NRC launches special inspection of Ohio nuclear plant after incidents

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) began a special inspection of Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Perry, Ohio, this week after a recent manual reactor shutdown due to a temperature increase and a subsequent loss of power to cooling equipment.

The incidents, which occurred on Feb. 8 and Feb. 11, respectively, did not impact public health or safety. The inspection will include on- and off-site work, and the findings will be publicly available upon completion.

Plant operators carried out the manual reactor shutdown after increases in the temperature of the suppression pool, which can be used as a water source for emergency cooling systems. Several days later, while the reactor was still shut down, some of the plant’s cooling equipment experienced a temporary loss of power, which operators restored using a redundant system.

“Even though the two events are not related, we have questions related to the response of the equipment and operator actions,” NRC Region III Administrator Cynthia Pederson said. “Our team of specialists in reactor operations and electrical equipment will review the technical details to better understand what happened.”

The plant, operated by FirstEnergy, is located approximately 35 miles from Cleveland.