Brief fire prompts shutdown of reactor at Bay City nuke plant

January 8, 2013

By Nolan Hicks
FuelFix Blog Houston Chronicle

The South Texas Project nuclear power plant near Bay City

A fire at the South Texas Project Electric Generating Station, the nuclear power plant about 90 miles southwest of Houston, shut down one of the plant’s two reactors Tuesday afternoon.

The fire broke out at 4:42 p.m. at the main transformer that feeds power from the reactor to the public power grid, and the reactor was shut down immediately, plant spokesman Buddy Eller said.

The fire was extinguished within 15 minutes, Eller said. He did not know when the reactor might be restarted.

Eller said the fire never threatened the reactor or other key components of the plant, no workers were hurt and the public was never endangered.

The South Texas Project is owned jointly by NRG Energy, Austin Energy and San Antonio’s municipal utility, CPS Energy.

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