Washington nuclear plant restarts after shutdown

A nuclear power plant in Washington state was restarted on Thursday after it was shut down when operators received a signal that a system was not working properly during a maintenance test. The Columbia Generating Station in Richland, owned by Energy Northwest, is currently operating at around 24 percent power, public affairs supervisor John Dobken told Reuters.
The plant, Washington State's third largest electricity generator, is expected to be running at 100 percent power by the weekend, Dobken added. The plant was taken offline on Monday after a maintenance test revealed a valve connected to a secondary cooling system that cools pumps and heat exchangers was not isolated properly before testing and triggered an alarm.