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Serious safety flaw – Monticello nuclear power plant not prepared for major flood

Feds fault Monticello nuclear power plant’s flood planning by: DAVID SHAFFER , Star Tribune  June 11, 2013 Inspectors said Monticello plant wasn’t prepared for a major flood, but also said Xcel’s response means site is not now a “safety concern.” Xcel Energy’s Monticello nuclear power plant on the bank of the Mississippi River has long been unprepared for worst-case flooding, federal regulators said Tuesday in a finding they classified as having “substantial safety significance.”

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspectors said Xcel’s flood-fighting efforts, including dikes, could not have been completed in the 12 days required, and some work would take twice that time.

Xcel, which owns and operates the plant 40 miles northwest of the Twin Cities, said it has addressed the problem by putting dike-building materials on site. As a result, NRC inspectors said, the issue is “not a current safety concern.”

But the finding, which is preliminary, is the Monticello plant’s most serious safety shortcoming since the NRC adopted a color-coded, four-step ranking system for inspection results. This problem was ranked “yellow,’’ one level short of the “red,’’ or most serious, level. (The two lowest levels are “green” and “white.” )

Xcel has 10 days to challenge it, and the plant faces enhanced inspections if the finding stands.

Three other U.S. nuclear power plants belonging to other utilities also have been cited recently for unsatisfactory flood-fighting plans after a round of inspections prompted by the 2011 tsunami and disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, an NRC official said…… http://www.startribune.com/business/211107961.html

June 13, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA