NRC Special Inspection Ordered After Two Units Trip at Calvert Cliffs

Nuclear Street News Team Tue, Jan 28 2014 10:34 AM A two-unit shutdown caused by a partial power outage at Maryland's Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant last week has provoked a special inspection from federal regulators. On Monday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission dispatched an additional three inspectors to the plant to review the event and operators' response. The agency also shed additional light on the Jan. 21 outage. In a release, the NRC said snow and ice appear to have affected a ventilation louver filter within a system that distributes off-site power to the plant, causing an electrical fault that disrupted power to systems that included control rod motors and circulating water pumps at unit 2. The power loss also caused the main turbine control circuit to malfunction at unit 1, resulting in its automatic shutdown. On Monday, units 1 and 2 were operating at 97 percent power and 100 percent power, respectively, according to the NRC. They are owned jointly by Exelon and EDF.