NRC BEGINS SPECIAL INSPECTION AT PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANTThe

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NRC BEGINS SPECIAL INSPECTION AT PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANTThe U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has started a Special Inspection to review the circumstances around the work activities that led to a reactor shutdown on Sept. 25 at the PalisadesNuclear Power Plant. The plant is operated by Entergy and is located in Covert, Mich., about 70 miles southwest of Grand Rapids.The issue involved plant workers who were performing maintenance activities on an electrical panel when a small metal piece located inside the breaker panel came into contact with another metal piece and caused an arc. This resulted in a series of electrical issues that caused the plant to shut down and sent signals to multiple plant systems causing certain safety pumps to start and some safety valves to reposition. The plant shut down safely and will remain shutdown untilplant workers determine what happened and resolve the issues. No workers were injured from this event.“The plant is in a safe shutdown condition but we have a number of questions about the complexity of the series of events that led to the reactor trip and want to better understand the actions taken by the plant staff before the reactor shutdown and in response to the event,” said NRCRegion III Administrator Mark Satorius. The special inspection team began work on Tuesday and will review the sequence of events, evaluate the facts and circumstances, and review the plants actions surrounding the automaticreactor shutdown. The team will also review the plant’s evaluation of what happened, theircorrective actions, and determine if there are any lessons to be learned from the event.The NRC’s special inspection report will be available within 45 days of the inspection’s completion through the NRC RIII Office of Public Affairs or through the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) at the NRC website.###