Leak
at reactor extends outage
USA -- Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp has identified
a leak in the 1,166-megawatt Wolf Creek reactor in
Kansas, extending a refueling outage that began in
mid-March, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The
unit is currently listed at mode 3, at normal operating
pressure and temperature, while crews trouble-shoot a
leak in a check valve in the reactor coolant system.
No
decision has been made from available options to repair
the leak, a spokeswoman said.
On
May 9, the reactor started to exit the refueling outage
and heated up to hot shutdown mode but had to remain
there because both trains of the residual heat removal
system were inoperable, according to a U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission report. At least one train is
needed to start the plant.
The
unit shut to refuel March 17.
Wolf Creek last shut for refueling from Oct. 7-Nov. 13,
2006. It is on an 18-month refueling outage.
The
Wolf Creek station, which entered service in 1985, is
located in Burlington in Coffey County about 70 miles
south of Topeka, the state capital.
One
MW powers 800 homes in Kansas.
In
October 2006, Wolf Creek filed with the NRC for a
20-year extension of the unit's original 40-year
operating license.
The
NRC expects to make a decision on the application in
November 2008 if it does not grant a hearing on the
license renewal.
Russia
shuts down third nuclear reactor
The third reactor at the Leningrad nuclear power
station, located in northwest Russia, was shut down by
an emergency protection system on Thursday.
"The reactor was being tested after having been
[recently] modernized and was operating at a half
capacity of 500 MW when the emergency automatic shutdown
system went into effect," Russia's state-controlled
nuclear power corporation Rosenergoatom said.
Rosenergoatom added that there was no radiation leak
from the unplanned shutdown.
The Leningrad NPP restarted the sixth turbine generator
of its third reactor on May 13. Rosenergoatom had
earlier planned to fully restore the capacity of the
reactor by the end of this week.
The plant, located 80 km west of St. Petersburg, has
four 1,000 MW units with graphite-moderated reactors.
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