Pilgrim LOOP / NOUE

Last evening (2/8) as a result of the blizzard burying the Northeast of the United States, Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts suffered a LOOP event (Loss Of Offsite Power) and subsequent reactor trip (also popularly called a "scram") which is the as-designed event sequence for an LOOP event.  The NRC has made a press release this morning, the text of which follows:

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NRC MONITORS PILGRIM STATION AFTER LOSS OF OFFSITE POWER AND UNUSUAL EVENT DECLARATION

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Region I staff is monitoring the Pilgrim nuclear power plant after the site lost offsite power Friday evening. The plant is operated by Entergy Nuclear and is located in Plymouth, Mass.

Pilgrim automatically shut down after losing offsite power at 9:17 Friday night (2/8). The plant is stable and all plant safety systems responded as designed. The plant's diesel generators are currently supplying power to plant equipment. Plant operators declared an unusual event due to the loss of all off-site power. An Unusual Event is the lowest of four levels of the NRC’s emergency classification system.

There was no impact to plant workers or the public.

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Pilgrim did not scram out from full power, as the plant had been operating at a reduced power level to negate problems with a simmering relief valve.  The last data point shown by NRC for Pilgrim had the plant at 83% power.

If any updates are required, I'll make them here or on Twitter -- ' @atomicnews '.

(Data and reports from Entergy, NRC, Cape Cod Times, and others.)

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UPDATE - Added link:

Click here for an excellent NEI piece on the history of US nuclear plants' response to severe weather.


11:00 AM Eastern 2/9/2013
ATOMIC POWER REVIEW