Pump triggers Three Mile Island reactor shutdown, NRC says
updated 5:36 PM EDT, Thu September 20, 2012
The Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant was shutdown Thursday.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Three Mile Island plant shuts down for the second time in a month
- Operators are trying to determine the cause of Thursday's shutdown
- There was no danger to the public, the NRC and plant owner Exelon say
- Three Mile Island's other reactor has been shut down since a partial meltdown in 1979
"This appears to be a
fairly straightforward shutdown," said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "Every indication we're getting is the
reactor safety systems are performing the way they are designed."
The Unit 1 reactor shut
off automatically about 2:20 p.m., the plant's owner, Exelon
Corporation, reported. There is no danger to the public, but the release
of steam in the process created "a loud noise heard by nearby
residents," the company said.
Sheehan said one of the
four reactor coolant pumps appears to have stopped working. Though three
others remain, the system shuts down when an anomaly is detected, he
said.
Thursday marked the
second time in a month that the reactor has been shut down, following an
August 22 leak in a heating system used to pressurize water. The unit
was replaced, inspectors found no signs of a problem in two other units
and the reactor returned to service on September 5, according NRC
records.
The 825-megawatt
pressurized water reactor at Three Mile Island, about 10 miles outside
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has been in service since 1974 and can power
about 800,000 homes. There was no loss of electrical service after
Thursday's shutdown, Exelon said.
The Unit 2 reactor has
been shut down since a partial meltdown in 1979. There were no injuries
and little release of radiation from that incident, which remains the
worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history.
CNN's Mike M. Ahlers and Sonia Kennebeck contributed to this report.
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