Safety systems at Georgia’s Plant Vogtle unit 1 tripped during maintenance Wednesday.
The safe, automatic shutdown of the reactor happened at 9:06 a.m. A Southern Nuclear spokeswoman told the Augusta Chronicle the trip followed maintenance work on a valve and a noticeable rise in the water level in the unit’s steam generator.
Unit 2 was unaffected, operating at 97 percent power Wednesday in advance of a refueling outage. Both units near Augusta, Ga., use Westinghouse pressurized water reactors that produce just over 1,100 megawatts each.
Also Wednesday, Southern Co. reaffirmed that it still expects to receive a COL for two new AP1000 reactors at the site by the end of the year. In a twice-yearly report to the Georgia Public Service Commission, the utility requested approval for project costs during the first half of this year and reported that it still estimates units 3 and 4 will be complete in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Project owners also include Oglethorpe Power Corporation, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities.