Fire Halts Operations at Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Plant in Mississippi

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--On Tuesday morning, November 18, a fire broke out in Unit 1 at the Grand Gulf nuclear power plant, owned by Entergy Corporation's (NYSE:ETR) (New Orleans, Louisiana) nuclear division, in Port Gibson, Mississippi. The fire is believed to have been caused by a buildup of oil in one of the unit's reactor feed pumps. Plant personnel said that most of the unit's components were not affected. Testing and safety evaluations were ongoing throughout the day, and the unit was in stable condition. The unit could return to full power by November 20. Plant personnel said that they had no intentions of reducing output to lower than 600 megawatts (MW) and that they were awaiting word to begin start-up.

The Grand Gulf plant, which opened in 1982, is located on a 2,300-acre site on the east bank of the Mississippi River. Grand Gulf is operated by Entergy Nuclear (Jackson, Mississippi) and jointly owned by System Energy Resources Incorporated (Jackson) (90%) and South Mississippi Electric Power Association (10%).

Unit 1 is a typical commercial boiling water reactor manufactured by General Electric (NYSE:GE). Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 MW of electric-generating capacity. It is the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States.

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