Hope Creek nuclear reactor in Lower Alloways Creek returns to service after safety valve repair

By Bill Gallo Jr. | South Jersey Times Today's Sunbeam
Posted September 11, 2014 at 11:05 AM

 

LOWER ALLOWAYS CREEK TWP. — The Hope Creek nuclear reactor has returned to service after being shut down for repairs to a key safety relief valve, officials said.

The plant began sending out electricity over the regional power grid at 12:26 a.m. Thursday, according to Joe Delmar, spokesman for the plant's operator, PSEG Nuclear.  "The maintenance outage was well executed and we were able to make the repairs we needed to ensure the continued safe operation of Hope Creek," Delmar said.

The reactor was taken offline Friday evening for the work after it was discovered a valve was not operating as designed. The relief valve's function is to protect the reactor from overpressure in the event of a trip — a sudden shutdown. It would release steam to relieve pressure within the reactor. In the plant there are 14 of these valves.

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Two nuclear plants shut down: eight million left without power

More than 8.1 million homes and businesses were left without electric power across the eastern United States Tuesday with superstorm Sandy still moving across the region, the US government said. The most extensive outages were reported in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania where millions were plunged into darkness by the storm, the US Department of Energy said.

"As of 9:00 am EDT October 30, the impacted states report a total of 8,114,433 customers without power in the affected areas," it said. New Jersey was hardest hit with 2.5 million outages, New York 1.96 million, and Pennsylvania 1.26 million. In all, 17 states and the District of Columbia reported storm-related outages. Meanwhile, two US nuclear power plants were shut down early Tuesday in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy, but the plant operators stressed there were no risks to the public. New Jersey's main power company PSEG Nuclear shut down its Salem 1 unit on the Delaware river, saying most of its water circulation pumps had been rendered unusable "due to weather impacts".

PSEG said it manually shut down the 1,175 MW unit, but said there were "no issues" in the shutdown and the facility was "currently stable." The Salem 2 unit was already offline for maintenance when the storm hit, and PSEG said another nearby nuclear unit, Hope Creek, remains operating at full power.

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PSEG Nuclear's Hope Creek reactor returns to service after refueling outage

The Hope Creek nuclear reactor here has returned to service after completion of a scheduled refueling outage, officials said Thursday.

The plant began sending out electricity over the regional power grid at 4:37 p.m. Wednesday, according to Joe Delmar, spokesman for the plant’s operator, PSEG Nuclear.

Hope Creek, one of three nuclear reactors at the Artificial Island generating site here along the Delaware River, was shut down on April 13 to begin the refueling outage, the 17th for the plant since it went online in 1986.

As of Thursday, Hope Creek was operating at 37 percent power. Operators were conducting routine start-up testing of the unit as the reactor continues to ascend to full power.

“The planning, teamwork and commitment of our employees resulted in a successful outage,” said Delmar.

Nuclear power plants are routinely shut down about every 18 months for refueling and maintenance.

Approximately 1,600 employees and supplemental personnel completed more than 18,000 activities during the Hope Creek outage, Delmar said.

Major work included:

•  Replacement of 232 of the reactor's fuel assemblies (one-third of the plant's total fuel assemblies holding uranium fuel)

• Replacement of all three condenser expansion joints

• An emergency diesel generator governor replacement

• A low-pressure turbine inspection

• Overhaul of five turbine bypass valves and actuators

The outage also included thousands of maintenance, inspection and testing activities that will result in improved equipment reliability to ensure continued safe operations, Delmar said.

With Hope Creek back online, all three reactors at the Island — including the neighboring Salem 1 and Salem 2 units — are now producing electricity.

Salem 1 returned to service on Monday after a week-long shutdown. The plant had automatically tripped offline on April 30 while workers were conducting testing on the plant’s emergency reactor shutdown system.

The problem was traced to a voltage issue.

Salem 1 and Salem 2 were operating at full power Thursday, Delmar said.

Together, the three units comprise the second largest nuclear power generating complex in the United States.

Operating at full power, the three plants provide enough electricity for three million homes.

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