Vermont Yankee shut down to repair leak

The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Vernon commenced a plant shutdown at approximately 7 pm Sunday night. On Sunday plant operators identified leakage of approximately 60 drops per minute from a system pipe. Subsequent investigation by technicians and engineers identified the leak of radioactive water to be in the feedwater system piping. The leak is within the containment area.
Because the leak is in a 24-inch piping section which cannot be repaired with the plant in operation, VY decided to take the plant out of service to perform a repair. At this time it is not sure when the plant will go back on line.
Plant spokesman Larry Smith sent a statement saying that the repair work to the pipe began Monday evening. The leak, which was identified late Saturday by plant operators, was found to be coming from a two-inch access plug in the pipe located in the feed pump room of the plant.
The access plug was used for radiography of pipe welds during original construction of the plant. Technicians will replace the seal weld with a more substantial fillet weld to the plug. Repairs will take approximately 24 hours to complete at which time the plant will be restarted. On that schedule, the plant would be restarted Tuesday night.
The NRC Resident Inspector has been informed of the issue and of the plan to remove the station from service. The plant had been operating at reduced power for a scheduled rod pattern adjustment and to support line work by Public Service Company of New Hampshire. The plant had been on line for 163 days of continuous operation.
Source: Vermont Yankee. 11.7.2010