For the second time this week, cooling problems in the non-nuclear part of the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant have idled one of the plant’s reactors.
TVA spokesman Jason Huffine said Thursday that the Unit 1 reactors automatically shut down early Wednesday because of problems in a fan used to cool the electrical connection that links the North Alabama plant to the TVA power grid.
The shutdown came two days after the Unit 2 reactor at Browns Ferry also shut down due to another problem with cooling water in an electric turbine.
Mr. Huffine said the two incidents are not related and the Unit 3 reactor continues to generate full power.
The shutdown of the Unit 1 reactor was the sixth since the reactor was rebuilt and restarted in May 2007 following a 22-year shutdown.
The NRC conducted an investigation of the five previous shutdowns, which occurred during the first six months after the unit restart. Federal regulators concluded that the abnormally high number of power outages was not due to any overall problem at TVA.
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