From: Chris in Delaware
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2011 11:04:55 -0400
I couldn't get any info from the media, so I called
the phone number on this website:
http://www.dom.com/about/stations/nuclear/surry/index.jsp
I asked whether Offsite Power was restored and if
their Units were Off the EDGS. The guy at the Info center wanted to know if I
was media, but I told him that I was a retired operator, and he loosened up.
Anyway,
Offsite power has been restored to both units AND they are in Cold Shutdown
(which I had to tell the guy in the info center was Mode 5 - GEE Whiz! he
didn't know that).
Here is the closest "news" I can find
about this event -
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/business/business/2011/apr/19/tdmain01-surry-nuclear-plant-could-be-out-of-servi-ar-981487/
Chris from Delaware
Dominion
Virginia Power's Surry nuclear power plant includes units 1 and 2. Credit:
ALEXA WELCH EDLUND/TIMES-DISPATCH
Dominion
Virginia Power's Surry nuclear power plant could be out of service for several
days until workers repair the station's tornado-damaged electrical switchyard.
"The plant functioned exactly as designed
during the event," said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Joey
Ledford. "The reactors tripped as designed and the generators fired up as
designed."
The reactors at Surry Power Station's Units 1 and 2
shut down automatically at 6:49 p.m. Saturday when a tornado touching down in
the station's switchyard interrupted its connections to off-site power from the
electrical grid, according to the NRC.
The National Weather Service determined that the
damage from the Surry twister was consistent with an EF-2 tornado. EF-2
tornadoes have estimated winds as fast as 111 to 135 mph.
Dominion Virginia Power, the state's largest
electric utility, did not have an estimate Monday of the cost to repair the
tornado damage at its Surry station, about 50 miles southeast of Richmond.
Both of Surry's reactors shut down —
"tripped" — as designed when the tornado hit the switchyard, Dominion
Virginia Power said. Switchyards are junctions linking power stations to the
electrical transmission grid.
Backup diesel generators kicked in immediately to
provide the electricity needed to keep the still-hot reactors safely cooled,
the utility said.
"It's a non-event," said VCU nuclear
engineering professor Sama Bilbao y León, "but it's good to make sure the
public knows a non-event happened."
The tornado did not directly strike the two nuclear
units, which are designed to withstand hits from tornados, hurricanes and
earthquakes.
The reactors are housed inside steel-reinforced
concrete containment buildings. Three of the plant's four backup diesel generators
are in separate tornado-protected structures, the company said.
"A tornado striking close to the Surry plant
has to give you pause," said Glen Besa, director of the Sierra Club's
Virginia chapter.
"When it comes to nuclear power, as unlikely as
an accident may be, when there is an accident it can have devastating
consequences," the environmental group official said.
Loss of electric power to run the reactor cooling
pumps at Japan's tsunami-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactors caused
nuclear fuel rods to overheat and leak radiation.
Surry Unit 2 had already been scheduled to shut down
Saturday for a regular refueling outage. Unit 1 will come back online when the
switchyard repairs are completed, Dominion Virginia Power said.
Nearly 40 percent of the electricity generated in
Virginia comes from nuclear energy, according to the state energy plan.
Dominion declared an unusual event, the lowest of
the four NRC emergency classification levels, around 7 p.m. Saturday. The NRC
dispatched its resident inspectors to the Surry plant, and staffed its incident
response center in Atlanta.