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Operators at the nuclear power plant near Berwick shut down Reactor Unit No. 1 Thursday night after discovering a suspected steam leak, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The nuclear power plant in Salem Township. Neil Sheehan, NRC public affairs director for Region 1, said PPL, the operator of the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, last night notified the agency that the shutdown occurred at about 11 p.m. after the leak was discovered. When station operators closed a supply valve on the plant’s High-Pressure Coolant Injection (HPCI) system, the amount of leakage decreased, Sheehan said in a press release. HPCI is one of several key safety systems for the plant; it allows operators to inject coolant into the reactor even though there are high pressure levels in the reactor, as would be the case following certain types of accidents. Because closing the valve decreased the steam leakage, that valve was left closed. However, the closure of the valve rendered the
HPCI system inoperable and unavailable, Sheehan said. With the HPCI system out of commission, the plant’s technical specifications require that the condition be addressed and the system restored to service within a specific period of time. Based on those circumstances, PPL made the decision to shut down the plant to search for the source of the leakage, halt it and make repairs, Sheehan said. "Our Resident Inspectors have been closely monitoring PPL’s efforts to identify the source of the leakage and will continue to do so. They identified no concerns with the shutdown of the reactor last night," Sheehan said.
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this came from an email alert from rsoe.com
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