News Releases

Crews detected smoke in a construction area today (3/4) while PPL's Susquehanna nuclear plant Unit 2 was out of service for a refueling outage. As a result, the plant declared an unusual event for about 55 minutes at the Luzerne County facility.

An unusual event is the lowest of the four emergency classifications established by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for nuclear power plants.

"Our plant fire brigade responded and no fire was found. The smoke has stopped," said Joe Scopelliti, public information manager for the Susquehanna plant. "There were no injuries. We are investigating the cause. No action by the general public was required."

Unit 2 has been shut down since Feb. 26 for a refueling and inspection outage. The smoke was detected at 2:57 p.m. in a construction area near a moisture separator, which is used to "dry" the steam heading for the turbines.

Unit 1 continues to operate at full power.

The Susquehanna plant, located about seven miles north of Berwick, is owned jointly by PPL Susquehanna LLC and Allegheny Electric Cooperative Inc. and is operated by PPL Susquehanna.

PPL Susquehanna LLC is a member of the PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) family of companies. Headquartered in Allentown, Pa., PPL Corporation controls about 12,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America.

SOURCE: PPL Corporation

CONTACT: PPL Corporation Susquehanna Energy Information Center,
+1-570-759-2285, Fax: +1-610-774-5281

Web site: http://www.pplweb.com/