Pilgrim facility cuts its power

It was the fourth time in the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station’s 43-year history that seawater flowing through its intake pipes exceeded the 75-degree federal limit.

Sea water flowing into Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station from Cape Cod Bay over the weekend reached an excessive temperature that forced the Plymouth plant to cut power and prepare for a rare shutdown, Pilgrim officials said Tuesday.

The operators of the station, which is about 35 miles south of Boston, cut power by 10 percent around 4 p.m. on Sunday to cool sea water pulled into the plant.

The plant resumed full power about 3½ hours later, and Lauren Burm, a spokeswoman for Entergy Corp., the plant’s owner, said, “the plant remained in stable condition the whole time, and there was never a threat to the public or the plant.”

Plant officials suggested that the elevated temperature — 75.09 degrees — was the result of a combination of tides and wind mixing water discharged from the plant with the water being drawn into its intake pipes.

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