The Palisades Nuclear Power Plant near South Haven has shut down again.
This is the second time this summer Entergy Corporation has had to shut down the plant for repairs.
The plant shut down to refuel in April; that was normal. It restarted in early May.
But then a water leak in a tank above the control room caused the plant to shut back down just a few weeks later. Those repairs took a month and on July 11th the plant started up again. Though that leak appears to be fixed, it is still under investigation by special federal agents with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
But as it returned to service in July, Palisades spokesman Mark Savage says operators discovered a different water leak – this time in the building that holds the nuclear reactor. In a written statement, Savage called the leak “minor.”
The company noticed this leak when they restarted the plant after fixing that first leak in a tank above the control room. This leak is in a different area of the plant – the containment building. This building holds the nuclear reactor itself.
Prema Chandrathil is a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. She says the leak is not a threat to public health.
“It’s contained and it goes into the plant’s waste storage tank," Chandrathil said.
Chandrathil says the situation at Palisades is “serious” though. The NRC now has a specialized inspector to assist regular inspectors at the plant while the company makes repairs.
