Four injured in electrical accident at nuclear plant

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Posted 4:09PM on Wednesday, March 27, 2002

ATHENS, Ala. - Four electricians at Browns Ferry nuclear power plant were burned Tuesday evening by a high-powered electrical shock, officials said. They were listed in satisfactory condition Wednesday at a hospital burn unit in Birmingham. The accident occurred in the turbine room of the Unit 3 reactor at the plant, which has set records for days in continuous operation. The unit's current cycle had lasted over 600 days, officials said. Safety officials stressed that the accident took place away from the reactor building, and that there was no threat of radioactive material being released. "My main concern right now is that everyone understands there's no nuclear threat," said Lee Helms, Alabama's Emergency Management Agency director. "It was in an electrical area, in the non-nuclear area." The reactor was shut down Tuesday morning to begin what is called a "maintenance and refueling outage," said John Moulton, spokesman for the Tennessee Valley Authority, which runs the plant. The accident occurred when a 4,160-volt breaker in the turbine room suffered a fault at about 6 p.m. Tuesday. The breaker emitted a high-powered electrical arc, burning the workers and starting a small fire. Spencer Black, director of the Limestone County Emergency Management Agency, said the fire was in a confined area, so the emergency response plan for the plant was not activated. An investigation is under way to determine the cause of the accident, Moulton said. Damage to the area was mostly limited to the faulty breaker. The workers were treated at the site by TVA emergency medical technicians. Three were taken to a Huntsville hospital and were listed initially as critical. But all were eventually moved to the burn unit at University Hospital in Birmingham, where they were listed in satisfactory condition Wednesday. The injured workers are TVA employees Fred Pendergrass and David Letson of Florence and Ed Minyard of Athens, and Dan Young of Florence, a contract employee with the engineering firm Stone & Webster. Moulton said contract workers are often used in the plant during refueling outages on the reactors. After the accident, traffic backed up for blocks on roads leading to the nuclear plant as employees arriving for the 7 p.m. shift change were stopped outside its gates. They were later allowed to enter. The nuclear plant near Athens was the scene of a major electrical fire in 1975. Workers accidentally ignited insulation on cables in a reactor control room, after using a candle to search for air leaks. The fire caused $10 million in damage and shut the plant down for 18 months while repairs were made.