Control rod failures force shutdown of nuclear power plant
One of the Indian Point nuclear power plant’s reactors was shut down over the weekend after several control rods lost power, the plant owner said, marking the latest in a series of mishaps at the suburban New York plant this year.
Control room operators shut down the Indian Point 2 reactor around 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 5, owner Entergy Corp. said in a statement, adding the reactor did what it’s intended to do if control rods lose electricity.
“All equipment at unit 2 operated as designed and the plant safely shut down,” the statement said.
The company said it’s not yet clear what caused the power problem.
Entergy reported no radiation was released into the environment, said Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has complained that there have been too many problems at Indian Point and has called for closing down the plant. The state Department of Public Service was headed to investigate and monitor the situation at the two-reactor plant in Buchanan, about 30 miles north of midtown Manhattan.
Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission representatives didn’t immediately responded to a request for comment on the shutdown.
The plant’s other reactor, Indian Point 3, remained running. Together, the two reactors supply about one-fourth of the power used in New York City and Westchester County.
The plant has experienced a number of unplanned shutdowns this year. Indian Point 3 was shut down for a time in July after a water pump problem, and in June because of an electrical disturbance at a switch yard outside the plant. A water-system alarm failure in January led workers to start shutting down one of the reactors, although repairs were made and the shutdown reversed.
And in May, a transformer failure and a fire on the non-nuclear side of the plant forced an automatic shutdown of Indian Point 3 that lasted 16 days. The fire was extinguished quickly and caused no safety problems at the reactor, but it spilled about 3,000 gallons of transformer fluid into the Hudson River. Federal regulators found that workers at the plant responded appropriately to the transformer fire, which was blamed on insulation failure.
