Seabrook Station reactor shut down since Friday after water
valve jams
Sep 18 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Jim Haddadin
Foster's Daily Democrat, Dover, N.H.
The nuclear reactor at Seabrook Station has been powered down
since Friday evening, when a water intake valve was jammed
closed by a computer glitch, according to an announcement by the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Water sank to a "low, low level" inside one of Seabrook
Station's four steam generators on Friday, Sept. 14, after the
valve problem occurred, according to an NRC inspector who was
called to the scene. The low water level tripped an automatic
shutdown of the reactor at approximately 8:25 p.m.
The NRC inspector's report indicates a computer card
controlling the feedwater regulator valve failed. All other
systems performed as expected after the reactor process stopped,
according to the NRC inspector's report.
"One of our resident inspectors assigned to Seabrook traveled
to the site Friday night to independently verify that the
shutdown was being safely and effectively carried out and did
not identify any concerns," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan wrote in
an email announcement Monday. A report created by the NRC
inspector indicates "emergency feedwater" was "actuated" because
of low water levels in the steam generator.
Al Griffith, a spokesman for the operators of Seabrook
Station, Next Era Energy, said the plant was scheduled to power
down on Sunday for a "refueling outage." The event on Friday led
them to begin the refueling outage early, he said.
"Because we were entering a refueling outage anyway, we'll
keep the plant down," Griffith said.