A TRANSFORMER FAILED at the Indian Point nuclear power plant in suburban New York yesterday, causing a fire that forced an automatic shutdown of a reactor.
The fire was quickly extinguished and the reactor was deemed safe and stable, said a spokesman for owner Entergy Corp.
The transformer at Indian Point 3 takes energy created by the plant and changes the voltage for the grid supplying power to the state.
The blaze, which sent black smoke billowing into the sky, was extinguished by a sprinkler system and on-site personnel, Entergy spokesman Jerry Nappi said. Westchester County police and fire were on site as a precaution.
It was not immediately clear what caused the failure, or whether the transformer would be repaired or replaced. Nappi said there were no health or safety risks. It’s unclear how long the 1,000-megawatt reactor will be down. Entergy is investigating the failure.
The plant’s adjacent Unit 2 reactor was not affected.
The Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, 35 miles up the Hudson River from midtown Manhattan, supplies electricity for millions of homes, businesses and public facilities in New York City and Westchester County.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said there had been too many emergencies of late. Unit 3 had been shut down Thursday morning for an unrelated issue, a water leak on the non-nuclear side of the plant. It was repaired and there was no radioactive release, Nappi said. In March, Unit 3 was shut down for a planned refueling that took about a month.
Spokeswoman Diane Screnci said there was no impact on the public. She said it was not out of the ordinary for a transformer to have a problem, and noted that it was on the non-nuclear side of the plant.
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