Press Release-08-019, NRC Approves Power Uprate for Susquehanna

Press Release-08-019: NRC Approves Power Uprate for Susquehanna

ML080300506
Person / Time
Site:	Susquehanna
Issue date:	01/30/2008
From:	Office of Public Affairs
To:
References
PRESS Release-08-019
Download: ML080300506 (1)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov Site: http://www.nrc.gov No.08-019 January 30, 2008 NRC APPROVES POWER UPRATE FOR SUSQUEHANNA The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a request by PPL Susquehanna to increase the generating capacity of Susquehanna Units 1 and 2 by 13 percent each.

The NRC staff determined that PPL could safely increase the reactors output primarily by upgrading certain plant systems and components. NRC staff also reviewed PPLs evaluations showing the plants design can handle the increased power level.

The NRC's safety evaluation of the plants proposed power uprate focused on several areas, such as the nuclear steam supply systems, instrumentation and control systems, electrical systems, accident evaluations, radiological consequences, operations and training, testing, and technical specification changes. For added confidence in the analysis, the NRC staff also conducted independent calculations and evaluations of selected areas.

The power uprate for Susquehanna, located about five miles northeast of Berwick, Penn.,

will increase each reactors generating capacity from approximately 1,200 to 1,300 megawatts electric. PPL intends to implement the uprates in two steps for Unit 1, during the spring 2008 and 2010 refueling outages, and in one step for Unit 2 during the spring 2009 refueling outage.

The NRC previously published a notice about the power uprate application in the Federal Register providing the public an opportunity to comment or request a hearing. Eric Epstein of the group TMI Alert submitted a hearing request, which the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board denied on July 27, 2007. The Commission upheld the Boards decision on Oct. 5, 2007. The agencys evaluation of the Susquehanna uprate will be available through the NRCs ADAMS electronic document database by entering ML080390086 on this Web page:

http://adamswebsearch.nrc.gov/dologin.htm.

News releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address:

http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web site.