Dominion Resources Inc. D -0.50% was forced to shut down a nuclear-power generator at a plant in Connecticut after the water in nearby Long Island Sound, used to cool various pieces of equipment, got too warm to use.
Dominion pulled the plug on a unit at its Millstone Power Station on Sunday after temperatures in the sound reached above 75 degrees Fahrenheit—a limit set by federal regulators. The water cools equipment supporting the nuclear reactor, but it doesn't cool the reactor itself.
The outage isn't expected to affect power consumers, Dominion spokesman Ken Hunt said. The local power grid is capable of supplying enough electricity to make up for the loss.
The Millstone unit is 37 years old and capable of generating 880 megawatts of electricity. A second, newer unit at the plant continues to operate. The newer unit can draw water from deeper depths of the sound, where temperatures are below 75 degrees.
This is the first time Dominion has had to shut down a nuclear-power unit at Millstone because of warm water, Mr. Hunt said. He said Dominion won't restart the unit until it has confidence the water temperatures will stay below the threshold.
July was the hottest month on record for the contiguous U.S., reaching an average temperature of 77.6 degrees.
Dominion had been aware of warming temperatures in the sound for several days. Hoping to avoid a shutdown, Dominion received permission to average the readings of three temperature gauges, rather than rely on the highest reading to determine whether a shutdown was necessary. But eventually the average readings on all three gauges rose above 75 degrees.
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