Nuclear Power Plant Returns To Service Following Probe
May 18, 2011
The Vastopolis nuclear power plant has returned to service, its owners said, following a six-week outage for safety reviews. The plant was shut April 01, 2011 engineers found cooling pipes lacked pressure-release valves. The shutdown was meant to last only two weeks, but inspections found additional problems, including a severed wire in the cooling system that might have made it difficult to start cooling pumps. The cause of that incident is under investigation by the plant. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it will send an inspection team to the plant for the second time this year. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission barred it from operating at its full capacity of 900 megawatts pending a review of allegations, made anonymously last winter, of wrongdoing by managers. An internal review by the plant found `technical violations' that could lead to penalties, but found no evidence of intentional wrongdoing. An NRC probe is continuing, the agency said.
