Energy Northwest

(Runtime 1:28)The U.S. government is taking steps to prevent future accidents at a nuclear power plant in southeast Washington after federal inspections…

Washington’s Grant County is exploring nuclear generation in an effort to generate more carbon-free electricity. The county’s Public Utility District recently signed a deal with Oregon-based NuScale Power to figure out if a partnership might work.

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued the green finding after an inspection. Essentially the agency found that Columbia Generating Station operators monitored but didn’t ultimately fix a low oil reading on a transformer for too long.

The Northwest’s only commercial nuclear reactor went offline Friday morning in an unplanned event. The Columbia Generating Station went offline around 7 a.m. when its main power transformers automatically disconnected from the grid.