Just off the wire from STP:
Completing a second consecutive breaker-to-breaker run, the South Texas Project nuclear power plant successfully took its Unit 2 reactor offline on Sunday for a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage.Congrats to the team at STP for a job well done. Bravo Zulu!
“We are pleased with the reliable and successful performance of our reactors. STP’s consecutive breaker-to-breaker runs could not have been accomplished without the continued commitment and skill of our entire team," said Ed Halpin, STP's site vice president.
A breaker-to-breaker run refers to the time between refueling outages when a nuclear plant safely produces electricity. An outage begins with the opening of an electrical breaker to discontinue power to the grid so that maintenance can be performed and refueling can occur. The outage ends when the breaker is closed and electricity can again be produced. Refueling outages occur every 18 months.
Comments
The press release over at STP says, "Unit 2’s low pressure turbines will be replaced", so I was wondering how long the outage will be. And, since they then say this will "increase production capabilities", I wondered if they are looking to uprate?