BYRON, Ill. (AP) — Exelon Generation says it's investigating a cooling pump malfunction that forced operators to shut down the Unit 2 reactor at the company's Byron nuclear plant.
Exelon spokesman Neal Miller says the reactor was shut down manually just before 8 p.m. Wednesday after the cooling pump malfunctioned on a generator the served the non-nuclear area of the Byron Generating Station.
He says the plant responded as expected, and the shutdown was performed safely. The Unit 1 continues to operate at full power.
The plant is about 95 miles northwest of Chicago.
Last year, an electrical insulator failed and fell off a metal structure, interrupting power to Unit 2 and causing the reactor to automatically shut down. The problem was fixed and the plant resumed operations the next week.