Valve leak has prompted the nuclear reactor to shutdown
Posted: 08/26/2013 06:08:11 Edited: 08/26/2013 06:08:37 Clicks: 1031
The leakage from a valve has resulted to the Salem 1 nuclear reactor to be shut down, officials said.
On Thursday afternoon, Salem Unit 1 was managing a minor leak within the reactor coolant system (RCS), according to Joe Delmar, spokesman for the plant’s operator, PSEG Nuclear.
The leaking rate is about 4 gallons a minutes from the valve, he said, their NRC tech specs only allows 1 gallon a minute.
“Since we spent 6 hours unsuccessful in slowing down the rate of leakage (to the 1 gallon a minute threshold), we were required to shut down the device,” he said. “We stopped the leakage at 7:29 p.m Thursday evening through taking the turbine offline and reducing the reactor power.
Delmar said it was around 10 p.m. Thursday when they closed the valve and reducing the leak.
A repair plan is in progress, Delmar said, adding it is not decided yet when the valve will start to work.
“As designed, the leaking water went through the plant drain systems and will be processed through normal plant systems,” he said. “the RCS system has over 90,000 gallons of water to deal with the leakage. The leakage release is friendly to the environment and can’t harm citizens.”
He added that the incident was not serious at all and is not a big event
An NRC spokesman said its Resident Inspectors who were working in Salem recognized what was happened to the situation and seen the valve shut down with no difficulty.
The valve, NRC officials said, was replaced and its air operator was rebuilt during the last refueling outage in April/May.
Delmar said PSEG Nuclear will investigate the reason why there is a leakage of the valve and guarantee there is no similar situation. He added this will happen before the reactor is started again.
Salem Unit 2 is in good work conditions just as the neighboring Hope Creek Generating Station does.
Salem 1 is one of three reactors operated by PSEG Nuclear at its Artificial Island generating complex. The three reactors which are used for generating power are the second largest commercial nuclear in the United States.
