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Poor safety record of Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant

How safe is the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant? , Richard W. Jobe,  17 May 11, A Nuke hazard?Reading Brian Lawson’s excellent article in The Times on May 11, I asked: Could Brown’s Ferry Nuclear Plant have a meltdown like Fukushima in Japan? Judge for yourself with these facts:
Brown’s Ferry is the same design as Fukushima.

March 2009: Browns’ Ferry installed a water valve that controls 50 percent of operational and emergency cooling.

October 2010: Sometime in the last seven months, the valve failed and was reported by TVA to the NRC. TVA cited a manufacturing flaw.

March 11, 2011: A magnitude 9 earthquake hit Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant disabling multiple units and causing widespread radiation contamination.

April 27: An EF-5 tornado destroys a house in Beulah Land Alabama about six miles from Brown’s Ferry. The house was also destroyed in a 1974 tornado. The EF-5 tornado knocks out huge TVA towers and cuts power to much of North Alabama.

Brown’s Ferry loses its own power to cool the shut down reactors.

Back-up diesel generator fails due to oil leak leaving Unit 2 without power to cool its fuel rods for 28 minutes.

May 11: NRC issues TVA a “red” finding, meaning “highly significant” for safety, for the valve failure, seven months after it was reported but after both the Fukushima meltdown and the North Alabama EF-5 tornado. The NRC cites inadequate equipment testing by TVA…

YOUR VIEWS: How safe is the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant? Social media/pop culture diverts study focus for students | al.com

May 17, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA