Beaver Valley Power Station Unit 1 Begins Refueling and Maintenance Outage

FirstEnergy News Release:

Beaver Valley Power Station Unit 1 Begins Refueling and Maintenance Outage

Major Projects Include Upgrade of Low Pressure Turbines AKRON, Ohio, Sept. 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC), a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE), announced its Beaver Valley Power Station Unit 1 in Shippingport, Pa., shut down at 12:01 a.m. today for scheduled refueling, maintenance and a turbine upgrade that is designed to improve efficiency and reliability. While the unit is offline, 60 of the 157 fuel assemblies will be replaced and numerous safety inspections will be conducted.  In addition, preventative maintenance to ensure continued safe and reliable operations will be performed on major components including the plant's three steam generators as well as various pumps, valves and the cooling tower.  A major project during this outage is replacement of Beaver Valley Unit 1's two low pressure steam turbine rotors, which are spinning components that drive the electrical generator.  The new rotors feature an enhanced blade design that is expected to improve plant reliability, efficiency and life expectation.  Each of the two new rotors weigh approximately 153 tons and measure approximately 15 1/2 feet in diameter and nearly 30 1/2 feet long.  More than 1,000 temporary contractors and FENOC and FirstEnergy employees will supplement the Beaver Valley workforce during the outage. The 911-megawatt Beaver Valley Unit 1 operated safely and reliably for 507 consecutive days since the completion of its last refueling outage in May 2012. FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company headquartered in Akron, Ohio.  Its FENOC subsidiary also operates the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio, and the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Perry, Ohio.