TVA repairs 3 plants after multiple failures

TVA repairs 3 plants after multiple failures

BY DAVE FLESSNER
BUSINESS EDITOR

The Unit 2 reactor at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant returned to full power Friday after a string of five unplanned outages at TVA nuclear plants in the past 18 days.

Tennessee Valley Authority spokeswoman Lucha Ramey said Friday the reactor trips at Browns Ferry, Sequoyah and Watts Bar nuclear plants since March 10 were unrelated and posed no threat to the public or staff.

"We have identified the causes of the unplanned shutdowns and made necessary repairs to put them back in service," she said. "We will continue to closely monitor the performance of the plants to make sure that they continue to operate in a safe and efficient manner."

Ken Clark, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said TVA and plant inspectors identified the causes of the outages and made appropriate fixes.

"There's no safety significance to these events," he said.

But antinuclear activist Stephen Smith said Friday the frequency of the unplanned outages raises concerns about reliability and safety at TVA.

"The most dangerous time for these units is when you are bringing the reactors up or bringing them down, and all of these unplanned outages, I think, raise real concerns," he said.

The Unit 2 reactor at Browns Ferry was shut down Wednesday to repair the power supply on its reactor recirculation pumps and was shut down last week to repair a valve on the non-nuclear side of the plant, Ms. Ramey said.

The Unit 2 reactor at the Sequoyah plant tripped on March 10 to repair a pump motor on the non-nuclear side of the plant and was shut down again Monday to repair a generator coolant leak, again on the non-nuclear side of the plant. Watts Bar tripped on March 10 due to a failed connector in a generator protection circuit.