The Ritz Herald
Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Plant. © United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Beaver Valley Unit 1 Nuclear Power Station Begins Refueling Outage


While the unit is offline, about a third of the unit's 157 fuel assemblies will be replaced

Published on April 12, 2021

Energy Harbor Corp. announced today its Unit 1 at the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, was taken offline at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, April 11, for scheduled refueling and preventative maintenance.

While the unit is offline, about a third of the unit’s 157 fuel assemblies will be replaced. Preventive maintenance and safety inspections to ensure continued safe and reliable operations also will be performed on major components including various pumps, valves, reactor vessel, steam generators, and turbine generator. In total, more than 6,800 work activities will be completed during the refueling outage.

More than 800 temporary contractor workers and Energy Harbor employees will supplement more than 700 Beaver Valley employees during the outage. The additional workforce will provide a multi-million-dollar boost to the local economy as workers stay in area hotels, eat in local restaurants and frequent area stores.

The 963-megawatt unit at the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station has operated safely and reliably, generating more than 13 million megawatt hours of electricity since the completion of its last refueling in November 2019, enough to power one million homes annually.

Energy Harbor is a financially secure independent power producer and fully integrated retail energy provider focused on safe and best-in-class operations and financial performance. With its fleet of reliable generating resources, including substantial carbon-free generation, Energy Harbor is well positioned for long-term value creation and competitiveness in a low-carbon future and is focused on enabling a growing customer and stakeholder base to meet their environmental, social and sustainability goals.

Staff Writer