New upgrades at Illinois nuclear plant that lost power

[March 12, 2012]  BYRON (AP) -- Operators at a northern Illinois nuclear plant are replacing electrical insulators similar to ones that failed in January and caused one of the reactors to lose power and shut down.

Exelon Nuclear is calling the new work at the Byron Generating Station "a proactive step."

The Jan. 30 outage started when an electrical insulator at a switchyard failed and fell off the metal structure it was attached to.

That interrupted power and caused the Unit 2 reactor to automatically shut down as a precaution. Steam was released to cool the reactor, but Illinois emergency officials have said lab tests showed no measurable increase in radiation.

As part of Saturday's work, a turbine generator at the Unit 1 reactor was taken offline. The reactor will remain at reduced power during the upgrades.

[Associated Press]

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