nuclear-news

Nuclear Regulatory Commission gives slaps on the wrist for safety violations

 Hurricane Sandy blew through, spinning houses off foundations,
blowing holes in barrier islands and wrecking lives. In the midst of
this mayhem, Oyster Creek sounded a modest alarm.

there is the impression, built up year after empirical year, that
the N.R.C. is a tiger denuded of claws. Even the agency’s internal
monitors found it was notoriously cautious about actions that might
cost plants time and money.

 “I get the feeling we’re
regulating with our fingers crossed.”

At a Nuclear Plant, Hurricane Brings More Worry, NYT By MICHAEL POWELL
January 7, 2013“……Rising waters in Barnegat Bay threatened to
submerge the pumps the plant uses to pull in water to cool its reactor
and spent-fuel pools. Had workers with Exelon Corporation, which owns
Oyster Creek, been forced to turn off the water-intake pumps, they
might have had to dip fire hoses into the floodwaters to refill the
ever-hot pool. The plant issued an alert, the second lowest on the
four-stage scale established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

At the same time, 39 of 42 warning sirens, which are perched on poles
for miles around the plant and intended to warn local residents in
event of a nuclear emergency, lost power.
Ms. Tauro pulled her coat tight against winter winds as she walked
along a bridge within sight of the plant’s smokestack; this area, she
noted, was underwater on Oct. 29. “We know what the company will say:
this is another ‘lesson learned,’ ” she said. “But we’ve got 3.5
million people in a 50-mile radius of this plant, and it feels like
we’re sitting ducks.”

In fact, Craig Nesbit, a spokesman for Exelon, said, “Everything went
very well.” And Gordon K. Hunegs, of the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, pointedly added, “The plant was always safe.”

“What if” disaster tales are a risky business; our world is filled
with unrealized perils. This is particularly true of nuclear power, as
it inflames our imagination and stirs primal fears.

Still, the N.R.C.’s conclusion feels too tidy. Oyster Creek is a
sometimes troubled nuclear plant.

And there is the impression, built up year after empirical year, that
the N.R.C. is a tiger denuded of claws. Even the agency’s internal
monitors found it was notoriously cautious about actions that might
cost plants time and money.
In 2007, Exelon Corporation ignored corrosion in pipes used to
circulate cooling waters in an Illinois plant. A pipe broke. Had the
pipe ruptured during an emergency, experts told The New York Times in
2011, there might have been a catastrophe 100 miles west of Chicago.

The N.R.C. handed out two low-level reprimands, akin to sending the
company to its room without dinner.

A couple of years later, Gregory B. Jaczko, a rare activist at the
agency, argued that poor management of erosion in the drywall shell of
the reactor at Oyster Creek merited closer attention. “The company’s
series of errors,” he wrote, “provides evidence that directly
contradicts Exelon’s ability to meet the commitments.”

The majority of the commissioners ignored him….
Great storms blow up the coast with unnerving regularity of late.
(While the N.R.C. has required Oyster Creek to thoroughly evaluate its
flood plan in three years, it has not required Exelon to look at the
effect global warming will have on flood preparation.)

“This was not the big one,” Ms. Tauro said. “I get the feeling we’re
regulating with our fingers crossed.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/nyregion/hurricane-brings-more-worry-to-neighbors-of-oyster-creek-nuclear-plant.html?_r=0

January 9, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA