Majority of U.S. Nuclear Fleet Taking Time to Perform Planned and Unplanned Maintenance Outage Work This Fall

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). With the final U.S. nuclear power station, Sequoyah Unit 02, owned by Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) (Knoxville, Tennessee), beginning it’s fall refueling, a review finds 75 nuclear outages, or 56% of the nations nuclear fleet, offline due to planned or unplanned maintenance activities.

Click on the image at right to view a chart showing the Daily Outage Totals by Power Usage Chart from Industrial Info’s Outage Database

A quick glance at the fall 2006 shows that 36%, or approximately 35,998 megawatts, of the nation’s nuke units have been in planned maintenance outages for 30 days or more. Several units have extended their original outages due to system issues or design problems. Original outage schedules have been extended anywhere from a couple of days to several weeks. One example is Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Nuclear Station’s Unit 01, which is outside of Spring City, Tennessee. Watts Bar 01 is now scheduled to return to service on December 4, 2006. This extension was due to delays in containment area re-design work. Donald C Cook 01 was also extended due to turbine design issues and Robert E Ginna’s return was delayed due to containment sump pump issues.

Approximately 39% of the nuclear outages this fall, which equates to approximately 38,983 megawatts, have been due to unplanned maintenance activities. These unplanned outages have lasted from one day to several weeks. TXU’s Comanche Peak 02 had trouble coming back from refueling. Dominion’s Surry 02 unplanned outage moved its refueling outage seven days ahead of schedule due to unplanned maintenance. The plant with the most unforeseen trouble has been the Palo Verde Nuclear station, which has been plagued with a variety of unplanned maintenance activities throughout 2006.

With an approximate cost of over one million dollars a day to purchase replacement power for extended and unplanned outages, and the average extension/unplanned outage lasting approximately five days, it has been a very expensive year for nuclear plant owners to meet their contractual and regulatory obligations.

Industrial Info tracks planned and unplanned maintenance outages as part of its Power Outage Tracking Database. Contact Industrial Info’s Member Center at 1-800-762-3361 for more details.

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Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a Marketing Information Service company that has been doing business for over 23 years. IIR is respected as the leader in providing comprehensive market intelligence pertaining to the industrial processing, heavy manufacturing, and energy-related industries throughout the world.