Salem Nuclear Power Plant - Delaware - Automatic Shut Down EDIS CODE: NC-20140508-43657-USA Date & Time: 2014-05-08 03:29:03 [UTC] Area: USA, State of Deleware, Salem Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 at the Salem nuclear power plant automatically shut down early Wednesday morning. An issue with the plants turbine generator is the suspected cause. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the automatic shutdown went smoothly and a Resident Inspector reports that the plant is in safe condition with control room operators taking appropriate actions. The company is investigating the issue, but NRC public affairs officer Neil Sheehan says that he is unsure of when the unit will resume regular operation. Generically speaking when they see this sort of event where its an electrical type fault or some sort of breaker switch that they may be able to reset, its possible that they could be able to get it back online somewhat quickly, but it all really depends on what they find once they do their troubleshooting, said Sheehan. This is the third unplanned shutdown at the plant operated by PSE&G Nuclear in less than a month. Under NRC rules, increased oversight for the facility is required if more than three unplanned shutdowns occur over 7,000 hours of operation (approximately 9 months). Sheehan says that they evaluate facility data every quarter to see if the facilities exceed 3 unplanned shutdowns and require increased oversight. We would go in and do a team inspection to look at whether or not the company fully understands the root causes of these unplanned shutdowns, whether or not the company has put in place effective corrective actions and well engage with the company to make sure they really feel as though they have their hands around this, said Sheehan. Unit 1 was turned off April 8 so workers could fix a problem with the wiring of its steam generator. PSE&G reported the same unit at the two-unit Salem facility shut off automatically April 13 due to a circuitry issue with the main generator. PSE&G previously indicted those first two shutdowns were unrelated. Unit 2 at the plant is under a scheduled shutdown for a refueling and maintenance. PSE&G also operates a third reactor nearby at its neighboring Hope Creek Station. That unit remains at full power.
Posted on: Thu, 08 May 2014 03:44:53 +0000