nuclear-news

The NRC said: “The finding stems from an NRC special inspection regarding an electrical fire that led to the declaration of an Alert at Fort Calhoun on June 7, 2011. The fire started in a replacement electrical breaker where poor alignment between components and inadequate maintenance increased the electrical resistance on some parts, causing them to heat up and fail. Soot and smoke from the resulting fire then knocked out power to a redundant electrical system used for distributing power to vital equipment needed for the safe shutdown of the plant. The plant was shut down at the time because of flooding along the Missouri River.

The fire resulted in the loss of spent fuel pool cooling for approximately 90 minutes and could have resulted in the loss of a safety function or multiple failures in systems used to mitigate a severe accident, had one occurred. In the…