Sandy Isn't Stopping Pennsylvania's Nuclear Power Plants

• Scott Detrow
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  Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.
  
  Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.
  
  Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

All four Pennsylvania nuclear power plants in Hurricane Sandy’s path expect to remain operational through the storm.
Exelon Energy owns Dauphin County’s Three Mile Island, York County’s Peach Bottom Atomic Power station, and Limerick Generating Station in Chester County. Spokespeople from all three facilities say the plants will keep producing, despite winds exceeding 50 miles-per-hour.
“All Exelon nuclear stations are robust and fortified facilities, capable of withstanding the most severe weather, including hurricanes and floods,” reads a press release issued by the company.  “Extra precautions have been taken at each Pennsylvania facility, including increased staffing, pre-staging of emergency equipment, activating back-up communications, and securing outside equipment and materials.”
The fourth plant in the storm’s path, Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, is owned and operated by PPL. One of its two units is already shut down for maintenance, but spokesman Joe Scopelliti says its second unit will remain at its current 70 percent output through the storm.
Meantime, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission tells the Associated Press it is sending additional inspectors to nuclear power plants in Sandy’s path.

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