Radioactive water leaked from a cracked pipe at the VC Summer plant in South Carolina, but the leak was too small to trip the plant’s monitoring system.
The leak was discovered during a routine inspection. The source of the leak was a welded connection in a pipe. The plant will remain shut down until early December while the crack is repaired.
South Carolina Electric & Gas, which owns two thirds of the plant, said that it will buy power on the open market to make up for the loss of power generated by the Summer plant, which provides about 20% of SCE&G’s capacity.