The Merrick Group, Inc.

This Spring The Merrick Group completed another successful year at the Susquehanna Steam and Electric Station (SSES) in Berwick, PA. Each year, our workload grows and so does our thirst for more. This year we were responsible for the maintenance work of all the heat exchangers, condensers, cooling tower, and drain down of the plant.

In addition to our current workload, this year we took on the Drain Down aspect of the outage. Our personnel were responsible for draining all of the circ and service water from Susquehanna Unit 1. This was a daunting task that our skilled personnel rose to the occasion to complete safely and in a timely manner to help the outage move on smoothly.

Once the plant was drained, it allowed our other crews to take action. Our heat exchanger and condenser crews worked around the clock to assure that the outage stayed on schedule. We were responsible for the dismantling, NACE inspections, cleaning, repairing, and reassembling of all heat exchangers and condensers at SSES. This included extensive work on the largest piece of safety related equipment, The Residual Heat Removal (RHR) heat exchanger.

Our heat exchanger work also included the removal and reassembly of an entire water box for the installation of a new gasket between the water box and tube sheet of a stator cooler. As the outage progressed, Merrick's was given various emergent and expanded work from PPL. This included supporting operations with finding and repairing a tube leak in one of the condensers, multiple in service leak inspections, and more heat exchanger cleaning and repairs.

The cooling tower crew successfully serviced the entire cooling tower. Upon drain down of the basin, Merrick personnel de-mucked the entire basin by removing 220 tons of river mud. This mud was then pressed and de-watered for removal from site. The basin floor was subsequently cleaned. The cooling tower crew then worked their way through the outside of the structure high pressure cleaning all the algae and debris from inspected and identified support columns followed by any structural repairs deemed necessary. The skilled crew moved on to inspect and rebuild identified areas of fill sheet from within the tower along with a complete nozzle inspection and replacement. The final piece of maintenance included washing the mud from all distribution headers within the tower.

This project was completed on time, safely, and within budget. Each year, the work scope continues to grow and Merrick's continues to set the standard for safety and cleanliness within the worksite.

Drain Down Crew Inserting Pump In Cooling Tower Spillway

Replacing Fill Sheet in Cooling Tower

Merrick Personnel High Pressure Cleaning Cooling Tower Support Columns