Blog Post: NRC Investigates Emergency Systems at Two Exelon Nuclear Plants
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported Thursday that it has sent additional inspectors to the Braidwood and Byron nuclear plants after an alarm and a backup pump were briefly inoperable.The NRC required Exelon to assess auxiliary feedwater pump systems at both Illinois plants in February after a routine inspection at Byron. Calculations by the company eventually showed that a pump would not have been operable if the reactor lost its primary core cooling system. The NRC is monitoring Exelon’s solution to the problem at both plants because they share a similar design.
The second issue arose during an unusual event at Braidwood March 24. For about an an hour, all alarms in the main control room of unit 2 stopped working unexpectedly during maintenance of the alarm system. An NRC inspector on site reported to the control room immediately, and the reactor continued to operate at full power without further problems. According to an NRC release, a subsequent review of plant records indicated a similar event happened during alarm maintenance in August, 2010.
A special NRC inspection team will review the circumstances surrounding the problems and the actions Exelon has taken to address them.
No comments:
Post a Comment