As part of the process, 62 of the 157 fuel assemblies will be exchanged and numerous safety inspections will be conducted
– By Abby Gessner –
FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC), a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. announced its Beaver Valley Power Station Unit 1, located in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, shut down earlier today for scheduled refueling and maintenance work.
As part of the process, 62 of the 157 fuel assemblies will be exchanged and numerous safety inspections will be conducted. In addition, several projects will be completed to ensure continued safe and reliable operations, including maintenance on the cooling tower and the replacement of a 6,000-horsepower pump motor.
Some 850 temporary contractors, many from the local area providing specialized services, will supplement the Beaver Valley workforce during the outage.
The 911-megawatt (net) unit had operated safely and reliably for 545 consecutive days, establishing a unit and site record. The previous records of 456 days for Unit 1 and 537 days for Unit 2 were established in 2006 and 2005, respectively.
FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company headquartered in Akron, Ohio. Its FENOC subsidiary owns and operates the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Port Clinton, Ohio; Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Perry, Ohio; and Beaver Valley.