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Tuesday
Oct302012

Multiple reactors shutdown due to Hurricane Sandy

As reported by Reuters:

"On Tuesday morning, the NRC said that Entergy Corp's Indian Point 3 automatically tripped offline at about 10:41 p.m. last night due to fluctuations in the power grid caused by the storm, while Public Service Enterprise Group Inc's Salem Unit 1 was manually shut down at 1:10 a.m. due to a loss of 'condenser circulators' due to the storm surge and debris...

Among other units, Constellation Energy Nuclear Group's 630-MW Nine Mile Point 1 [a GE Mark I BWR, identical to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1-4] nuclear power reactor in upstate New York did shut due to a problem putting power onto the grid, although it was not clear whether the trouble was related to the storm.

In addition, Sandy caused power reductions at both units at Exelon's Limerick nuclear plant in Pennsylvania [Mark IIs, similar in design to Mark Is] and one unit at Dominion's Millstone plant in Connecticut [another Mark I]."

NRC, in a press release dated Monday, Oct. 29th, had "bragged on" the fact that "As of 9 p.m. EDT Monday, no plants had to shut down as a result of the storm." Capitoilette pointed out the irony that "If only regulators had held on to that release just one more minute," for Nine Mile Point Unit 1 had to automatically shutdown at 9 PM due to a light pole in the electrical switchyard falling on an electrical componet, causing a grid disturbance, and preventing the plant's output from being trasmitted to the grid.

NRC has posted "event notifications" about the Nine Mile Point Unit 1 SCRAM, the Indian Point Unit 3 shutdown, and the Salem Unit 1 trip. In addition, Nine Mile Point Unit 2's [a Mark II] emergency diesel generators needed to fire up due to loss of offsite power, and Peach Bottom [two Mark Is] lost nearly one-third of its emergency alert sirens, likely due to "collapse" of the electrical grid in the surrounding areas due to Hurricane Sandy.

NRC issued a press release at 10 AM Eastern on Tuesday, Oct. 30th recapping several reactors' status.