Harris nuclear plant still shut down

RALEIGH -- It will take technicians at least several more days to repair malfunctions that have disabled the Shearon Harris nuclear plant in southwestern Wake County for more than a week.

Progress Energy shut down the Shearon Harris reactor just before 1 a.m. Aug. 11 when plant operators noted a water leak. The company discovered that a giant rubber seal, measuring 115 feet long when laid out, had a 2-foot long tear, causing a loss of water, said Progress spokeswoman Julia Milstead.

The water normally travels through a closed loop and is heated into steam to run the turbine and generate electricity.

The unplanned shutdown poses no safety risks, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which monitors the plant.

Progress was in the process of restarting the plant Tuesday, but shut it down again after discovering a malfunction in the system that indicates the position of the the equipment that controls the nuclear reaction. The NRC said the second shutdown poses no safety risks.

Fixing the rubber seal required about a week because technicians had to enter the turbine housing, descend into the machinery down a ladder and build scaffolding to support workers in confined conditions. The Raleigh-utility brought in about 40 people to work on the problem from other nuclear plants it operates.

The last time the rubber seal was replaced at Shearon Harris, about a decade ago, the repair required 14 days, Milstead said.

During the outage, Progress Energy has been making up the loss in power by relying on other power plants and buying electricity from other power companies. The financial impact on Progress has been mitigated by mild temperatures that have reduced customer demand for electricity, said spokesman Mike Hughes.