|
STP UNIT 1 RESUMES
100-PERCENT POWER OPERATIONS FOLLOWING SIXTH REFUELING OUTAGE
June 14, 1996 -- Bay City, TX--Electricity
production at South Texas Project Unit 1 resumed at 3:14 p.m. June 9, just 22 days and 15
hours after the May 18 start of its refueling outage. Company officials credit the
superior material condition of plant equipment and the extraordinary teamwork among plant
personnel as the most significant factors in the successful outage and smooth start up.
In addition to replacing 56 of the 193 fuel assemblies in the Unit 1 reactor, work teams
performed 1,900 maintenance and surveillance tasks during the outage. Detailed inspections
of numerous plant systems showed the plant to be in excellent condition, permitting the
work force to remain focused on scheduled outage tasks.
Both Units 1 and 2 are now operating at 100 percent power. The two units collectively
reached a notable milestone in late May, surpassing the 100 billion kilowatt-hour mark of
total generation during the units' operations history.
The 22.6-day achievement sets a new
record for refueling outage duration among the 110 operating U.S. commercial nuclear power
plants, according to Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) records dating back to 1980. Also
according to NEI, the median refueling outage length in 1995 among U.S. nuclear plants was
52 days.
This follows the November 1995 achievement by South Texas Project personnel, who at that
time refueled Unit 2 in 26.5 days--a then-world record for plants of equivalent size type.
"We are proud of the consistent team effort displayed by our people in achieving such
exemplary work," said Bill Cottle, executive vice president and general manager,
Nuclear. "The success of this outage directly relates to how well our people worked
together and the excellent condition of the plant going into the outage."
The combined 2,500 megawatt South Texas
Project continues its ranking among the world leaders in electricity production. |