Check Of Nuclear Plant Shutdown Ordered Inspectors Question Worker Response, Controls At No. 2 Facility Near Richland

An investigation has been ordered in a nuclear power plant shutdown that was caused by a faulty steam valve, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Friday.

Three federal inspectors arrived Thursday at Washington Public Power Supply System No. 2 plant north of Richland, which is under pressure to cut costs and has been criticized as a burden on ratepayers in the region.

On Friday the team looked into possible shortcomings in operators’ response to the shutdown and questionable readings on reactor controls, said Breck Henderson, a spokesman for the commission in Arlington, Texas.

All safety equipment functioned normally, and there were no injuries or releases of radioactivity, he said.

It is neither unusual nor routine for the agency to dispatch inspectors in such circumstances, Henderson said.

If inspectors find fault, a fine could result, he said.

Don McManman, a WPPSS spokesman, said the reactor shut down within two seconds after the problem was detected Wednesday.

“Every system worked as it was designed to do,” he said, “but when a machine as large as WNP-2 goes through so many evolutions within a matter of seconds, inspectors want to make absolutely sure those safety and control mechanisms performed correctly and will do so again.”

The plant shut down when a leak was detected in the air supply to one of the valves that controls the flow of steam produced by the reactor, McManman said. When the air pressure-controlled valves are open, steam is directed toward electrical generators.

Air pressure failed in one valve, allowing a spring to shut the valve and triggering the shutdown.

The commission wants to determine whether operators followed the proper procedures in the shutdown, Henderson said.

“Some questions were not answered to our satisfaction in their initial response,” he said.

WPPSS’ initial report also indicated a possible problem in controls that monitor the operation of control rods that help shut down the reactor, he said.

The plant is expected to begin the three-day process of resuming full power this weekend, McManman said. The outage ended 243 days of continuous operation.

The plant, the only commercial nuclear reactor in the Pacific Northwest, can produce 1,200 megawatts, enough electricity for a city the size of Seattle.

In a recent letter to the Northwest Power Planning Council, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., recommended a new economic review of the plant, saying it is “producing power we don’t need at a cost no one in today’s market would be willing to pay.”

A committee formed by the Bonneville Power Administration, the federal power-marketing agency that buys electricity from the reactor, and the Northwest Power Planning Council recently recommended that WPPSS reduce its rate from 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour to 1.9 cents by 2000.

WPPSS officials contend an efficiency campaign in recent years has made the plant more reliable and cheaper to operate.