Watts Bar Unit 2 shut down early Sunday afternoon two days after it was connected to the grid as start up testing ran into a glitch in the turbine control systems, according to reports.
The reactor shut down on Sunday at 12:27 p.m., Platts reported.
Daily status reports posted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission show the plant running at 13 percent of full capacity on Wednesday, June 1 and 14 percent for Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, after it was connected to the grid, the reactor hit 18 percent of capacity. On Sunday, when it shut down, it was listed at 10 percent.
The plant sustained a fission reaction for the first time on May 23. The connection to the grid on Friday was the first chance to see its generation components operational. Technicians expected to run the plant through a series of tests, which would be conducted “several times” before beefing up capacity to 100 percent sometime this summer.
TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said technicians were troubleshooting to find the cause of the problem that shut the plant down.
As of Monday there was no restart scheduled, Brooks said.