Nuclear Street - Nuclear Power Plant News, Jobs, and Careers

At Brown's Ferry on Tuesday, the Unit 3 reactor was automatically scrammed due to de-energization of Reactor Protection System (RPS) from actuation of 3A Unit Station Service Transformer (USST) differential relay 387SA, resulting in a loss of 500KV power to Unit 3, according to an NRC report. Investigation is in progress as to the cause of relay actuation. 500KV power was restored through the alternate feeder breakers...

Officials say Entergy's Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth has been shut down after a condenser at the station lost vacuum pressure during a cleaning, officials said. Officials said the incident happened at about 1:10 p.m. on Tuesday with the plant was operating at about 30 percent capacity. Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the NRC, told The Boston Globe that the condenser operates in a vacuum to...

River Bend Station experienced a reactor scram Monday resulting from an RPS actuation, according to an NRC release. Following the scram, reactor water level briefly lowered below level 3. The reactor is stable with pressure and temperature being controlled by the feed water system and main steam bypass valves, respectively. The cause of the scram was due to a turbine trip/low condenser vacuum. The low vacuum condition...

Exelon has removed Limerick Nuclear Plant's Unit 2 reactor from service for a scheduled maintenance outage so workers can replace two steam relief valves. Plant personnel will complete the maintenance and fully test the new components before returning the unit to service. The repairs can only be performed while the plant is offline. “Careful and continuous monitoring of plant equipment is essential to reliable...

EDF's 900-MW Gravelines 6 nuclear reactor in northern France experienced an unplanned outage on Monday at 9:35 GMT, France's power grid RTE said on its website. An EDF spokesman said the outage had been caused by a default on a sensor that measures the good working order of the reactor. "We are assessing the problem before carrying out repairs," the spokesman said. He was unable to give a restart...

After shutting Sizewell B down due to a potential issue with its lubrication system on Sunday, EDF resumed operation of the nuclear plant's two turbines Tuesday. The short maintenance outage was a precautionary measure, according to Sizewell B director Jim Crawford. “Safety is our over-riding priority. So, when the instruments indicated we could have a problem with the lubrication system, we took the conservative...

The Palisades nuclear plant in southwestern Michigan returned to service Saturday after going offline on April 8th for scheduled refueling and maintenance . The 41-year-old plant has been under NRC scrutiny because of a series of safety problems in recent months. Officials from Entergy, which owns Palisades, said in March there had been a shift in the safety culture at the plant, with employees doubling the number...

EDF Energy shut down down its Sizewell and Torness 2 reactors Sunday, according to a statement by the company. The statement said that the reactor at Sizewell was taken offline for scheduled maintenance, but it did not indicate whether Torness 2 was a planned or unplanned outage. The two reactors produce 1,840 MW in total. The utility said it will provide updates once more information becomes available.

FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy, announced it has returned Beaver Valley Power Station Unit 1 to service. The reactor was shut down in early April for refueling and maintenance. Beaver Valley's 911-megawatt Unit 1 began producing electricity at 10:00 a.m. today. The plant, currently operating at 40 percent power, is expected to reach full power this week. During the outage...

The PSEG-owned Salem 1 nuclear plant is back in service as of Monday afternoon. Last week, the reactor automatically tripped offline last while crews were testing the emergency reactor shutdown system. The Unusual Event, which was declared due to multiple fire alarms involving the containment building, was terminated after operators determined that there was no fire. Joe Delmar, a spokesman for PSEG, said the shutdown...

FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC), a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., announced it has shut down its Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio, for scheduled refueling and maintenance. While the 908-megawatt unit is offline, 68 of the 177 fuel assemblies will be replaced and safety inspections will be conducted, including inspections of the steam generators. In addition, preventative maintenance...

Spain's 1,000-MW Almaraz ll nuclear power station was disconnected Sunday afternoon for scheduled refueling, operators said Monday. The outage is expected to last about 40 days. Spain's seven other nuclear plants were working normally.

DTE Energy has restarted its Fermi 2 Nuclear Power Plant following a refueling and maintenance outage that began March 26. "The Fermi 2 team completed an enormous amount of work during the outage, while always keeping safety as the top priority," said Jack Davis, senior vice president and Chief Nuclear Officer. "This maintenance work will help us to continue sending clean, safe energy to our customers...

PG&E has restarted Unit 2 reactor at Diablo Canyon six days after the plant was shut down due to an invasion of sea salp that clogged seawater intake screens. Winds began blowing the creatures into the plant's cooling water intake cove early last week. Salps are small barrel-shaped plankton tunicates similar to jellyfish. The Unit 1 reactor had been shut down earlier in April for scheduled refueling.

The Donald C. Cook Unit 2 reactor automatically tripped late Monday evening after a main turbine trip, according to an NRC report. The cause of the trip is still under investigation. According to the report, the electrical grid is stable and Unit 2 is being supplied by offsite power, and a preliminary evaluation indicates all plant systems functioned normally following the reactor trip. The remains stable in Mode 3...

An Unusual Event was declared at PSE&G-owned Salem nuclear plant in New Jersey after the Unit 1 reactor tripped and experienced a safety injection (SI) signal due to a high steam flow coincident with a low steam pressure signal, according to a Monday report. According to the NRC, "At the time of the safety injection signal, function testing of the 1PT505 turbine inlet pressure channel was in progress. This...

Indiana Michigan Power has reported that the Unit 2 at Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant Cook has returned to service. The restart, which occurred Saturday, followed a 38-day, 16-hour refueling outage of the power plant that began on March 21. In addition to normal refueling and maintenance procedures, during the outage the company also installed new main output transformers in the reactor. Indiana Michigan Power...

At Farley Nuclear Plant near Dothan, Ala., Southern Co. has returned the Unit 1 reactor to service following a 25-day long period of refueling and maintenance. The outage was completed safely and efficiently, according to a Friday release by the company. "We achieved our number one priority for this planned outage, to execute all work with a relentless focus on safety," said Tom Lynch, Farley site vice...

PG&E has shut down the Unit 2 reactor at Diablo Canyon Power Plant due to an infestation of small jellyfish-like creatures called sea salp. The company stated in a release that it will not restart the unit until conditions improve at the intake structure - which is currently clogged with the creatures. Operators manually started the auxiliary feedwater pumps in accordance with the plant operating procedures...

E.ON reconnected its nuclear reactor at Grohnde to the grid on April 22, the Lower Saxony environment ministry said in a release Monday. The 1,430 MW reactor, located in northern Germany, was reconnected after completing maintenance work which began on April 5.

PG&E has shut down its Unit 1 reactor Diablo Canyon for repairs, the company announced Monday. PG&E employees and 1,000 temporary workers will now start work to replace a portion of the reactor fuel, test systems and components that aren't normally accessible, as well as installing a new digital process system to monitor and safely operate the unit. "The work we perform during refueling outages...

Bulgaria has shut down Unit 5 of Kozloduy nuclear power plant for annual repairs and maintenance. During the shutdown, the 1,000 MW reactor will be refueled and undergo repairs. It is scheduled to resume operation at the end of May. The plant's Unit 6 reactor is operating at full capacity. Kozloduy is Bulgaria's only nuclear plant.

An electrical malfunction on the non-nuclear side of Exelon's Limerick power plant has caused one reactor to be shut down. Exelon said the malfunction occurred at approximately 8 am Thursday morning and caused the power to go down in one of the suburban Philadelphia plant's main generator cooling pumps. In response, operators shut down Limerick's unit 1 reactor so the problem could be fixed. "The...

The second reactor of the Yuzhnoukrainsk Nuclear Power Station in Ukraine was shut down following a break in a high-voltage line that caused failure of its main transformer late Monday. It was unplugged from the country’s energy grid, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry. Authorities said radiation levels were not elevated. "Currently there is no threat of fire or radiation leak in the station...

In a new release Sunday, Southern Co. announced that Vogtle nuclear plant's Unit 1 reactor will resume operation after a brief shutdown. The reactor was taken down Saturday afternoon because of a water pump issue, the release said. "The Vogtle team did an outstanding job safely taking the unit offline in a secure and efficient manner," said Plant Vogtle Site Vice President Tom Tynan. "We are looking...