Pilgrim Nuclear and Vermont Yankee, both operated by Entergy, are of the same age and same General Electric design as Fukushima.
No evacuation plan exists for Pilgrim.
Plymouth nuke plant offline after electric line goes down
PLYMOUTH — The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station ran on generator power after one of two power lines went down Monday night but NStar's equipment was expected to be brought back online by 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to an NStar spokesman.
The plant automatically went offline at 9:21 p.m. Monday after it lost one of its two 345-KV lines, owned by NStar, which provides off-site power to the plant, according to a statement from Carol Wightman, the spokeswoman for Entergy, the company that owns and operates the Pilgrim plant.
The shutdown occurred after an NStar pole at a substation in Carver, which was installed in May, broke, NStar spokesman Michael Durand said.
A large area of eastern Massachusetts, including some customers on Cape Cod, experienced flickering power after the pole went down, but there were no power outages. The transmission lines and equipment damaged Monday were expected to be fixed by 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and brought back on line by 8:30 p.m., Durand said.
Last week, NStar removed the other line from use as part of a coordinated "routine, seasonal" maintenance project with Pilgrim and National Grid, he said.
Wightman would not comment on the operating level of the plant while it was under maintenance.
But a spokesman for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission told the Times he believed the plant reduced power output to below 50 percent while it flushed organic material off the water condensers for the reactor in a process called "thermal back-washing."
The plant was running on its emergency diesel generators, which "immediately started and are safely powering the plant," Wightman's statement Tuesday read. There is no impact on the health and safety of employees or the public from the shutdown, she added.
While the plant is shutdown, workers will "take advantage of this time to perform maintenance that cannot be done while the plant is operating," she said.
Pilgrim has been shut down several times in the past few months for various reasons.
A heat wave in July reduced the plant's output by 15 to 25 percent when water temperatures in Cape Cod Bay, which is used to cool Pilgrim's systems, went above those allowed under the plant's federal license.
Then, starting Aug. 22, there was a monthlong trend of shutdowns and partial power-downs. The plant wasn't restored to full service until Sept. 18.
Pilgrim Nuclear Station taken offline Monday night
Auto shutdown occurred after offsite power to plant was lost
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