BERWICK, Pa., April 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Operators at PPL's Susquehanna nuclear power plant disconnected the Unit 2 reactor from the electrical grid late Friday (4/10) to begin a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage.

While the reactor is shut down, workers will replace about 40 percent of the uranium fuel and complete a number of equipment maintenance tasks and upgrades. The plant also will be investing millions to upgrade equipment with state-of-the-art technology and to perform thousands of routine maintenance tasks that keep the plant in good condition.

As part of the large undertaking, plant employees purchased a significant amount of goods and services locally and hired about 1,000 contract workers, who boost the nearby economy with expenditures on lodging, food and entertainment.

PPL schedules nuclear refueling and maintenance outages at this time of year, when seasonal temperatures bring less electricity use and the demand on the regional power grid is lower. Each of the two units at the Susquehanna plant is taken out of service for refueling and maintenance every 24 months.

Unit 1 continues to operate at full power.

PPL Susquehanna LLC is one of PPL Corporation's generating affiliates. PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL), with 2014 revenues of $11.5 billion, is one of the largest companies in the U.S. utility sector. The PPL family of companies delivers electricity and natural gas to about 10 million customers in the United States and the United Kingdom. PPL has announced an agreement to combine its competitive generation business with the competitive generation business of Riverstone Holdings LLC to form Talen Energy Corporation. More information is available at www.pplsusquehanna.com and www.pplweb.com.

Note to Editors: Visit our media website at www.pplnewsroom.com for additional news and background about PPL Corporation.



    Contact: Joe Scopelliti, 866-832-4474, jjscopelliti@pplweb.com

             PPL Susquehanna

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SOURCE PPL Susquehanna LLC