NRC MONITORING EVENTS AT COOPER NUCLEAR STATION

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has been monitoring events at Cooper Nuclear Station, a nuclear power plant near Brownville, Nebraska, from its Incident Response Center in Arlington, Texas. Cooper Nuclear Station is operated by the Nebraska Public Power District.

At 4:33 a.m., a fire broke out in one of the plant's electrical transformers, prompting plant operators to declare an Unusual Event, the lowest of the NRC's four emergency response conditions. At the same time one of the reactor's recirculation pumps that is powered through the affected transformer shut down due to loss of power. This resulted in a reduction of plant power output to less than 70 percent. At 4:55 a.m. Cooper operators declared an Alert, the next step in the NRC's emergency response conditions, because of the potential for safety equipment to be affected. However, no safety equipment was damaged or lost power.

The plant remains in safe and stable condition at about 70 percent power. There were no injuries to personnel, and no damage to other plant equipment. The fire was extinguished at 4:49 a.m., and the Alert terminated at 9:08 a.m. The NRC has secured its Incident Response Center and begun normal follow-up activities. The need for additional inspection has yet to be determined.

State and local officials were notified of all activities associated with this event, in accordance with NRC procedures.

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Thursday, February 22, 2007