Dominion Investigating Cause of Unit Shutdown at Millstone Power Station

April 17, 2005

WATERFORD, Conn. - Dominion is investigating the cause of the automatic shutdown of Millstone Power Station Unit 3 Sunday.

Unit 3 is in a safe, shutdown mode. No one at the power station was injured and no release of radiation occurred. Federal, state and local emergency response agencies were notified.

Dominion declared an Alert, the second lowest of four emergency classifications used by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, at 8:42 a.m. Sunday after Unit 3 automatically shutdown because of indications of low steam pressure in the secondary piping system. The secondary piping system moves steam from the steam generator to the turbine.

Millstone Unit 3 shut down automatically at 8:29 a.m. No release of radioactive material occurred beyond those small releases associated with normal station operations. These minor releases pose no danger to the public or station workers and are below federally approved operating limits, below natural background levels and cannot be detected at the site boundary.

Reactor operators and other personnel responded to the Alert as trained. They were able to bring Millstone Unit 3, which had been operating at 100 percent, to safe shutdown status in an orderly manner.

Millstone Unit 3, a 1,150-megawatt pressurized water reactor, will remain shut down while the investigation occurs. No decision has been made on when the unit will be restarted.

Millstone Unit 2, an 870-megawatt unit, is being refueled and is not operating. Millstone Unit 1 is being decommissioned.

Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers of energy, with an energy portfolio of about 28,100 megawatts of generation, about 6 trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved natural gas reserves and 7,900 miles of natural gas transmission pipeline. Dominion also operates the nation's largest underground natural gas storage system with more than 965 billion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves retail energy customers in nine states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at www.dom.com.

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CONTACTS:    
Media inquiries:

Pete Hyde, Millstone, (860) 966-2804