hour reaches well below the industry average. FPL has re-powered older, less efficient generating units and is building new units that now take less fuel to produce the same amount of electricity. FPL’s fossil fuel power plant fleet is 12% more efficient than it was just five years ago. FPL serves nearly 8 million people, or about half the state of Florida.

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