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Energy NW Wash. Columbia Reactor Begins Restart by Joe Silha Reuters India, September 1, 2009

NEW YORK -- Energy Northwest's 1,131-megawatt Columbia nuclear power reactor in Washington State began restart and ramped up to 12 percent power as of early Tuesday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in its daily power reactor status report.

The unit was shut on Aug. 6 after a turbine trip and reactor scram. At the time, the NRC also said an "Unusual Event", the lowest of the agency's four emergency classifications, was declared due to "toxic gas from a switchgear fire in the turbine building."

The Columbia station, which entered service in 1984, is located in Richland in Benton County, about 145 miles southwest of Spokane.

One MW powers about 800 homes in Washington State.

Energy Northwest, of Richland, Washington, is a joint operating company comprising 24 member utilities that owns and operates nearly 1,300 MW of generating capacity, which it supplies to the utilities.