Dominion Investigating Cause of Unit Shutdown at Millstone Power Station
WATERFORD, Conn. - Dominion is investigating the cause of the automatic shutdown of Millstone Power Station Unit 3 Sunday.
Unit 3 is in a safe, shutdown mode. No one at
the power station was injured and no release of radiation occurred. Federal,
state and local emergency response agencies were notified.
Dominion declared an Alert, the second lowest
of four emergency classifications used by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
at 8:42 a.m. Sunday after Unit 3 automatically shutdown because of indications
of low steam pressure in the secondary piping system. The secondary piping system
moves steam from the steam generator to the turbine.
Millstone Unit 3 shut down automatically at 8:29
a.m. No release of radioactive material occurred beyond those small releases
associated with normal station operations. These minor releases pose no danger
to the public or station workers and are below federally approved operating
limits, below natural background levels and cannot be detected at the site boundary.
Reactor operators and other personnel responded
to the Alert as trained. They were able to bring Millstone Unit 3, which had
been operating at 100 percent, to safe shutdown status in an orderly manner.
Millstone Unit 3, a 1,150-megawatt pressurized
water reactor, will remain shut down while the investigation occurs. No decision
has been made on when the unit will be restarted.
Millstone Unit 2, an 870-megawatt unit, is being
refueled and is not operating. Millstone Unit 1 is being decommissioned.
Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers
of energy, with an energy portfolio of about 28,100 megawatts of generation,
about 6 trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved natural gas reserves and 7,900
miles of natural gas transmission pipeline. Dominion also operates the nation's
largest underground natural gas storage system with more than 965 billion cubic
feet of storage capacity and serves retail energy customers in nine states.
For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at www.dom.com.
