Unit 1 at New Jersey’s Salem nuclear plant came back online Saturday after river vegetation blocking water intakes halted generation for about 37 hours.
As is occasionally an issue for the plant on the Delaware River in springtime, weeds and grasses built up around intake screens Thursday afternoon. Reduced water flow from the river prompted operators at the PSEG-owned plant to shut down the reactor. Salem’s second unit was down for refueling, and the neighboring Hope Creek plant uses a different cooling system and was not affected.
A PSEG spokesman quoted by the New Jersey Star Ledger newspaper said unit 1 came back online at 5:19 a.m. Saturday.
Sited in New Jersey 18 miles south of Wilmington, Del., the Salem plant uses 2 Westinghouse pressurized water reactors with a combined electrical output of about 2,300 megawatts, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.