500-ton item fall cause of Nuclear One accident

An accident that resulted in one death Sunday at Arkansas Nuclear One near Russellville and shut down the plant’s operating unit was caused when a 500-ton piece of equipment fell as it was being moved, an Entergy Corp. spokesman said Monday.

Wade Walters, 24, died in the accident, the Pope County coroner’s office said Sunday. Eight other workers were injured in the accident and taken to a nearby hospital, said Terry Young, an Entergy vice president of nuclear communications in Jackson, Miss., on Monday. The names of the injured were not available Monday.

All but one worker have been released from the hospital, said Young, who had no information on the extent of the injuries.

“This is so tragic because it is the thing we work hardest to prevent,” Young said.

Arkansas Nuclear One had no lost-time accidents last year, Young said.

Entergy has about 1,000 workers at the nuclear plant, including many contract workers. Young said he did not know whether the injured workers were permanent Entergy employees or contract workers.

The accident happened about 7:50 a.m. Sunday, according to an “event notification report” from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The fall of the 500-ton generator stator — a large stationary enclosure that makes the electricity at the plant — affected equipment associated with the plant’s Unit 2 so severely that it caused Unit 2 to shut down automatically, Young said.

Arkansas Nuclear One has two nuclear reactors, Unit 1 and Unit 2.

“We’re still trying to evaluate precisely what caused the other unit to shut down,” Young said.

The plant has multiple backup safety features that cause the nuclear reactors to shut down if anything is out of the correct specifications, Young said.

There is no danger to the public from the accident, said Ed Barham, a spokesman for the state Department of Health. The Health Department is called in any time there is an accident at the plant, he said.

The accident occurred on the side of the plant opposite the nuclear reactors, Young said.

The crane lifting the generator stator temporarily failed, the commission’s report said. Entergy has not determined what caused the crane to fail, Young said.

Unit 1 had been shut down for refueling and the generator stator was being removed from the turbine building,Young said.

“They were in the process of moving the generator stator via a crane out of the turbine building into a train bay,” Young said. A train bay is an open area where equipment can be moved into or out of the turbine building, Young said.

The generator stator fell as it was being moved, Young said. It caused damage to the area where it fell, but Young said he is uncertain how serious the damage is. The generator stator still has not been moved, Young said.

Young said he could not recall a similar accident ever occurring at Arkansas Nuclear One. He did not remember an industrial fatality at the plant, either, Young said.

It is uncertain how long the plant will be shut down, Young said.

With both nuclear units shut down, Entergy has made other arrangements to supply electricity to its customers, Young said. Entergy Arkansas, a subsidiary of Entergy Corp., has about 700,000 customers in Arkansas.