PNO-I-12-007, Hurricane Sandy Causes Oyster Creek Alert and Shutdowns of Reactors at Nine Mile Point Unit 1, Indian Point Unit 3, and Salem Unit 1
| ML12305A460 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Salem, Nine Mile Point, Indian Point, Oyster Creek (DPR-016, DPR-064, DPR-075, NPF-069) |
| Issue date: | 10/31/2012 |
| From: | Hunegs G NRC/RGN-I/DRP/PB6 |
| To: | |
| HUNEGS, GK | |
| References | |
| PNO-I-12-007 | |
| Download: ML12305A460 (3) | |
October 31, 2012 PRELIMINARY NOTIFICATION OF EVENT OR UNUSUAL OCCURRENCE - PNO-I-12-007 This preliminary notification constitutes EARLY notice of events of POSSIBLE safety or public interest significance. Some of the information may not yet be fully verified or evaluated by the Region I staff (King of Prussia, PA)
Facility Licensee Emergency Classification Exelon Generation Company, LLC
___ Notification of Unusual Event Oyster Creek
_X_ Alert Forked River, NJ
___ Site Area Emergency Docket: 50-219
___ General Emergency
___ Not Applicable PSEG Salem Generating Station Hancocks Bridge, NJ Docket: 50-311 Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, LLC Nine Mile Point Unit 2 Lycoming, NY Docket: 50-410 Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.
Indian Point Unit 3 Buchanan, NY Docket: 50-286
SUBJECT:
HURRICANE SANDY CAUSES OYSTER CREEK ALERT AND SHUTDOWNS OF REACTORS AT NINE MILE POINT UNIT 1, INDIAN POINT UNIT 3, AND SALEM UNIT 1 On October 29, 2012, Oyster Creek declared a Notice of Unusual Event followed by an Alert due to high water levels in the intake structure. Elevated intake structure water levels are of concern as excessive levels can flood certain plant components and render normal cooling systems inoperable. No safety systems were adversely affected by the high intake level. The site also experienced a loss of offsite power. Both emergency diesel generators started as designed and supplied power to the emergency electrical busses. Shutdown cooling and spent fuel pool cooling were temporarily lost but subsequently restored, after the busses were reenergized. At 9:59 a.m. EDT on October 30, the licensee restored one line of off-site power via a start-up transformer. Oyster Creek terminated the Alert at 3:52 a.m. EDT on October 31 when water level dropped below 4.5 ft and off-site power was fully restored.
Nine Mile Point Unit 1 automatically shutdown at 9:01 p.m. EDT on October 29 when an electrical fault occurred on a power line used to send power to the grid, resulting in a turbine trip and reactor trip. All safety systems responded as designed and the unit was placed in a safe shutdown condition by plant operators. The unit was taken to cold shutdown to facilitate conduct of outage activities.
Indian Point Unit 3 automatically shut down at 10:41 p.m. EDT on October 29 in response to electrical grid disturbances caused by the storm. The disturbances resulted in a turbine load reject, turbine trip and reactor trip by design. All safety systems responded as designed and the unit was placed in a safe, shutdown condition by plant operators, where it remains.
2 Salem Unit 1 was manually shut down by plant operators at 1:10 a.m. EDT on October 30 as a result of the non safety-related circulating-water pumps being affected by high river level and debris in the waterway. All plant safety systems responded as designed and the shutdown was safely carried out by plant operators. The unit remains in hot standby pending repairs.
Units that are co-located at the above sites and other sites experienced some storm-related issues, but none resulted in plant shutdowns or other significant transients.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission monitored Hurricane Sandy and the impact on nuclear power plants in the eastern United States from its emergency response centers. The NRC entered Monitoring Mode at 10:20 a.m. EDT on October 29, in anticipation of the effects of Hurricane Sandy. The NRC exited Monitoring Mode at 3:59 a.m. EDT on October 31, after Oyster Creek terminated its Alert and all other plants had been confirmed to be in a stable condition.
NRC inspectors were on site around the clock at plants expected to be most impacted by the storm. Those inspectors independently verified that plant operators were following relevant procedures to ensure plant safety before, during, and after the storm. Site coverage has since returned to normal at the affected sites.
The States of New Jersey and New York were notified. The agency continues to coordinate with other federal and state agencies to support their response activities. The information in this preliminary notification has been reviewed with the appropriate licensee management.
This information is current as of 1:30 pm on October 31, 2012.
This preliminary notification is issued for information only.
ADAMS Accession Number: ML12305A460 CONTACT:
Gordon Hunegs (610) 337-5046
ML12305A460 SUNSI Review Non-Sensitive Sensitive
Publicly Available
Non-Publicly Available OFFICE RI/DRP RI/DRP RI/DRP RI/DRP RI/SLO NAME GHunegs/GKH GDentel/GTD ABurritt/LC for MGray/MG NMcNamara/NM DATE 10/ 31/12 10/31 /12 10/ 31 /12 10/31 /12 10/ 31/12 OFFICE RI/PAO RI/DRP RI/ORA NAME DScrenci/DS DRoberts/DJR WDean/WMD DATE 10/ /12 10/ 31 /12 10/31 /12