Fire shuts down Texas nuke plant

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 outside world, 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 plant had to declare that an “unusual event” had taken place and notified county, state and federal officials. Managers declared the event over at 7:47 p.m.

Each of the South Texas Project's reactors produces 1,280 megawatts of electricity, according to an inventory of nuclear reactors kept by the International Atomic Energy Agency. CPS Energy, which owns 40 percent of the plant, receives about 1,100 megawatts of the total.

According to Express-News archives, one megawatt is enough to power 500 homes during mild winter conditions or about 200 homes during the hottest summer afternoons.

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