Salem Unit 1 Completes Best Outage and Sets New World Record
08 November 2005 - 12:30AM
PR Newswire (US)
HANCOCKS BRIDGE, N.J., Nov. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- PSEG
Nuclear's Salem Unit 1 returned to service at 1:03 a.m. on Sunday,
November 6, completing a refueling outage with reactor head
replacement in world record time. The outage, Salem Unit 1's 17t,
was completed in 25 days, 6 hours and 3 minutes -- 10 days ahead of
the original 35-day plan target, 4 days ahead of the current 29-day
world record and 7 days ahead of the current 32-day U.S. record.
Salem also set several new internal records and achieved one of its
safest and best outages. This extraordinary performance came on the
heels of a very successful run; Unit 1 had been on line
continuously for 153 days and had a year to date capacity factor of
99.9 percent when it entered this outage. Salem Unit 2 experienced
similar success during its spring outage and has been online for
178 days. "This was the second outage completed under the Operating
Services Agreement between PSEG and Exelon this year. Using tools
from the Exelon Management Model and lessons learned from Salem
Unit 2's spring refueling outage, which also included reactor head
replacement, we set out to improve our performance, safely execute
the outage, and set new records for ourselves and the industry. I'm
proud of the way the organization rallied around and met the
challenging goals we set for ourselves. The work we completed
during this outage will help ensure a safe, reliable run over the
next operating cycle" said Bill Levis, PSEG Nuclear - senior vice
president & CNO. During this outage a team of nearly 1,000
employees and supplemental personnel invested more than 170,000
person hours of work, safely executed more than 17,000 activities
(including 2,000 more than originally planned), and met all nuclear
safety goals. The team safely replaced about one-third of the fuel
in the reactor, installed a new reactor head and assembly and
completed a significant number of maintenance and testing
activities - without any lost time accidents. "The performance
achieved during both Salem outages this year demonstrates that
we're heading in the right direction, across the board, at Salem
and Hope Creek," said Tom Joyce, vice president - Salem Station.
"We have a good team of people. They've done a great job of safely
executing outages, improving performance and safely operating the
plants this year. I'm proud of our accomplishments and our people.
We did the work said we would do and met our commitments to the
Corporation and our stakeholders." NOTE: Prior to completion of
Salem Unit 1's outage, ASCO 2 in Spain held the 29-day world record
for completion of an outage with reactor head replacement and Ginna
in New York held the 32-day U.S. record for completion of an outage
with reactor head replacement. Source: Westinghouse PSEG Nuclear
operates Hope Creek, and 1100 megawatt boiling water reactor, and
Salem Units 1 and 2, two 1,150 megawatt pressurized water reactors.
The three units are located on one site in Salem County, N.J. PSEG
Nuclear is a subsidiary of PSEG Power, one of the largest
independent power producers in the U.S., and an affiliate of Public
Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G), New Jersey's largest
electric and gas utility. PSEG Power currently has approximately
14,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity in operation, and
an additional 3,000 in construction. In addition to PSEG Nuclear,
PSEG Power's subsidiaries include PSEG Fossil, which owns and
operates fossil-fueled generating facilities and PSEG Energy
Resources and Trade. PSEG Power and PSE&G are subsidiaries of
Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PEG: NYSE), a
diversified energy holding company with headquarters in Newark, NJ.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT Readers are cautioned that statements
contained in this press release about our and our subsidiaries'
future performance, including future revenues, earnings,
strategies, prospects and all other statements that are not purely
historical, are forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe
harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995. Although we believe that our expectations are based on
reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance they will be
achieved. The results or events predicted in these statements may
differ materially from actual results or events. Factors which
could cause results or events to differ from current expectations
include, among other things: the effects of weather; the
performance of generating units and transmission systems; the
availability and prices for oil, gas, coal, nuclear fuel, capacity
and electricity; changes in the markets for electricity and other
energy-related commodities; changes in the number of participants
and the risk profile of such participants in the energy marketing
and trading business; the effectiveness of our risk management and
internal controls systems; the effects of regulatory decisions and
changes in law; changes in competition in the markets we serve; the
ability to recover regulatory assets and other potential stranded
costs; the outcomes of litigation and regulatory proceedings or
inquiries; the timing and success of efforts to develop domestic
and international power projects; conditions of the capital markets
and equity markets; advances in technology; changes in accounting
standards; changes in interest rates and in financial and foreign
currency markets generally; the economic and political climate and
growth in the areas in which we conduct our activities; and changes
in corporate strategies. For further information, please refer to
our Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports on Form 10-Q
and Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
These documents address in further detail our business, industry
issues and other factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those indicated in this release. In addition, any
forward-looking statements included herein represent our estimates
only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing our
estimates as of any subsequent date. While we may elect to update
forward-looking statements from time to time, we specifically
disclaim any obligation to do so, even if our estimates change,
unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws.
DATASOURCE: Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated CONTACT:
Marcia Walton, PSEG Nuclear communications, +1-856-339-1111 Web
site: http://www.pseg.com/
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