A transformer fire led to the shut down of Indian Point 3.

From the Journal News coverage:

The unplanned shutdown, the second this week, will degrade the plant’s safety rating to white from green, the safest of four operational categories, said Diane Screnci, a spokeswoman for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Parsing that sentence – the plant is going from the safest rating, green, to a lower rating of white.

John Hall’s press release:

US Rep. John Hall Renews Demand for Independent Study of Indian Point

Fire, Explosion only the latest in string of potentially dangerous mishaps

CARMEL, NY – In the wake of the incident today at the Indian Point Nuclear Complex, U. S. Representative John Hall (NY-19) stated: “This explosion and fire at Indian Point, triggering a shutdown of Unit 3, is only the latest in a string of accidents and unplanned shutdowns at the plant.  It only reinforces the necessity of an objective, truly independent safety study before re-licensing for another 20 years is considered.”

Hall, along with House members Nita Lowey, Maurice Hinchey, Elliot Engel and Christopher Shays, plus Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, have co-sponsored legislation requiring the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to have an Independent Safety Assessment performed and any problems that are discovered be reported and dealt with before the re-licensing process can go forward.  Recent problems at the plant have included: debris clogging the water intake grate, causing a low level of cooling water in the plant; the fracturing of a spent fuel rod while it was being moved in a cooling pond, presumably raising the level of radioactivity in the circulating water; failure of all the emergency sirens to operate in evacuation drills; and, of course, the ongoing leaks from two spent fuel ponds which are spilling strontium 90 and tritium into the ground water and the Hudson River.

“Today, as always, we are told by Entergy and the NRC that there is no danger to the public health,” added Hall. “That is what every utility says, what the NRC always says.  Their credibility is, to put it kindly, insufficient to reassure us when 8% of the population of the entire United States lives within the 50 mile radius of this plant.  This is the only plant we know that was scouted out by one of the 9/11 terrorists as a possible target, an aging plant with a history of  ‘unusual events’ and not one that should be rubber-stamped for another 20 years of operation.  I join with my colleagues in the House and Senate in calling for an immediate Independent Safety Assessment.”

Westchester County Legislator Mike Kaplowitz also renewed his support of an ISA.