nuclear-news

17 U.S. nuclear power plant employees tested positive for alcohol or drugs at work in 2013

By Yvonne Zipp | yzipp@mlive.com
on August 27, 2013

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2013/08/17_nuclear_power_plant_employe.html

COVERT TOWNSHIP, MI – Some 17 employees at 11 U.S. nuclear reactors have tested positive for alcohol or illegal drugs while at work in 2013, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Event Notification Reports.

The most recent was on Aug. 22 at Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Covert Township, where a licensed employee was terminated after testing positive for alcohol during a random fitness-for-duty test.

“It’s not an everyday occurrence. Incidents like that do happen,” said Viktoria Mitlyng, spokeswoman for the NRC’s Region III, which oversees Palisades.

Hence, she said, the random drug and alcohol testing.

“This is exactly what the random drug and alcohol testing is supposed to do,” said Mitlyng.

Before being hired, employees at nuclear power plants have to undergo criminal and financial background checks, as well as psychological assessments, Mitlyng said. In addition to the random drug and alcohol testing, there is also an employee observation program – similar to mandated reporting – where employees are required to report any aberrant behavior they witness to a supervisor. That can include psychological issues, as well as substance abuse, said Mitlyng.

So far in 2013, there have been 23 Fitness For Duty reports logged on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s website, an analysis by the Kalamazoo Gazette found.

Of those, 17 were for employees who tested positive for alcohol or illegal drugs during fitness-for-duty tests. Most of those tests were conducted randomly, but one was a for-cause and one was a follow-up test. In three instances, the employee was arrested while off-duty on charges including driving under the influence and possession of a controlled substance.

Grand Gulf Nuclear Station in Mississippi had three incidents of employees failing fitness for duty tests, the most of any reactor. Limerick Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania, Summer nuclear plant in South Carolina and Fort Calhoun nuclear plant in Nebraska each had two. Eleven other reactors, including Palisades, each had one.

The final three reports indicate that alcohol has been in an issue in the past. At two different Illinois plants this year, workers conducting demolition or construction work reported finding old bottles and flasks concealed in restricted and/or protected areas.

Earlier this month, an employee found an “old dust covered pint glass bottle of Jim Beam Bourbon Whiskey” in a restricted area at the old Zion Nuclear Power Station, which was retired in 1998.

In April, workers at Braidwood who were remodeling a bathroom in the Administrative Building, which is in the protected area, discovered “a very old container of gin” and “two very old containers of blackberry brandy” when they removed the ceiling tiles.

August 27, 2013 - Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized