Investigators probe cause of fire at New York nuclear plant

Engineers on Sunday were probing the cause of a fire at a New York state nuclear power plant after an electrical transformer failed, forcing the shutdown of one of its two reactors, a spokesman said. There was no release of radioactivity and no threat to worker or public safety, the Indian Point Energy Center said in a statement.
The fire broke out in one area of the Indian Point power plant in Buchanan, only about 35 miles (55 kilometers) north of New York city, after an electrical transformer failed Saturday evening, the plant's spokesman Jerry Nappi said. The reactor has been operational since 1976 and, according to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, underwent a series of unplanned shutdowns in 2006-2007, prompting additional inspections. In April 2007, a transformer failure and fire was classified as a low-level emergency but no radiation was released, the NRC said.
In Saturday's incident, there was no damage to the nuclear reactor itself, which automatically shut down, and the fire did not occur in the part of the plant where the reactor is housed.
"The transformer is an electric piece of equipment, it has not really much to do with the nuclear side of the plant, so it doesn't affect radiological safety," Nappi told AFP.