Pilgrim nuclear plant back online after weekend storm
By Christine Legere
clegere@capecodonline.com Posted Feb. 19, 2015 @ 2:00 am
Updated Feb 19, 2015 at 10:28 AM
PLYMOUTH — Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station began powering back up at 1 a.m. Wednesday, and is reconnected to the grid after being taken offline in anticipation of the weekend snowstorm and accompanying high winds.
“The plant is currently stable and at 18 percent power," wrote Lauren Burm, spokeswoman for Entergy Corp., the plant's owner-operator, said late Wednesday afternoon. "Actual timing of when we will return to 100 percent power is market-sensitive information that federal regulations do not allow us to share.”
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission planned to oversee the restart of the reactor. “Our resident inspectors will continue to keep close tabs on the ascension in power,” wrote spokesman Neil Sheehan in an email.
On Saturday, Entergy Corp. spokeswoman Lauren Burm issued a statement saying the company had made the decision to power down the reactor in advance of the storm “to prepare for a potential loss of offsite power or the grid’s inability to accept the power Pilgrim generates.”
The station had been shuttered for 12 days following the blizzard of Jan. 27, after the reactor went into automatic shutdown because of loss of consistent offsite power. Several complications ensued, causing operators to rely on backup systems, including the failure of the high-powered cooling injection system needed to cool the reactor and the subsequent failure of one of four valves used as a backup to the cooling injection system.
When a generator that powered instruments measuring levels of seawater in the intake bays failed to start, a worker had to go outside to a shed to do a physical check to determine water level. Burm said later the tides never rose to levels that would cause concern.
The plant went back online Feb. 9.
Burm said Wednesday that Pilgrim did not lose power during the weekend storm.
http://www.capecodtimes.com/article/20150219/NEWS/150219353/101015/NEWSLETTER100
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