A transformer fire at the Sequoyah Nuclear Power Plant Wednesday night is under investigation today by TVA and federal regulators.
TVA spokesman Ray Golden said the utility declared “an unusual event” — the lowest of four emergency response notifications at a nuclear plant — when a fire in the 500,000-volt transformer at the Sequoyah switchyard lasted more than 15 minutes. TVA fire crews extinguished the fire in 20 minutes of when the fire began around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday without any injury to plant employees or loss of power from the twin-reactor plant.
At the time of the fire, the transformer was being placed in service following maintenance. The transformer is used to step down 500,000 volt lines to 161,000 volt lines as part of TVA’s transmission of power. But the transformer is outside of the nuclear reactors and generators at the Sequoyah plant near Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., TVA spokesman Terry Johnson said.
The Sequoyah plant continues to generate power today with unit 2 at 100 percent power and Unit 1 at 85 percent power as it prepares for a refueling outage this fall.
The emergency notification to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission was the first at Sequoyah since 2003. TVA also notified local authorities about the fire, although the transformer blaze was put out entirely by TVA fire crews.