After pump issues forced Hope Creek 1 to shut down last week, a walkdown of the plant Thursday revealed a small leak in the residual heat removal system.On Wednesday afternoon, a circulating water pump with a discharge valve stuck open prompted operators to shut down the reactor from full power, according to a report filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."At the time of the event, a RCIC (reactor core isolation cooling) surveillance was in progress but did not contribute to the event. The RCIC pump was secured and subsequently placed in service for inventory control. The only safety-related equipment out of service at the time of the scram was the C service water pump, which was tagged for scheduled maintenance," plant owner PSEG reported to the NRC. In another report released Friday, the plant indicated a leak of less than 1 gallon per minute was found during an initial walkdown of the unit's drywell. According to the NRC, "Water was observed leaking from a 40 percent circumferential crack in a weld in the RHR vent line adjacent to the outboard isolation valve."The RHR system helps cool the reactor coolant system during and after shutdown, in concert with other safety and feedwater systems. Wednesday's event did not require the use of the RCIC or the emergency core cooling system, according to the NRC, and operators safely brought the New Jersey plant into hot shutdown. Nonetheless, the plant was required to report the leak to the NRC because of regulations surrounding weld defects in the primary coolant system.
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