LOWER ALLOWAYS CREEK TWP. — Salem Unit 2 was manually taken offline by control room operators at 10:01 a.m. Friday, according to Joe Delmar, spokesman for PSEG Nuclear, after an issue with one of the control rods.
There was no threat to the health and safety of the public, and no issues with the manual shutdown, he added.
A return to service is not available at this time.
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During the monthly testing, one of the control rods dropped out of its expected position, he said. At this time, the expected cause of the control rod mispositioning is believed to be a blown fuse with a more detailed investigation under way.
In a pressurized water reactor like Salem, the control rods are inserted into the top of the fuel assemblies. There are 193 nuclear fuel assemblies inside the Salem reactor core and 53 control rods.
In response to the control rod mispositioning, Delmar said control room operators took appropriate actions including adding boron to the reactor water to reduce power level and maintain shutdown margin as required by NRC technical specifications.
Operators then made the subsequent conservative decision to safely shut the unit down, he said.
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