Wolf Creek faces shutdown if fire-damaged generator isn’t fixed quickly

The Wolf Creek Nuclear Power Station has less than two days to fix a fire-damaged generator or shut the plant down for repair, officials of the plant’s operating company said Tuesday.

The plant, near Burlington, went on alert for about two hours Monday afternoon after fire broke out in one of its emergency generator rooms, according to a statement from the Wolf Creek Operating Corp., which runs the plant on behalf of its owners, Westar Energy, Kansas City Power & Light and Kansas Electric Power Cooperative.

No radiation was released, and the plant has continued to run at full capacity, said Terry Young, a spokesman for the operating company.

The damaged diesel generator is one of two that provide emergency backup power if the plant loses its regular supply of both on- and off-site power, Young said.

As of Tuesday night, there was no estimate on when the damaged generator might be repaired. Federal regulations require that the damaged generator be fixed within three days or the plant will be shut down until repairs are completed, he said.

Young said workers at the plant had spent most of Monday night and Tuesday assessing the damage and determining how to proceed. Replacement of the damaged equipment was just getting started Tuesday evening, he said.

The part that caused the problem is called an excitation power transformer. It provides energy to the internal wiring of the generator unit so it can produce electricity.

Young said the plan was for workers to attempt to replace the damaged transformer overnight Tuesday and then begin testing the generator.

He said workers also started up the other, undamaged backup generator to make sure it was working properly and wouldn’t suffer the same problem as the damaged unit.

Westar and KCP&L each own 47 percent of the plant and are entitled to that much of its power output. KEPCo owns the remaining 6 percent and gets that much of the power.

When the plant is offline, the utilities have to cover for it by producing more energy – and burning more fuel – at their coal and gas plants and/or buying power from other utilities.

Westar estimates that a plant shutdown costs the company – and eventually its customers – about $280,000 a day.

KEPCo estimates its extra cost is about $35,000. KCP&L refused to release any information about its additional costs when Wolf Creek is down.

Last week, the plant avoided a possible shutdown when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted the operating company an extension on repair time for a malfunction unrelated to Monday’s generator fire.

Wolf Creek had asked for additional time to fix a broken sump tunnel level transmitter, a detection unit immediately underneath the plant’s reactor that would provide warning of a reactor coolant leak.

The plant has to be shut down to fix that problem, because the radiation level under the reactor is too high for people to work there when it’s running, even if they’re in protective suits.

Both Wolf Creek and an outside expert contacted by The Eagle agreed that the plant could safely operate without the sensor for longer than the 30-day repair time specified in the plant’s operating permit, because any leaks would be detected by other sensors monitoring temperature, humidity and radiation in the reactor building.

The NRC granted Wolf Creek’s request for permission to run without the sensor until the next scheduled shutdown for refueling, which is planned to begin in late February.

Young said the plant can’t get a similar delay on fixing the damage from the fire in the generator room, because federal regulations require two operable backup generators at all times with only the three-day window to make repairs.

This story was originally published October 7, 2014 at 11:13 AM with the headline "Wolf Creek faces shutdown if fire-damaged generator isn’t fixed quickly."