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1 dead, 3 hurt after accident at Ark. nuclear plant

Posted at 11:35 PM, Mar 31, 2013
and last updated 2013-03-31 23:35:39-04

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (KATV) -- One person is dead and three other have been hurt after an accident Sunday at a nuclear power plant in Russellville, Arkansas.

Arkansas One, which is part of Entergy Corp., shut down after the incident. No radiation was released.

An official said  the accident happened on the non-nuclear side of the facility when crews were moving a piece of equipment from a turbine building.

"We had an industrial accident that occurred at approximately 7:45 this morning, when the stator, which is part of the generator on unit one, fell while it was being moved as part of scheduled maintenance," Jeremy Browning, with Arkansas Nuclear One, said. "Unit one was in a scheduled refueling outage. Unit two was operating at full power. Unit two automatically shut down. Both plants are currently stable.

Because the public wasn't at risk, this accident is considered an "unusual event" which is the lowest federal emergency classification for nuclear plants.