Pump problem shuts nuclear power plant

Indian Point nuclear power plant. (File photo/The Journal News)

BUCHANAN - Officials at the Indian Point nuclear power plant are still trying to determine the cause of a steam water pump malfunction that forced them to shut down one of two reactors at the plant yesterday.

The 11:36 a.m. shutdown affected a nonradioactive water pump that feeds one of the steam generators that produces electricity, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Entergy Nuclear Northeast, the plant's owners, said.

Pending a determination of the cause, federal regulators said the incident is not expected to affect the plant's safety rating.

"Preliminary indications for us are that the operator actions were appropriate and they followed the station procedures and the plant trip went as designed," said NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan.

"They're going to have to obviously identify the cause of the pump tripping and follow their checklist before they can get back online," Sheehan said.

"But I will say this: We do have performance indicators where we track things like unplanned shutdowns. So, this would be counted on one of those performance indicators."

"But at first glance, there does not appear to be any problem that would give us concern," he said.
Entergy spokesman Jim Steets said plant workers were trying to determine what caused the pump to malfunction.

But he called it "a very uneventful, a very safe shutdown. It's not serious at all, other than we have to respond seriously to it.

"It's an important piece of equipment necessary for operating the plant," Steets said. "So, operators recognized it wasn't operating - they'll get indications in the control room - and manually shut the plant down.

"It really is as simple as that," he said. "It's especially simple when all your equipment responds as it's designed."

Indian Point 2, one of two reactors at the Buchanan plant, was last shut down June 4, when a voltage control mechanism on its main steam generator had to be removed and replaced.

Indian Point 3 is out of service for a scheduled refueling.

It was shut down shortly after federal regulators gave the reactor its fifth consecutive top safety rating. It had not been shut down for nearly two years at that point.

Sheehan, the NRC spokesman, said Indian Point 2 is operating at the highest safety level, which is identified as "green."

Under federal guidelines, that could be bumped down to "white" - which would mandate additional regulatory oversight - if there are three instances of unplanned shutdowns, power changes or other unexpected complications over 7,000 hours of operations. That's about the equivalent of a year.

Six unplanned incidents over that period would warrant a lower rating, identified as "yellow," he said. The lowest rating is red.

Sheehan said that yesterday's shutdown does not appear to jeopardize IP2's "green" rating.

The two plants, which jointly generate 2,000 megawatts of electricity, have nonetheless been the subject of criticism and legal action by residents and Hudson River environmental groups concerned about the impact on local wildlife.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling this week in a case between Entergy and Riverkeeper could free the plant from building cooling towers along the Hudson River.

That's because the justices said regulators could consider the financial cost of protecting fish and other aquatic life when making decisions on requiring new technology.