North Anna Nuclear Plant in Mineral, Va unexpectedly shutdown on June 29th

[Ian David]

GLIDE Number: NC-20070704-12176-USA
Date / time: 04/07/2007 03:37:46
Event: Nuclear Event
Area: North-America
Country: USA
State/County: State of Virginia
City: Mineral
Number of Deads: None or unknow
Number of Injured: None or unknow
Damage level: Minor

Description:

Event occured at 30.06.2007 on 17:00:00: A federal nuclear inspection team was dispatched Tuesday to find out what caused the unexpected shutdown last week of a Virginia nuclear reactor owned by Dominion Resources Inc. The Unit (nyse: UNT - news - people ) 2 reactor of the North Anna Nuclear Plant in Mineral, Va., automatically shut down June 29 about 5 p.m. after a safety system unexpectedly "started to inject water into the reactor vessel," Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Ken Clark said Tuesday.

He said there were no incidents that prompted the activation of the safety injection system. The plant's Unit 1 reactor was unaffected and remains operational, but Unit 2 is still down, Clark said. The agency said it considers the event to be of "low safety significance." It added no employees were injured and there was no abnormal release of radioactivity into the environment.

Clark said it will take about a week for the three-person NRC team to investigate the circumstances, assess the company's response and review other issues.

He said he does not recall such an event occurring previously at the plant, which is located about 90 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. He added the inspection report will be made public in about 30 days.

More:
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?lang=eng&cid=12176