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• Officials investigating shutdown at nuclear plant

By Anne Jacobson, Republican Eagle editor

Prairie Island nuclear plant Unit 1 automatically shut down Monday afternoon. A pump that delivers river water to the non-nuclear side of the plant apparently had an electrical fault, site Vice President Mike Wadley said.

That malfunction meant a turbine condenser didn't cool properly. Electrical protection devices that he described as the equivalent of circuit breakers shut off the pump, triggering steps that shut down the turbine and then the reactor.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the incident was not an

"Everything tripped safely as designed," NRC spokeswoman Prema Chandrathil said.

There were no radioactive leaks or injuries, she and Wadley said.

For more on this story see Wednesday's print edition of the Red Wing Republican Eagle.