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5 U.S. Nuclear Reactors Shutdown in Past 3 Days - Various Issues; NRC Claims "Coincidental" 1. Minnesota - Prairie Island - Shutdown Aug. 14 2. Minnesota - Monticello - Shutdown Aug. 14 3. Maryland - Calvert Cliffs - Shutdown Aug.
Two nuclear power reactors in Minnesota were shut down on Tuesday for emergency repairs, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Xcel Energy explained that the Monticello and Prairie Island nuclear power plants were both forced to close down, the first after the discovery of a leaking pipe within the plant's containment unit and the second after the failure of the plant's backup diesel engines.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut's nuclear power plant shut one of two units on Sunday because seawater used to cool down the plant is too warm.
Unit 2 of Millstone Power Station has occasionally shut for maintenance or other issues, but in its 37-year history it has never gone down due to excessively warm water, spokesman Ken Holt said on Monday.
Richmond, Va.-based Dominion, which operates Millstone, does not have an estimate of when the unit will restart
The Monticello nuclear power plant and one of two units at the Prairie Island nuclear plant were shut Tuesday, Aug. 14, for repairs after unrelated leaks were discovered, Xcel Energy reported.
None of the leaks resulted in a release of radiation or posed a danger to plant employees or the public, the utility said.
Operators shut the Monticello plant to repair a gasket on a pipe flange and shut Unit 1 at Prairie Island to repair two diesel generators. Both are expected to be down for at least a couple of days, Xcel Energy spokesman Tom Hoen said.
The utility said the Monticello reactor had been operating at 10 percent power since the weekend, as workers investigated a leak at a collection point inside the plant's steel and steel-reinforced concrete containment structure. None of the water that leaked escaped, according to Hoen.
Xcel Energy said an investigation determined a gasket on a pipe flange had to be fixed.
At Prairie Island near Red Wing, operators determined during testing that both Unit 1 emergency diesel generators had exhaust leaks, according to Xcel. It said the plant has other layers of backup protection, including diesel generators, turbine-driven pumps and portable pumps.
Hoen conceded it's unusual for units at both plants to be shut for problems at the same time.
When a generating unit is out of action, the utility said, it buys electricity from the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator or other utilities or boosts
production at other generating plants to ensure an adequate power supply.
August 13, 2012|By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun
Operators of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Southern Maryland have shut down one of the two reactors there because a control rod unexpectedly dropped into the reactor core, causing a reduction in power generation, a plant spokesman said Monday.
The incident happened Sunday afternoon, prompting the plant's staff to shut the reactor down to find and fix the cause of the malfunction, according to Kory Raftery, spokesman for Constellation Energy Nuclear Group. Control rods are used in a reactor to limit the fission taking place among the reactor's enriched-uranium fuel rods.
Operators of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Southern Maryland have shut down one of the two reactors there because a control rod unexpectedly dropped into the reactor core, causing a reduction in power generation, a plant spokesman said Monday.
The incident happened Sunday afternoon, prompting the plant's staff to shut the reactor down to find and fix the cause of the malfunction, according to Kory Raftery, spokesman for Constellation Energy Nuclear Group. Control rods are used in a reactor to limit the fission taking place among the reactor's enriched-uranium fuel rods.
An unplanned insertion of a control rod into a reactor core can "create an imbalance in the fissioning and pose challenges for reactor operators," according to Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He described it as an infrequent occurrence among U.S. nuclear plants.
The plant spokesman said there was no risk to the public from the control-rod problem, noting the plant's redundant safety systems. But he said that "the safe and prudent decision was to shut the unit down" until inspections and maintenance could be performed.
Raftery could not predict when Unit 1 would be back in operation, but noted that Unit 2 is still running at full power at the plant, which is 70 miles south of Baltimore.
"We'll get back up to 100 percent and connected to the grid as soon as safely possible," he said.
It's the third unplanned shutdown of Unit 1 in the past month; the reactor was taken out of service twice in July to fix a pair of leaks, according to Raftery.
Originally posted by FractalChaos13242017
The Monticello nuclear power plant and one of two units at the Prairie Island nuclear plant were shut Tuesday, Aug. 14, for repairs after unrelated leaks were discovered, Xcel Energy reported.
None of the leaks resulted in a release of radiation or posed a danger to plant employees or the public, the utility said.
Operators shut the Monticello plant to repair a gasket on a pipe flange and shut Unit 1 at Prairie Island to repair two diesel generators. Both are expected to be down for at least a couple of days, Xcel Energy spokesman Tom Hoen said.
The utility said the Monticello reactor had been operating at 10 percent power since the weekend, as workers investigated a leak at a collection point inside the plant's steel and steel-reinforced concrete containment structure. None of the water that leaked escaped, according to Hoen.
Xcel Energy said an investigation determined a gasket on a pipe flange had to be fixed.
www.twincities.com...
and then...
At Prairie Island near Red Wing, operators determined during testing that both Unit 1 emergency diesel generators had exhaust leaks, according to Xcel. It said the plant has other layers of backup protection, including diesel generators, turbine-driven pumps and portable pumps.
Hoen conceded it's unusual for units at both plants to be shut for problems at the same time.
When a generating unit is out of action, the utility said, it buys electricity from the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator or other utilities or boosts
production at other generating plants to ensure an adequate power supply.
It's all good in Minnesota...
I wonder how many portable pumps they have readily available... I'm sure they have all the diesel needed to run those generators. They just have to call up their buddies over at Koch, bing badda boom.
According to Xcel Energy, operators at the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, in Minnesota, were forced to shut down one of two nuclear reactors early Tuesday morning when two diesel generators were determined to be inoperable during a monthly test. The unit is being shut down until the generators can be repaired. These generators are part of the safety systems in place to help maintain plant function in the event of a loss of offsite electricity.
"To have not just one, but both of the back-up diesel generators fail is very troubling,” said Johnny Johnson, tribal council president of the Prairie Island Indian Community, in a press statement.
"A failure of the back-up diesel generators can affect all other safety features that rely on the electricity that they generate. The failure of both of them during a routine monthly test is simply not acceptable. "In fact, over the past couple of years, there have been more than 30 reported incidents like failing equipment, security breaches, human performance problems and operating errors. Just last summer, Xcel experienced problems when back-up generators were simply declared inoperable due to high external air temperatures. Today, however, the generators actually failed while operating during a monthly test."
Carl Gustin FOX 17 Assignment Editor 9:45 a.m. EDT, August 12, 2012 COVERT, Mich.— The Palisades Nuclear Plant in Van Buren County has been shut down again. Plant spokesman Mark Savage announced Sunday morning that earlier Sunday Palisades control room operators had removed the plant from service to repair a minor cooling water leak inside Palisades' containment building.
8/14/2012 3:56 AM ET
(RTTNews) - A nuclear power plant in Belgium has been ordered to suspend operation until it was ensured that the containment vessel is intact and developed no cracks.
The Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC) said on Monday that it would shut down the No.3 reactor at the Doel nuclear power plant, located about 20 kilometers north of Antwerp, by the end of this month.
The country's nuclear regulator issued the suspension order after anomalies, including possible cracks, were found during annual maintenance work that began in June last.
radioactive barrels sitting on a loose concrete slab there, and the nuke