WATERFORD, Conn. (AP) - One of two reactors at Connecticut’s only nuclear plant resumed operation Wednesday after a weekend power outage, but the other remained offline as the company investigated the release of water from a cooling tank.
Ken Holt, a spokesman for Millstone Power Station in Waterford, said Wednesday morning that Unit 2 was expected to return to 100 percent power within about a day. He said there was no estimate for when Unit 3 would be back online.
The outage that began Sunday morning was blamed on a malfunctioning relay. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission declared it an “unusual event,” the lowest of four levels of emergency classification used by the agency.
The NRC said in a preliminary notification that all safety systems responded as designed but the recovery from the outage at Unit 3 became complicated when a so-called relief disk gave out and some water spilled inside a containment building.
Holt said none of the contaminated water was released into the atmosphere and the water has since been cleaned up. The return to service of Unit 3 is pending further evaluations and repairs, the NRC said.
“We’re making sure all systems are working the way they should,” Holt said.
Millstone, which is owned by Dominion Resources Inc., supplies half of all power in Connecticut and 12 percent throughout New England.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.