Newspapers / The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, … / March 31, 1994, edition 1 / Page 7
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Three Years of Electric Power... CP&L Enough electric power for every home...eveiy business ...every industry in Brunswick and New Hanover counties ...for Three Years. That's how much power Brunswick Unit 2 has produced since May 17, 1993. Over 5.5 Billion Kilowatt-Hours. This power went out to CP&L customers across the Carolinas. If it could be stored and used only in Brunswick and New Hanover counties, it would provide enough electricity to last every customer for three full years. And the unit never shut down...not once...during the entire time. Breaker to Breaker In the electric power business, the term "breaker to breaker" refers to a generating plant pro ducing electricity continuously? every single minute?from the end of one outage until the next scheduled refueling outage. Last Saturday, March 26, when Brunswick Unit 2 disconnected from the electric power grid to start refueling, the unit had been on line continuously since it was started on May 17, 1993. That's 313 days. A breaker to breaker run,and a new record for continuous service to Cr&L customers. Now it's Time To Refuel The Unit Now it's time to refuel the unit, do major maintenance that can only be done when the unit is off-line, and do modifications to prepare for future successful operation. Brunswick Reactor Vessel Shroud inside vessel, including core, and flow diagrams The Brunswick plant has two General Electric boiling water reactors. Each reactor provides steam to a turbine-generator to make electricity. The plants share some common systems, but they operate as separate generating units. When the Brunswick plant is producing electricity, it creates heat from uranium fuel that is inside a sealed reactor vessel. When the fuel is used up, the system is taken apart, and new fuel is added. Like Overhauling An Engine While the reactor is being refueled, other parts of the plant are taken apart for inspections and maintenance. It is sort of like overhauling an engine. Parts are checked, repairs or replacements are made, and then the system is put back together to run again. This is what we are doing on Unit 2. While we are working on Unit 2, we plan to modify the core shroud of this unit the way we modi fied the core shroud of Unit 1 during the fall of 1993. By making this modification now, during a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage, we will avoid long and expensive future outages to inspect the shroud. Brunswick Unit 1 Operating Well Because the Brunswick Plant has two units, it is still producing power for customers even when one of the units is being refueled. Unit 1 of the Brunswick plant is operating at full power, and all of the plant systems are functioning well. The unit came back into service February 11. It is full of fuel and scheduled to nin until a refueling outage planned for the spring of 1995. Dear Neighbors, I am pleased to report to you on the status of the Brunswick Nuclear Plant. During the past year, we have made substantial progress. Unit 2 has performed very well, and we have had a successful start-up and power ascension of Unit 1. We are now refueling Unit 2 while Unit 1 continues to run very well. Our mission at the Brunswick plant is the Safe, Reliable, Economic and Environmentally Sound genera tion of electricity from nuclear energy. As a plant supplying you with the power you need, we take that mission very seriously. Our goal is to meet our commitment to you by operating safely and by having the plant on line and available when it is needed. When we are able to keep the unit on line continuously to achieve our service goal, we will do so. This is what we did with Unit 2. But our goal is not the number of days of continuous run. Our goal is having the unit available when it is needed. When we need to do work that requires a unit to be off-line, we will take the unit out of service and do the work. If work such as this arises, we try to schedule that work so we can take the unit out of service during a weekend or at night when less power is needed. This helps keep the unit. available during the day on business days when our customers need the most electric power. Whether we operate with no interruption or with only brief interruptions for maintenance, our overall goal is to achieve excellence in operations so that we have our unit available and providing power a high percentage of the time. Operational excellence in business is doing the right work, in a timely manner, so that we do not have an unplanned outage due to either personnel error or equipment failure. Our success in achieving the goal of operational excellence at Brunswick helps CP&L meet its obligation to you, our customers, to have the safe electric power you need available when you need it. Sincerely, Roy A. Anderson Vice President Brunswick Nuclear Plant x i, , v .??y.; vy This advertiseuunU paid for by Ihe sharehoUters nf Carolina Power & Light Company
The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, N.C.)
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March 31, 1994, edition 1
7
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