Salem power plant planning 200-MW uprate

The Salem nuclear power plant is expected to get a 200-MW uprate, executives from PSEG, the co-owners and operators of the Hancocks Bridge, N.J., facility, said in the utility's recent third quarter earnings call.

The planned uprate for the two-unit plant was already mentioned in Constellation's October announcement that 11 facilities were in line to receive upgrades to increase nuclear capacity, including Salem. Constellation owns 43 percent of the plant, while PSEG Nuclear owns the other 57 percent. The third quarter earnings presentation shed light on the size of the uprate. Of the planned 200-MW uprate, PSEG will receive roughly 112 MW. The uprate aligns with comments made earlier in the year, when PSEG executives said Salem had a capacity uprate potential of nearly 200 MW.

Salem is one of two nuclear power plants in New Jersey, along with Hope Creek. The plants are co-located in Hancocks Bridge and produce more than 40 percent of the state's electricity. Hope Creek is home to one 1,172-MWe boiling water reactor, while Salem houses two pressurized water reactors-the 1,146-MWe Unit 1 and the 1,139-MWe Unit 2.

The uprates were mentioned in PSEG's quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing also revealed that during a scheduled refueling outage of Salem-1 in October, a visual inspection revealed degradation of the thermal shield inside the reactor vessel. PSEG has commenced further testing and is expected to extend the refueling outage. How this impacts Salem-1 will depend on the timing, inspection results, and any potential repair work, the filing said.

Additional updates: PSEG executives used the November 2 earnings call to highlight other aspects of its nuclear fleet:

• Total nuclear power generation in 2026 is forecasted to be 30 TWh-32 TWh.
• The fleet achieved a 95.5 percent capacity factor in the third quarter, up from 92.4 percent during the same period last year.
• For the year, the fleet is running at a 94.3 percent capacity factor, up from 93.7 percent last year.
• Salem-1 had a 491-day breaker-to-breaker run ahead of its scheduled refueling outage.
• The utility has notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of its intent to file 20-year operating license extensions for both Salem and Hope Creek.

Meanwhile, PSEG chair, president, and CEO Ralph LaRossa said they participated in the first meeting of New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill's Nuclear Task Force, a group of stakeholders tasked with crafting and coordinating a new nuclear strategy for the state. LaRossa said the Salem site gives them an advantage in the state's new nuclear ambitions, given its location and status as one of six sites in the country with an NRC early site permit.

On the Nuclear Task Force meeting, LaRossa said, "New Jersey continues to have the conversations. The focus of the New Jersey policy conversations has been about educating and transparency for the public about what the industry is and what it might mean for energy prices here in New Jersey. That first meeting was the start of that."