Fire shuts down Vt. nuke plant
No injuries were reported, a plant spokesman said.
VERNON, Vt. (AP) -- The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant was shut down today after a transformer caught fire in the non-nuclear part of the facility, officials said. No radiation was released, they said.
The operators declared an "unusual event," the lowest of four emergency classifications set by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The fire was detected just before 7 a.m. and the nuclear reactor was automatically shut down, said plant spokesman Rob Williams.
Williams said the fire was under control. There was no release of radiation and no injuries, he said.
"There is a deluge system that activated and the local fire departments were called in," Williams said. "Since the fire lasted longer than several minutes, by procedure we declared an unusual event."
The transformer is used to step up the voltage of the electricity generated at the plant so it can be transmitted efficiently.
As part of the plant's emergency procedure, officials in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts have been notified, Williams said. The plant is at Vermont's southeast tip, a short distance from the other two states.
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