GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) said on 1 February that it had completed its first service outage at a pressurised water reactor (PWR) in partnership with Exelon Generation at Exelon’s RE Ginna NPP in New York state. As the original equipment manufacturer of more than 60 boiling water reactors (BWRs) globally,
GEH traditionally services and fuels BWRs.The work at NPP was completed under budget and ahead of schedule with no safety-related or human performance issues, GEH said. PWRs account for roughly two-thirds of nuclear reactors operating globally and represent a significant opportunity for GEH, the company said.
GEH president and CEO Jay Wileman said: "The successful execution of our portion of this outage demonstrates our ability to provide PWR operators with the same level of project management expertise and technical rigour that our boiling water reactor (BWR) customers have come to expect."
Before starting the start of the outage, GEH said team members were trained at an Exelon facility in accordance with the utility’s standards. RE Ginna is a single 580MWe PWR which started commercial operation in July 1970. In 2004, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed the plant’s operating licence for a further 20 years until September 2029.