FLASH:Fermi 2 nuclear power plant in Michigan is shut down...

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Fermi 2 Nuclear Plant Shut Down After Leak

NEWPORT, MICHIGAN -- Detroit Edison has shut down the Fermi 2 Nuclear Power Station in Newport, Michigan, after a leak of radioactive coolant. The leak happened around 5:00 Monday afternoon in the containment building that houses the nuclear reactor. Fermi 2 is near Monroe, Michigan, about 25 miles northeast of Toledo.

The NRC says the coolant was leaking at a rate of 50 to 75 gallons per minute. Exactly how much coolant was lost is not known.

The NRC has issued an "Alert" for the plant. All nuclear plants use four emergency classifications to describe problems, and "alert" is the second level of severity, meaning something is happening or has happened that would degrade the level of safety at the plant. "Alert" level does not indicate damage to the plant, and there would be little or no radioactivity released.

A spokesperson for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission office in Chicago says the plant was shut down without complications and nonessential workers were allowed to leave for the day. Detroit Edison says the public was not in danger, and no evacuations were ordered. Plant officials are trying to determine the cause of the leak and fix it.

It is not known when operations at the plant would resume.

A DTE spokesperson says the reactor's coolant remained at a normal level despite the leak. She added that the leaked coolant was *not* released into the environment.

Fermi 2 is a boiling water reactor designed by General Electric. It first went online in 1988, according to Detroit Energy's web site. At full capacity, the plant is capable of producing 1089 MWe (megawatts electric), according to the NRC.

Detroit Edison is a principal operating subsidiary of DTE Energy. In its company history from its Internet site, the utility says it operates nine base-load generating plants, including the Fermi 2 Nuclear Power Plant in Monroe. Detroit Edison's system capacity is more than 11,000 megawatts. The company uses coal to generate about 85 percent of its total electrical output, with the remainder produced from nuclear fuel, natural gas and solar energy.

The Fermi 2 plant is named for scientist Enrico Fermi, who led the experiments that created the first controlled nuclear chain reaction on December 2, 1942.

Detroit Edison also operated the Fermi 1 Nuclear Power Station at the same site. DTE first broke ground on the plant in 1956, and started operating the plant in 1963. Fermi 1 suffered a partial meltdown of its radioactive fuel in 1966 which took 4 years to repair. It was restarted intermittently between 1970 and 1972 until the order to decommission the plant was issued in 1975. Right now, the plant is in the process of decommissioning, with radioactive material still stored at the plant.

Count on News 11 to stay on top of this developing story.