Va. Nuclear Reactor Shuts Down

Houston Chronicle ^ | Oct 8, 2006 | AP

[thackney]

SURRY, Va. — One of two nuclear reactors at Surry Power Station remained shut down Sunday after two electrical transformers that provide backup power to the plant quit working.

Unit Two was shut down around 6 p.m. Saturday after steam blew out some sheet metal, which landed on a power line that serves one of the backup transformers, said Richard Zher, a spokesman for Dominion Resources Inc., the Richmond-based power company that owns the plant. Officials weren't sure what caused the second transformer to shut down, Zher said.

That first reserve electrical transformer was repaired, and Dominion was working on the second, Zher said Sunday. A third transformer was not affected.

Backup diesel generators kicked in when the two transformers shut down, Zher said.

Zher said Dominion was investigating what caused steam to blow out the siding in a building where cold water is turned into steam, which powers a turbine that creates electricity through a generator.

"Once we have made that determination and resolved any problems, we will restart" the reactor, Zher said.

The plant issued an alert, as required by federal guidelines, he said.

"No one was injured and it didn't cause any threat to public health or safety," Zher said.

Surry's two nuclear units at Surry each produce 799 megawatts of electricity and provide 15 percent of the electricity in Dominion's service area.

Dominion, headquartered in Richmond, is one of the nation's largest producers of energy.

[muleskinner]

Very interesting and informative thread from all sides. Now, tell me DU has this kind of discussion. (maybe, maybe not...I'd bet not)

[Boiler Plate]

Don't forget that there are also quite a few Gen III designs out there that are very sweet. An ABWR/EBWR on a pre-approved plant site (of which there are quite a few), would be a good way to try out the COL process.


You are quite right on that. The ChiComs are buying almost 30 of the WH AP1000 systems. I guess I have bent towards the GE ABWR seeing that I spent time at Hatch and worked on Grand Gulf. The ABWR is amazingly compact and they moved the control room off of the turbine deck which was big problem with the Mark III design Hatch had.

I had heard that Wolf Creek, Grand Gulf and one other site had applied for site licenses a year ago but have not heard anything recently. The NRC was supposed to have streamlined the COL process for the Gen II plants.

In any case the Hydrogen Economy starts with Nuclear Power.