BRIDGMAN - Staff at the Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant manu ally shut down one of the plant's two reactors early Wednesday, July 6, after a rupture in a steam line was discovered.
Cook's Unit 2 reactor was taken offline at 12:38 a.m.,
and will remain shut down until the steam line and a damaged
wall can be repaired, spokesman
Bill Schalk said.
The rupture of the steam line led to low-pressure turbines and the release of pressurized, high-temper ature steam, which dam aged the wall of the tur bine building, Schalk said.
"We are fortunate no one was in the area" at the time, he said. "When the steam came out, it put a hole in the siding of the building. The siding kind of peeled off."
The steam was not ra dioactive, Schalk said.
Reactor operators man ually shut down the reac tor when the problem was identified, Schalk said.
Federal Nuclear Regula tory Commission inspec tors
assigned to the plant, and from the NRC's re gional office
in Lisle, Ill, are independently evaluat ing the company's
response to the incident and what caused it. They will also
be monitoring repairs as they are made, said NRC Regional
Spokeswoman
Viktoria Mitlyng.
Unit 1 continues at full power. Schalk said there is no official estimate of when Unit 2 will return to power, as repair plans are still being developed.
AEP notified the NRC of an "unusual event" when the steam line rupture was found. An unusu al event is the least serious emergency plan classifica tion that is reported to the NRC.
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