NATION IN BRIEF : MAINE : N-Plant Handled Fire Well, NRC Says

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection team said that Maine Yankee officials responded properly to last week’s transformer failure and hydrogen fire that shut down the nuclear power plant. “The decisions reached were sound,” said Ebe McCabe, the head of the inspection team, which outlined its preliminary findings at an “exit meeting” with plant managers in Wiscasset, Me. NRC officials reiterated their assessment that the incident was confined to the non-nuclear side of the plant and caused no injuries or abnormal releases of radiation. The NRC said it found nothing to indicate aging equipment was a factor in the April 29 incident because the transformer that short-circuited and caused the fire had been rebuilt in 1989.