Pennsylvania Nuclear Plant Forced Offline

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--One of Exelon's (NYSE:EXC) nuclear generating plants was forced to reduce power Tuesday morning, February 5, 2008, as it prepares for shutdown. The Peach Bottom Nuclear Station in York County, Pennsylvania, will remove the 1,152-megawatt (MW) Unit 3 because of problems concerning the safety relief valve. "We are anticipating a shutdown to replace the faulty valve," a plant official said. Maintenance engineers are planning to work throughout the weekend to replace the component and hope to have the unit back online by early next week. The unit was operating at 30% capacity Tuesday morning and was planned to go offline within 24 hours.

The station is a generating facility located on the Conowingo Pond. It consists of two nuclear reactors (units 2 and 3) that were manufactured by General Electric. Unit 1 began commercial operation in 1973, and the entire station is capable of producing more than 2,200 MW. During a span of seven years, from 1967 to 1974, there was a 40-MW experimental helium-cooled and graphite moderated Unit 1, which provided valuable technical and cost data to U.S. utilities for applications to larger plants. This unit has since been retired.

Exelon Corporation is one of the nation's largest electric utilities with more than $15 billion in annual revenue. It distributes electricity to approximately 5.2 million customers in Illinois and Pennsylvania. Exelon's operations include energy generation and power marketing.

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