Washington — The output of Tennessee Valley Authority's three Browns Ferry units in Athens, Alabama, was cut because a lightning strike caused a loss of power to the plant's seven cooling towers, TVA spokesman Jim Hopson said Tuesday.
Not registered?
Receive daily email alerts, subscriber notes & personalize your experience.
Register NowThe 1,310-MW Browns Ferry-1 and 1,155-MW Browns Ferry-2 reactors were each operating at 50% of capacity, and the 1,310-MW Browns Ferry-3 unit was operating at 90% of capacity early Tuesday morning, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a daily reactor status report. Each unit had been operating at 100% of capacity early Monday, according to the NRC.
Hopson said the lightning strike occurred Monday evening. Hopson did not know the specific time of the strike, but he described the situation as "one of those freak things."
The power generation of the units was affected by the strike, and Hopson said each unit's condenser cannot be fully cooled without the cooling towers being in operation. He said each unit did not have to be reduced to the same capacity level to reduce the amount of heat being generated by the plant.
"Reactor safety is in no way impacted by this," Hopson said.
Hopson said work was underway to restore power to each cooling tower, and that each unit would remain at reduced capacity until power was restored to the cooling towers. He said each unit was expected to be operating at 100% of capacity Wednesday, provided power was restored to each of the cooling towers at some point Tuesday.
-- William Freebairn, william.freebairn@spglobal.com
-- Michael McAuliffe, newsdesk@spglobal.com
-- Edited by Keiron Greenhalgh, newsdesk@spglobal.com