A fire Sunday afternoon shut down the Unit 1 reactor at Duke Energy's Oconee Nuclear Station.The facility declared an "unusual event" around 3:30 p.m. when a transformer connected to the plant's power feeding equipment caught fire.The transformer burned for approximately half an hour before plant fire crews and Oconee County fire units extinguished the flames. Plant facilities were not evacuated and no nuclear material was in danger of being released, according to officials.Duke Energy officials shut down Unit 1 as a precaution.Scott Batson, site vice president for the Oconee Nuclear Station, said the approximately 15-foot by 12-foot transformer suffered an "equipment issue" and caught fire. The transformer is used to feed power from Unit 1 to switching equipment at the station.Batson said the intense flames and smoke came from oil burning inside the transformer. WEB ONLY: Watch the raw video of Duke Energy's full press conferenceBatson said Monday that no radioactivity was released, and there was no danger to the community or the staff of the plant.Batson said because a cable burned in the fire fell and caused other equipment to be affected, which led to the "unusual event" to be upgraded to an alert classification that was in place until all the necessary notifications were made.Fire and emergency management units at the power plant are investigating the exact cause of the fire. No Duke Energy customers lost power as a result of the fire.Batson said Monday that preliminary findings on the case should be released within a week or two.He said Duke will not release the return to service date. He said since Unit 2 and Unit 3 are still functional, the loss of Unit 1 will not affect customers.

A fire Sunday afternoon shut down the Unit 1 reactor at Duke Energy's Oconee

Nuclear Station.

The facility declared an "unusual event" around 3:30 p.m. when a transformer connected to the plant's power feeding equipment caught fire.


The transformer burned for approximately half an hour before plant fire crews and Oconee County fire units extinguished the flames. Plant facilities were not evacuated and no nuclear material was in danger of being released, according to officials.



Duke Energy officials shut down Unit 1 as a precaution.

Scott Batson, site vice president for the Oconee Nuclear Station, said the approximately 15-foot by 12-foot transformer suffered an "equipment issue" and caught fire. The transformer is used to feed power from Unit 1 to switching equipment at the station.

Batson said the intense flames and smoke came from oil burning inside the transformer.



WEB ONLY: Watch the raw video of Duke Energy's full press conference

Batson said Monday that no radioactivity was released, and there was no danger to the community or the staff of the plant.

Batson said because a cable burned in the fire fell and caused other equipment to be affected, which led to the "unusual event" to be upgraded to an alert classification that was in place until all the necessary notifications were made.

Fire and emergency management units at the power plant are investigating the exact cause of the fire. No Duke Energy customers lost power as a result of the fire.

Batson said Monday that preliminary findings on the case should be released within a week or two.

He said Duke will not release the return to service date. He said since Unit 2 and Unit 3 are still functional, the loss of Unit 1 will not affect customers.