Arc Flash & Electrical Safety News

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Inadequate Safety Policies Led To Nuclear Plant Electrical Incident

The following is from an article in The Holland Sentinel in Holland, MI:

"A Nuclear Regulatory Commission report, cites inadequate safety policies as a possible cause of the incident at Palisades Nuclear Power Plant near South Haven in September that resulted in a reactor shutdown and release of radioactive steam into the environment."

The incident referred to in the article was an electrical short/arc flash incident that happened while workers were performing maintenance on an electrical panel. The article describes what happened:

"...after initially loosening the screw for the horizontal bus bar, the worker saw a flash from the area of the screw. Upon seeing a flash, the worker’s hands instinctively recoiled from the work area for personal protection, thereby letting go of the horizontal positive bus bar. The horizontal positive bus bar was loosened enough so that it rotated downward and contacted the negative bus bar causing a significant arc and melting of the bus bars. ... No workers were injured and the plant shut down."

Click to read the complete article here.

Labels: Arc Flash, Electrical Safety