Alabama nuclear plant reactor off-line, output reduced

The Associated Press
Published: August 8, 2008

ATHENS, Ala. (AP) — Production at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant was reduced significantly Friday as one reactor was taken off-line and the two other reactors continued to operate at half power.

Reactor number one was taken off-line when a leak in a temperature sensor on the main steam line was discovered during an inspection, Tennessee Valley Authority spokesman John Moulton said. He said it was not known how long it would take to get the reactor back online.

At the time the reactor was shutdown, the plant’s three reactors were operating at half power as workers repaired two transformers that had failed and knocked out cooling towers. Officials said the plant’s electricity output was initially cut in half to prevent water released into the Tennessee River from exceeding temperature limits set by environmental regulators.

An electrical transformer at the north Alabama plant failed on Thursday, just four days after another transformer failed. The second breakdown left the plant without a backup, said Browns Ferry spokesman Jason Huffine.

At full power, and without the cooling towers working properly, water released into the river by the plant would elevate water temperatures above state-mandated levels. So operators cut back on power production to stay within the limit, he said.

Huffine said a signal to the control room indicated Sunday that the first of the transformers was no longer supplying power to the cooling towers. He said technicians do not know what made the first transformer fail.

“We are looking at maintenance issues on the transformer and we’re running on one transformer, and then that one went out,” he said. “We are using all available resources to get back up and running (at full power).”

Browns Ferry in north Alabama is one of three TVA nuclear plants that generate about 30 percent of all the power the federally operated utility supplies in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia.