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Pump turned
off at Indian Point
By ROGER
WITHERSPOON
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: December 13, 2002)
BUCHANAN — Officials at Indian Point 3 and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission are investigating how a pump used to
provide the nuclear reactor's coolant was manually turned off.
An alarm in the plant's control room late Wednesday
signaled operators that there was a problem with one of the
pumps, and an investigation found the pump's electric controls
had been manually shut down.
"We found it in a position it is not supposed to be in, and
we are doing our investigation," said Michael Kansler, chief
operating officer of Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns
Indian Point. "We are trying to determine why it was
mispositioned and why it is not the way it is supposed to be.
"One possibility is that someone did it deliberately, but I
don't believe that to be the case," Kansler said. "If we were
to determine that it was intentionally mispositioned, then I
would worry about it. But we are still doing our
investigation."
The incident occurred as power was being reduced at Indian
Point 3 to 60 percent because of problems with the plant's
electrical breakers. The two operating breakers are in a
Consolidated Edison substation across the street and transmit
the plant's 1,000 megawatts of electricity to the region's
power grid.
Entergy spokeswoman Kathy McMullen said a line serving one
of the breakers began to overheat, and power had to be reduced
to keep the temperature within safe operating levels.
Normally, the plant would have simply switched to a backup
breaker, but that was out of service. It failed last month,
forcing the plant to shut down for a week while it was
replaced.
The power reduction, in turn, affected the operation of the
pump, whose controlling electrical circuit breaker had been
shut off.
"When the power was being reduced, the pump shut off," NRC
spokesman Neil Sheehan said. "They looked at it and found it
was switched off, and the boron was not going into the
reactor. They might not have realized it as fast as they did
if it had not been for the reduction in power." The coolant
used in the plant is composed of boron and water.
There are several pumps providing boron to the reactor's
cooling system, officials said, and there was no danger of the
core overheating because of the loss of the one unit. Had the
alarm that sounded Wednesday not alerted officials that the
pump had shut down, the loss of more boron would have set off
a different alarm. "It is not the only way to control
reactivity," Sheehan said. "There are the control rods and
other emergency systems. But this is one of the tools used to
control the reactor."
David Lochbaum, nuclear safety analyst for the Union of
Concerned Scientists, agreed the pump's shutdown could not
lead to a meltdown. "But if someone is tampering, that needs
to be looked into and stopped. It could be much more serious
next time."
Peter Habighorst, the NRC's senior resident inspector at
Indian Point 2, said the affected pump is in a "radiologically
controlled area," which has limited access.
"An investigation can lead you down different pathways," he
said. "It may be an error. You look at it methodically. You
don't immediately jump to the possibility of sabotage, though
that may be the end result." The plant is still operating at
only 60 percent power, and McMullen said it would "take a day
or two" for repairs to be made.
Send e-mail to Roger Witherspoon
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