Press Release-III-12-004, NRC Monitoring an Event at Byron Nuclear Plant

Press Release-III-12-004: NRC Monitoring an Event at Byron Nuclear Plant

ML120330093
Person / Time
Site:	Byron
Issue date:	01/30/2012
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region II
To:
Category:Press Release
References
press Release III-12-004
Download: ML120330093 (1)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Region III 2443 Warrenville Road Lisle IL 60532 Site: www.nrc.gov Blog: http://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov No. III-12-004 January 30, 2012

Contact:

Viktoria Mitlyng (630) 829-9662 E-Mail: OPA3.RegionIII@nrc.gov Prema Chandrathil (630) 829-9663 NRC MONITORING AN EVENT AT BYRON NUCLEAR PLANT The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Region III office in Lisle, Illinois, has activated its incident response center and entered monitoring mode due to an Unusual Event declared at the Byron nuclear power plant Unit 2. The event was declared due to a loss of offsite power at 10:18 a.m. CT. The two-unit plant is operated by Exelon Generation Co., located in Byron, Ill.,

17 miles southwest of Rockford.

The plant automatically shut down in response to the loss of offsite power. Smoke was seen from an onsite station transformer. When the plants fire brigade responded, no evidence of fire was found. The diesel generators are currently supplying power to plant equipment. Steam is currently being released from the non-nuclear side of the plant to aid in the cooling process. The steam release does not present a threat to the public.

Unit 1 remains at full power.

NRC resident inspectors at the plant are monitoring the situation in consultation with staff in the Region 3 office in Lisle, Ill.

An Unusual Event is the lowest of four levels of the NRCs emergency classification system.

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