Beaver Valley Power Station leak prompts emergency

[MIannaccone@dhhs.state.nh.us]

       SHIPPINGPORT, Pa. (AP) - A leak in a coolant system at a nuclear
power plant forced the shutdown of one of the plant's reactors and
prompted a low-level emergency Monday.
        Authorities said the leak at the Beaver Valley Power Station was
contained within the building and there was no indication of a
threat to public health or safety.
        Reports from the plant, which is about 25 miles west of
Pittsburgh, indicated there had not been a radioactive release from
the building, said David Smith, director of the Pennsylvania
Emergency Management Agency.
        The emergency was declared at the plant's No. 2 reactor unit at
5:36 a.m. The leak was called an ``unusual event,'' the least
serious of four classifications of power plant emergencies.
        At one point, radioactive water was spilling onto the floor of
the containment building at the rate of 12 to 20 gallons a minute,
said Neil Sheehan, federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman.
No workers were exposed.
        Workers in protective suits went into the building to check the
leak, but were unable to reach the valve and gave up the effort
until the reactor cools, Sheehan said.
        The leak appeared to be coming from a line used to drain water
from the reactor's coolant system, said Sheehan. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission rules direct plant operators to investigate leaks
exceeding one gallon a minute and to shut down reactors when the
leak exceeds 10 gallons each minute.
        ``Leakage in general is something that occurs at plants all the
time,'' Sheehan said. ``But when it involves the reactor coolant
system, which contains highly radioactive water, you have to deal
with it quickly.''
        The other three classifications of nuclear plant emergencies are
an alert, a site-area emergency and a general emergency. Only one
general emergency has ever been declared at a U.S. nuclear plant,
after the March 1979 accident at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg.

Mario Iannaccone,
Health Physicist
miannacc@dhhs.state.nh.us

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