Fire in A-Plant’s Cooling Tower Was ‘Not a Radiological Event’

A fire that destroyed a cooling tower at the nation’s largest nuclear power plant did not involve radiation, a spokesman for the Tennessee Valley Authority said Sunday as officials arrived to investigate the cause of the blaze.

TVA spokesman Craig Beasley said a team of TVA management officials were starting their investigation of the Saturday fire, which swept through a four-story tower made of redwood, fiberglass and aluminum at the Browns Ferry nuclear plant.

Beasley said firefighters were spraying water on the smoldering debris Sunday and said there was no theory as to the fire’s cause.

No injuries were reported in the blaze at the three-reactor facility.

The Browns Ferry plant, which has a maximum output capacity of 3 million kilowatts when fully operating, has been shut down since March, 1985, while the TVA improves its safety systems.

Beasley said there were hundreds of workers involved with those improvements at the facility when the fire broke out. Workers reported seeing a spark fly from an electric motor.

The blaze at the north end of the tower--one of six used to cool water when the plant is operating--was reported by guards.

Beasley estimated the loss at about $1 million.

“This was an industrial fire. It was not a radiological event,” he said. “If it had been, there would have been an immediate warning and notification.”

Joe Gilliland, a spokesman for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Atlanta, said the cooling towers have nothing to do with the plant’s nuclear reactors, which could operate normally without any of the structures.

“This is not considered safety-related equipment,” said Gilliland. He said the sole function of the towers is to cool water from the plant before it is discharged.

TVA officials notified the commission about the fire, he said.