Community Corner
Another "Scram" at Limerick Nuclear Plant
Unit 1 shut down unexpectedly at about 10:15am today. The cause is under investigation. Unit 2 shut down due to a faulty turbine valve earlier this week.
For the second time this week, one of the two reactors at the Limerick Generating Station has experienced an unscheduled shutdown.
Unit 1 experienced an automatic "scram" at about 10:15 a.m., according to Neil Sheehan, a spokesperson for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
"There were no complications during the shutdown, safety systems responded as expected, ad the cooldown of the reactor is proceeding safely," Sheehan said via e-mail.
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"Workers were performing testing on plant instrumentation when the Unit 1 turbine tripped offline, automatically shutting down the reactor," said April Schilpp, senior manager of communications with Exelon Nuclear.
Schilpp and Sheehan both said the precise cause of the shutdown was still under investigation.
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"Our Senior Resident Inspector went to the plant’s control room immediately after the scram and is independently verifying whether plant operators are following the appropriate steps and procedures. He will continue to gather information on what occurred and the company’s response to it," Sheehan said.
Unit 2, , was operating at 93 percent power today, the company said in a press release issued early this afternoon.
The company said that there is no risk to the public and that there were no injuries associated with the shutdown.
The two shutdowns this week come at a sensitive time for Exelon Nuclear, which this month is applying to the NRC for an extension of the operating licenses on both Unit 1 and Unit 2. If the extensions are approved, the plant will be permitted to continue operating into the 2040s.
Sheehan said that today's "scram," like the Sunday incident, will count as a "hit" on one of the agency's performance indicators for the plant.
"A plant has to have more than three unplanned scrams during that 7,000-hour period to receive increased NRC oversight," Sheehan said.
The Limerick site's "unplanned scrams" indicator stood at 0.8 as of the end of the first quarter of 2011.
A public community information session will be held at the power plant next Wednesday evening from 5 to 7 p.m.
