FPL Energy last week concluded that small boron deposits on the reactor vessel head of the 1,161 MW Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire resulted from a leaking weld, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said last Wednesday.

According to a report posted on the NRC’s website (www.nrc.gov), the plant notified the NRC that a small amount of boric acid crystals had been discovered. Testing indicates that the leak occurred in the last two months, the NRC report added.

Seabrook was recently shutdown for a refueling outage, but a spokesperson for the plant on Wednesday told Reuters that the discovery of the leak shouldn’t extend the outage. The outage is currently scheduled to last about a month, Reuters noted.

The plant, which began commercial operation Aug. 19, 1990, is a pressurized water reactor located two miles inland from the New Hampshire coast, about one hour north of Boston and twenty minutes south of Portsmouth, NH.

Four companies jointly own Seabrook Station. FPL Energy Seabrook, with 88.2%, is the largest owner. Following an auction process managed by JPMorgan, FPL Group Inc. in April 2002 reached an agreement with a consortium of owners to buy a majority interest in Seabrook.

The power industry has been on edge over nuclear reactor vessel head problems ever since even since FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. (FENOC) last year was forced to shut down the 935 MW Davis Besse facility in Ohio after the discovery of major corrosion on the plant’s reactor head caused by boric acid.

The NRC last year ordered nuclear power plants that have reactor designs similar to Davis Besse to provide additional information about inspections at their plants.

FirstEnergy late last month said that Davis Besse could restart four to six weeks after the company completes a key test of the plant’s reactor coolant system and other equipment, as well as modifications to various equipment at the facility.

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