LaSalle nuclear power plant event ends

All safe, no nuclear release         

[FEB. 20, 2006]  SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinois Emergency Management Agency partially activated the State Emergency Operations Center and the Radiological Emergency Assessment Center early this morning to monitor conditions at the LaSalle Nuclear Power Station after a "site area emergency" was declared at the station.

A site area emergency is the next-to-highest level of abnormal event to classify accident status at nuclear power stations.

"We've been closely monitoring the situation at the LaSalle nuclear power plant," said Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich. "A little after 1 a.m. we activated the State Emergency Operations Center. Our analysts are closely monitoring conditions at the reactor. We are also working with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Exelon, and we will continue to do so."

The event was declared at approximately 12:28 a.m., after the reactor failed to shut down properly during a routine refueling shutdown. There was no apparent damage to the reactor and no release of radiation. At 4:27 a.m. the event was reclassified into the recovery phase, and the event was terminated at 7:39 a.m.

IEMA's state-of-the-art remote monitoring system tracks both operational status and potential radioactive releases from the plant in real time. IEMA reactor and environmental analysts in the SEOC confirm that data from the monitoring system indicated that the reactor is in a safe condition and no releases of radioactivity occurred.

IEMA staff was also dispatched to the LaSalle County Emergency Operations Center, and the IEMA resident inspector reported to the LaSalle station to act as a liaison to the SEOC.

The classification levels for nuclear power plant incidents are unusual event, the lowest level; alert; site area emergency; and general emergency, the highest level.

[Illinois Emergency Management Agency news release]