Press Release-III-08-007, NRC Responds to Unusual Event at the Byron Nuclear Plant

Press Release-III-08-007: NRC Responds to Unusual Event at the Byron Nuclear Plant

ML080860625
Person / Time
Site:	Byron
Issue date:	03/26/2008
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region II
To:
Category:Press Release
References
Press Release-III-08-007
Download: ML080860625 (1)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Region III 2443 Warrenville Road Lisle IL 60532 No. III-08-007 March 26, 2008 Contacts: Viktoria Mitlyng 630-829-9662 E-Mail: opa3@nrc.gov Prema Chandrathil 630-829-9663 Web site: www.nrc.gov NRC RESPONDS TO UNUSUAL EVENT AT THE BYRON NUCLEAR PLANT The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has responded to an unusual event at the Byron Nuclear Power Plant. The unusual event was declared on March 25, at 6:49 PM. The NRC has continuously evaluated plant conditions since the event declaration. The two-unit facility, located about 25 miles southwest of Rockford, Ill., is operated by the Exelon Generation Company.

An unusual event is the lowest of four levels in the NRCs emergency classification system. An unusual event is declared when events are in process or have occurred which indicate potential degradation in the level of safety of the plant. No release of radioactive material requiring offsite response or monitoring has occurred or is expected to occur.

We activated the regional Incident Response Center as soon as the unusual event was declared to evaluate the utilitys response to the event. The plant is in a stable condition, said James Caldwell, Regional Administrator for the NRCs mid-west region. Our staff in the Lisle office, at NRC headquarters, and NRC inspectors at the plant monitored the plant overnight and will continue to do so until the problem has been corrected.

The unusual event was declared when outside electrical power delivered to Byron Unit 2 was interrupted due to a problem with electrical transformers. Both Byron units are in a stable condition. The incident presents no threat to public safety.

Byron Unit 1 is shut down for a refueling outage. Unit 2 did not shut down as a result of the off-site power loss. Unit 2 is sharing off-site power with Unit 1 and will continue to do so until off-site power to Unit 2 is restored.

The NRC will continue to evaluate the utilitys response to the event, its efforts to identify the root cause of the problem, the proposed actions to fix the problem and the implementation of repairs.

NRC news releases are available through a free list serve subscription at the following Web address:

http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html . The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web site.