nuclear-news

Months passed before nuclear plant’s fire was reported to regulators

Browns Ferry nuclear plant had a control room fire in January, regulators took months to notify public Al.com,  July 13, 2012,    By Brian Lawson, The Huntsville Times   HUNTSVILLE, Alabama –– TVA’s Browns Ferry nuclear plant  near Athens had a fire in one its control rooms in January, but public notice of the event was not issued until this week.
The roughly 10-minute fire in the Unit 3 control room was caused by an electrical component determined to be about 34 years old, some four times older than its recommended shelf life, according to a TVA incident report.
TVA’s report on the Jan. 26 fire was submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission  on March 26. An NRC spokesman said Friday he had no explanation why the report was not made public by the NRC until July 9.
The fire was reportedly caused by a failed power supply in a panel. It burned out some plant alarms and warning lights…..  Those problems should have alerted TVA, said David Lochbaum, a former Browns Ferry engineer and director of the nuclear safety program for the Washington, D.C.-based Union of Concerned Scientists. ….. TVA reported the Unit 3 capacitors all dated back to the original construction of the unit, 34 years ago.

Browns Ferry was the site of the worst nuclear plant fire  in U.S. history in 1975. A plant employee using a candle to look for air hose leaks accidentally ignited some sealing material, the fire resulted in operators having no control over the plant for about an hour. Browns Ferry officials didn’t notify Limestone County Emergency Management officials about the fire until the following day……

July 16, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | incidents, USA