Virginia nuclear plant shut down by quake
- NEW: A utility executive says there was no damage seen at the North Anna plant
- North Anna's two reactors are less than 20 miles from the epicenter of Tuesday's quake
- County official: Plant is running on emergency power and has not released radioactivity
(CNN) -- Tuesday's Virginia earthquake triggered the shutdown of a nearby nuclear power plant and alerts at nine others across the East Coast, U.S. authorities reported.
Dominion Virginia Power said both reactors at its North Anna plant, less than 20 miles from the epicenter of the magnitude-5.9 quake, shut down after the first tremors. Amanda Reidelbach, an emergency management spokeswoman for Louisa County, said the plant venting steam, but there was no release of radioactive material.
David Heacock, the utility's chief nuclear officer, said the plant was operating on emergency power and the units were safely deactivated.
"The plants are designed for this kind of a seismic event," Heacock said. "There is no apparent damage to anything at the plant right now."
Heacock said the plant had four diesel generators supplying backup power, and that those generators had three days of fuel. However, off-site electric power was expected to be restored later Tuesday, he said.
Dominion Virginia said reactors at its other nuclear station, the Surry plant near Newport News, were still running.
David McIntyre, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said North Anna and Surry declared an "unusual event," the lowest level of emergency at a U.S. nuclear plant. Other plants issuing similar declarations were the Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland; Pennsylvania's Susquehanna, Three Mile Island, Limerick and Peach Bottom plants; and the Oyster Creek, Hope Creek and Salem plants in New Jersey.
CNN's Emily Smith, Jeanne Meserve, Scott Bronstein and Shawn Nottingham contributed to this report.
We recommend
From around the web
No comments:
Post a Comment