Entergy Waterford 3 goes offline unexpectedly

October 5, 2015 Wayne Barber Generation

The Entergy (NYSE:ETR) Waterford 3 nuclear plant in Louisiana went offline unexpectedly Oct. 4 and the company is investigating the cause of the automatic reactor trip.

The unit went offline shortly after 11 p.m. CDT on Oct. 4. All the Control Element Assemblies (CEAs) inserted into the core as designed, according to the event report filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

The plant was still listed at zero power generation early Oct. 5.

Waterford 3 is a single-unit pressurized water reactor (PWR) with a generating capacity of almost 1,200 MW, according to GenerationHub data. The facility went in Killona, La., went online in 1985. Its water source is the Mississippi River.

Waterford 3 also experienced a brief unplanned outage in June. Waterford 3 underwent a planned maintenance and refueling outage in the spring of 2014. That 31-day refueling outage ended mid-May 2014.

About Wayne Barber 4201 Articles

Wayne Barber, Chief Analyst for the GenerationHub, has been covering power generation, energy and natural resources issues at national publications for more than 20 years. Prior to joining PennWell he was editor of Generation Markets Week at SNL Financial for nine years. He has also worked as a business journalist at both McGraw-Hill and Financial Times Energy. Wayne also worked as a newspaper reporter for several years. During his career has visited nuclear reactors and coal mines as well as coal and natural gas power plants. Wayne can be reached at wayneb@pennwell.com.