ST. LUCIE COUNTY — FPL halted the start-up of a nuclear generator at its nuclear plant in St. Lucie County, according to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission report released Tuesday.

FPL spokesman Mark Bubriski said the unit had been temporarily shut down to fix a pump motor and was getting ready to be rebooted Monday. “As part of our normal start-up procedures, operators were conducting inspections of plant systems and equipment when they recognized a valve requiring additional maintenance,” Bubriski said.

The operator noticed that a primary safety valve appeared to be leaking, according to the NRC report. So FPL employees reduced pressure and manually shut down the generator.

The NRC report says that “the grid remained stable throughout the event.”

“We are evaluating the issue and plan to complete appropriate maintenance and testing prior to returning the unit to service,” Bubriski said.

By Sun-Sentinel

Tags: business, FPL, generator, nuclear plant, safety, St. Lucie County

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 11:57 am and is filed under St. Lucie County, Treasure Coast business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.