Smoke at nuclear power plant frays nerves

Mar 29 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Angeljean Chiaramida The Daily News of Newburyport, Mass.

A smoking motor in a service elevator at NextEra Energy Seabrook nuclear power plant late yesterday morning led officials to declare an "unusual event," although no flames ever sparked.

The elevator was not located in the reactor building, and there was no threat to public safety, a spokesman said.

"This was not a firefighting event," Richard Winn, director of communications for NextEra Energy Seabrook, said. "This was a shut-off-the-power-to-stop-the-motor-from-smoking event. There was never a threat to the health and safety of the public or the health and safety of any employees here. There were never any flames. There was no release of any kind of radioactivity."

News of NextEra Energy Seabrook's declaration of an unusual event spread amazingly fast, causing phones to ring and people to worry, Winn said.

Winn said his office worked quickly to get information out concerning the incident in light of the public's heightened sensitivity since the crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant complex following the recent earthquake and subsequent tsunami there.

The situation did not require personnel to be evacuated or the plant to be shut down. The Seabrook Fire Department was not called.

"The plant kept operating at 100 percent power," Winn said.

According to Winn, around 11:30 a.m. yesterday, a security guard on his normal rounds noticed smoke coming from the area around a service elevator in one of the concrete buildings at the complex. According to regulations, a call was made to report the smoke, and the plant's on-site fire brigade moved swiftly to locate the problem. As soon as the smoke was traced to the elevator motor, the electricity was terminated, and the smoke immediately stopped, he said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires nuclear power plants to locate and remediate any risk of smoke or fire within 15 minutes of notification or declare an unusual event, Winn said. Because the 15-minute clock ran out before the electricity was shut down to the motor, an unusual event was declared at 11:43 a.m., he said.

Loudspeaker announcements were made throughout the complex, and NRC on-site inspectors, as well as agency officials were immediately notified, as were appropriate state and local officials, Winn said.

NextEra will submit a full report on the incident to the NRC, he said, adding that he expects the report to be posted on the agency's website.

According to NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan, an unusual event is "the lowest of four levels of emergency classification used by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission." Sheehan reported the details of the event in a press release, confirming the incident "was not related in any way to nuclear safety-related equipment." The release provided a chronology of events:

11:29 a.m.: Report of smoke in "B" Residual Heat Removal vault; believed coming from elevator power supply equipment (RHR is a system used to help cool down the reactor).

11:43 a.m.: Unusual event declared.

11:46 a.m.: Plant fire brigade arrives.

11:58 a.m.: Extinguishment after elevator electrical cabinet opened.

12:43 p.m.: Unusual event terminated; investigation revealed no equipment damage beyond power transformer supplying equipment elevator.

The elevator has been taken out of service while a review continues. The NRC's two resident inspectors assigned to Seabrook will follow up on NextEra's assessment of the problem and any corrective actions.

Winn said that to the best of his knowledge, the motor in the elevator had not been problematic in the past.

The last declarations of unusual events at Seabrook station took place in 2003, when there were two incidents, Winn said. Both events related to an unfounded exterior security breach.

After an investigation of the perceived breach, it was determined that a wild turkey in the area set off the plant's security alarms after coming in contact with the fencing that runs around the perimeter of the complex's property, Winn said.

Then, as the plant was being brought back online following the incident involving the turkey, Winn said there was a minimal leak of hydrogen on the turbine deck at the plant, which was reported and dealt with.

"There was no radioactive involvement at that time, either," Winn said.