Summer Nuclear Station in South Carolina Remains Offline for Repairs

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Plant officials said that they discovered cracks in the reactor vessel head of the 966-megawatt (MW) unit at the Summer Nuclear Station, which is located in Jenkinsville, South Carolina, and owned by Scana Corporation (NYSE:SCG) (Cayce, South Carolina). The unit will be delayed for a little more than two weeks and will not return online as planned.

The unit was shut down for a scheduled refueling outage that began October 13 and was supposed to be a normal planned maintenance. Nuclear plants are required to shut down every 18 to 24 months to refuel. The process can take from 20 to 35 days for a normal refueling outage, but could be extended based on the maintenance. Officials said that the problem was detected while performing maintenance on other equipment.

Plant officials are still investigating the issue, and repairs are under way. Officials said that at this point, they expect to return the unit online December 3. However, the date will depend on whether any other issues are encountered in the meantime.

The Summer Power Plant began operations in 1982 and has one generating unit. When at full load, the generating capacity is 966 MW.

Scana is an $11 billion, Fortune 500 energy-based holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates are involved in the generation and sale of electricity. Scana's electric service area extends into 24 counties, covering approximately 16,000 square miles throughout South Carolina, and serves approximately 654,000 residents of South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

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