Piece of metal lodged in reactor at Palisades Nuclear Power Plant
March 03, 2014

COVERT TOWNSHIP, MI — A piece of metal from a broken impeller blade has lodged in the reactor vessel at Palisades Nuclear Power Plant. Workers discovered the issue during the nuclear power plant's scheduled refueling and maintenance shutdown, which began Jan. 19.

The metal is 5 inches by 12 inches long, said Lindsay Rose, spokeswoman for Entergy Corp., which owns Palisades. The piece is wedged into the reactor vessel between the vessel wall and the flow skirt, inside the vessel.

"It's physically separated from the fuel," Rose said in an interview with the Kalamazoo Gazette. "It's not a loose piece floating around. It's firmly wedged into place."

Efforts to remove the metal have provedunsuccessful. At this point, Entergy plans to leave it in place, saying it does not pose a safety risk.

"We took steps to remove it. We've thoroughly analyzed it and we've determined that, based on the location of where it is, it's not going to have any impact on safe operations....