Beaver Valley Power Station to begin refueling and maintenance

Unit 2 at the Beaver Valley Power Station was shut off this past weekend to begin refueling and other maintenance operations, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. (FENOC) announced on Monday.

The Shippingport, Pennsylvania, facility undergoes regular outages for refueling and maintenance, and it has run consistently since its last outage in May 2014. The second unit has a capacity of 943 megawatts of electricity.

Over the course of refueling, FirstEnergy will be adding approximately 1,000 temporary contracting positions in order to facilitate outage operations. Approximately one third of the reactor's fuel rods are set to be replaced. During this outage, several inspections on safety and efficiency will also be performed. The outage will also allow for preventative maintenance to be completed within pumps, motors, the cooling tower and the reactor's steam generators. Inspection areas include: the reactor head, the electrical generator and the turbine.

The company did not announce when refueling and maintenance would be completed or when the first unit at the facility would begin to operate normally again.

The Pittsburgh Business Times reported that this maintenance is a routine procedure and is completed around this time in order to be cleared in time for expected increases in electricity demand in the winter and summer months.