Manitowoc County, Wis., Nuclear Plant Unit Shut Off for Repair
Posted on: Thursday, 15 December 2005, 15:00 CST
By Rick Romell, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Dec. 15--The operator of the Point Beach nuclear power plant in Manitowoc County manually shut down one of the site's two units early Tuesday after a circulating-water pump failed.
The unit is expected to be brought back on line Thursday morning, said David Weaver, nuclear asset manager for Milwaukee-based We Energies, whose corporate parent owns the plant. It then will take another day to return the unit to full power.
The shutdown didn't affect any electricity customers, Weaver said.
Weaver said he believed the water pump failed after a bearing seized. The pump is outside the concrete-and-steel containment structure that surrounds the nuclear reactor. Weaver said it is one of four pumps at Point Beach that draw water from Lake Michigan for the power plant's cooling systems.
Heat from the Point Beach nuclear reactors turns water into steam, which, in turn, spins giant turbines. The turbines then rotate generators, producing electricity.
To turn the steam back into water and renew the cycle, lake water is channeled through a separate system of cooling tubes supplied by pumps such as the one that failed.
Weaver said the unit could have run using one of the other lake-water pumps, but it was shut down to determine the cause of the failure.
Hudson-based Nuclear Management Co. runs Point Beach for We Energies. The management firm also runs four other nuclear plants in the Upper Midwest. Point Beach stands along Lake Michigan about 10 miles north of Two Rivers.
In its report to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Management Co. described the shutdown as "uncomplicated."
The unit generates 518 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 200,000 homes, a We Energies spokeswoman said. The other power-generation unit at Point Beach wasn't affected and kept operating.
The unit that was shut down had returned to full power Nov. 26 after being out of service for about two months for scheduled maintenance and refueling. During the earlier shutdown, crews replaced the vessel head, or reactor cover.
-----
To see more of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jsonline.com.
Copyright (c) 2005, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.
Source: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Related Articles
- Texas-New Mexico Power (TNMP) Selects SmartSynch/AT&T Solution for 10,000 Unit Point-to-Point SmartMeter(TM) Trial Deployment Throughout Texas Market
- SolarBrook Water and Power Announces New Proposal Requests for Western U.S.
- Florida Power & Light Company Says PSC Decision on Nuclear Power Units Represents Positive Step Toward Securing Clean Energy Future in State
- Power Unit at Smolensk Plant Online Again
- Power Unit at Nuclear Plant in Central Russia Stopped Due to Malfunction
- Iran's First Nuclear Power Unit May Be Started in Early 2006 - Official
- Power Unit Halted for Maintenance at Russian Nuclear Power Station
- Ignalina Nuclear Plant Stops Power Unit for Maintenance
- Ukraine Approves Steps to Build New Nuclear Power Units
- Research and Markets: EU Striving to Fulfill Its Target of Generating 3GWp (Glendale Water and Power Units) of Renewable Photovoltaic Electricity By 2010
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds