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Crews cleaning up oil overflow at Cook nuclear plant

Posted at 8:46 AM, Apr 11, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-11 08:46:30-04

LAKE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Operators of southwestern Michigan’s Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant say crews are cleaning up after 2,000 gallons of oil overflowed a berm after a transformer failure.

Plant spokesman Bill Schalk told The Herald-Palladium of St. Joseph the spill had no impact on production, the transmission grid or customers. Unit 1 is in a scheduled refueling outage and Unit 2 is continuing to produce at full capacity.

Schalk says the transformer, which failed Friday, is stationed between two transmission switchyards and holds 30,000 gallons of cooling oil. Most of the spill was contained in the berm.

Cook Environmental Manager Jon Harner stated in a news release that none of the oil reached storm drains or Lake Michigan. Plant officials say they don’t know what caused the transformer failure.