Kansas Wolf Creek reactor repairs advancing slowly

HOUSTON Thu Feb 23, 2012 2:24pm EST
Feb 23 (Reuters) - Operators at the 1,166-megawatt Wolf Creek nuclear power plant in Kansas have replaced electrical equipment that forced the unit to shut in mid-January, but no return date has been set, a spokeswoman said.

"We are moving forward with taking care of the plant, taking the time to understand what happened and implementing corrective actions," the spokeswoman said. Other maintenance tasks also are being performed while the unit is shut, she said.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will hold a public meeting on March 6 to discuss results of an inspection conducted at the plant in late January, according to an NRC release.

The Wolf Creek Nuclear station declared an "unusual event," the NRC's lowest-level emergency, on Jan. 13, after the failure of a main generator electrical breaker and an unexplained loss of power to a startup transformer shut the plant, the NRC said.

The switchyard was de-energized, meaning the plant lost its connection to the electrical power grid, the NRC said.

All safety systems responded and emergency diesel generators automatically powered safety-related equipment, the NRC said.

The unusual event was canceled about three hours later when off-site power was partially restored.

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