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Nuclear Plant Back Online Tuesday by Staff Tri-City Herald, September 1, 2009

RICHLAND The Columbia Generating Station, a nuclear energy plant outside Richland, returned to service Tuesday morning after being offline for nearly a month.

The plant was automatically taken offline on Aug. 5 following a fault in an electrical distribution area that caused surrounding sheet metal and insulation to melt and smolder.

A comprehensive investigation identified overheating of an electrical bus bar in the turbine building as the cause of the fault. During repairs of the affected area, all similar bus bars, associated relays and switchgear, were examined, according to a release from Energy Northwest, which operates the plant.

Additional thermal imaging access windows also were installed to aid in monitoring component temperatures during plant operations, the release said.