Federal regulators to keep closer watch on reactor at St. Lucie nuclear plant

 

By Susan Salisbury
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer


JENSEN BEACH — Florida Power & Light Co.'s Unit 1 nuclear reactor at its St. Lucie plant has been placed under increased oversight because of the number and type of unplanned reactor shutdowns at the plant, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday.
An NRC review of the plant's performance in April found that the St. Lucie Unit 1 crossed the green-to-white threshold for unplanned shutdowns. A green rating is the highest, with the white performance category one step below that, followed by yellow, then red.
"Overall, the St. Lucie plant continues to operate safely," NRC Region II Administrator Victor McCree said in a statement. "However, these shutdowns point to performance issues and a trend that needs to be addressed."
The Unit 1 reactor at the plant on Hutchinson Island in Jensen Beach had two unplanned shutdowns in 2011 and one this year. A shutdown or "manual reactor trip" on Aug. 22, 2011, was due to a massive influx of jellyfish into the intake structure. Shutdowns on Oct. 22, 2011, and March 13 were caused by problems with valves. The March shutdown is still under review, said NRC spokesman Joey Ledford.
The NRC will conduct further inspections to assure that the causes of the shutdowns are understood, that the extent of the condition is identified and that FPL's corrections are sufficient, McCree said.

"FPL has very stringent operating procedures and a very low threshold for identifying and proactively responding to low-level indicators before they become problems. Sometimes our proactive response involves a conservative decision to shut down the plant," said FPL spokesman Mike Waldron.
Ledford said the August and March shutdowns were complicated. The unit is permitted to have three shutdowns within 7,000 critical hours, meaning those during which the plant is producing electricity, but it averaged more than that. Only one shutdown with complications is allowed during the 7,000 critical hours.
"If this many events happened, there is the suggestion that there could be problems," Ledford said.
The rating will be reviewed at the end of each quarter, Ledford said.
In 2010, Unit 1 was classified as yellow after air leaked into a cooling water system.
Unit 1 is operating at 29 percent of its capacity today. St. Lucie Unit 2, which is classified as green, is operating at 100 percent, according to the NRC.
In 2011 Unit 2 had one unplanned shutdown. Unit 2 also had an unplanned shutdown Friday, due to a valve failure on the non-nuclear side of the plant, but is now operating normally, according to NRC records.
At 1 p.m. Wednesday, the NRC staff is scheduled to have a public meeting at the plant to discuss safety performance. The meeting is at the Energy Encounter at St. Lucie Site Visitors' Center, 6501 South Ocean Drive, Jensen Beach
After a brief presentation, NRC staff will be available to answer questions on the safety of the St. Lucie plant last year, as well as the NRC's role in ensuring safe plant operations.
FPL is adding approximately 490 megawatts of increased generating capacity from "uprates" at its Turkey Point and St. Lucie nuclear power plants, with completion expected next year. FPL produces more than 20 percent of its total electricity output from its two nuclear plants.


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