Inspections during a routine outage revealed evidence of a potential leak in the reactor pressure vessel of Palo Verde unit 3.Visual checks Sunday turned up a white residue around an RPV bottom-mounted instrumentation nozzle, according to a report filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Engineers evaluating images from the remote inspection believed the substance was likely dry boric acid and ordered an analysis of the material. Boric acid would be indicative of reactor coolant system pressure boundary leakage, which is considered a degraded condition requiring attention by the NRC.Arizona Public Service operates three, 1,340 megawatt Combustion Engineering System 80 pressurized water reactors at the plant west of Phoenix. According to Westinghouse sales literature for a product marketed to fix RPV bottom-mounted nozzle leaks, unit 3 has previously required two leak repairs to its pressurizer heater and one for a hot leg between 2001 and 2003.
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