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Questions about Susquehanna Steam Electric Station

Short answers, pulled from the story.

What is the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station?

The Susquehanna Steam Electric Station is a 2.5-gigawatt nuclear power plant in Salem Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, near the Susquehanna River. It has operated two General Electric boiling water reactors since 1983 and produces about 63 gigawatt hours of electricity per day.

Who owns the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station?

Talen Energy owns 90 percent of the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station through its division, Susquehanna Station Nuclear, which also operates the plant. Allegheny Electric Cooperative, based in Harrisburg, owns the remaining 10 percent, a stake it purchased in 1977.

When did Amazon Web Services buy the data center connected to the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station?

Amazon Web Services bought the data center campus on the 4th of March 2024 for 650 million dollars. The campus, built by Cumulus Data and connected to the plant at 300 megawatts, had completed its first construction phase on the 17th of January 2023.

Why was the Bell Bend Nuclear Power Plant near the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station cancelled?

Talen Energy withdrew its license application for the Bell Bend Nuclear Power Plant, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission accepted that withdrawal on the 22nd of September 2016. PPL had applied for the license in 2008 to build the plant near Berwick, Pennsylvania, using a French-German EPR reactor design.

How long are the reactors at the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station licensed to run?

Unit 1 at the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station is licensed to operate through 2042 and Unit 2 through 2044. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission first extended both licenses by 20 years in November 2009, with further extensions since.

What incidents have occurred at the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station?

In 1982, an electrical fire in a switch box controlling cooling water caused the plant's first declared emergency, with no injuries reported. In 1985, a gasket failure spilled about 10,000 gallons of mildly radioactive water inside the Unit 1 turbine building, though no radiation escaped and no personnel were contaminated.