Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Warm Seawater in Long Island Sound Forces Shutdown of Connecticut Nuclear Plant

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I will keep my eyes on this story to see when Unit 2 of the Millstone Power Station reopens. A power station being offline during the summer is never a good thing. However, the power station was closed last Sunday, because the water used to cool the reactors comes from Long Island Sound and the current water temperature is too hot. Unit 2 provides 840 megawatts of electricity at the 2,100 megawatt power station, so some serious energy capacity is offline!

Water from Long Island Sound is used to cool key components of the plant and is discharged back into the sound. The water cannot be warmer than 75 degrees and following the hottest July on record has been averaging 1.7 degrees above the limit, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.

The federal agency issued an ‘‘emergency license amendment’’ last week, allowing Millstone, a subsidiary of Dominion Resources Inc., to use an average temperature of several readings.


Source: Boston.com


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