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Empty Pipe Dreams at Palo Verde

, director, Nuclear Safety Project

July 12, 2018 6:00 AM EDT

Regulation and Nuclear Plant Safety #3

In July 2004, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspectors at the Waterford nuclear plant in Louisiana discovered that a portion of piping in a standby emergency system that would provide makeup water to cool the reactor in event of an emergency had been kept emptied of water, jeopardizing the ability to prevent core damage. This finding was shared with owners of similar reactors across the country. Days later, workers at the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona discovered that sections of the emergency system piping for all three reactors was being deliberately emptied of water. Read more >

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Three Mile Island Intruder

, director, Nuclear Safety Project

July 5, 2018 6:00 AM EDT

Regulation and Nuclear Plant Safety #2

A man recently released from a hospital where he had been treated for mental health issues drove his mother’s station wagon into—literally—the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at 6:53 am on February 7, 1993. Workers responded to the unauthorized entry by locking the doors to the control room and declaring a Site Area Emergency—the second most serious emergency of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) four classifications. The intruder was found more than four hours later hiding in the turbine building. Read more >

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NRC’s Reprisal Study Reveals Safety Agency Has a Chilled Work Environment

, director, Nuclear Safety Project

July 2, 2018 10:18 AM EDT

In January 2018, the NRC circulated within the agency a 100-page report  titled “Study of Reprisal and Chilling Effect for Raising Mission-Related Concerns and Differing Views at the NRC.” The report was authored by Renee Pedersen, who had managed the NRC’s Differing Professional Opinion (DPO) and non-concurrence programs for many years before retiring from the agency at the end of that month. These programs enable NRC staffers to register differing views with agency positions or plans and to have those views formally evaluated. Read more >

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Flooding at Nine Mile Point

, director, Nuclear Safety Project

June 25, 2018 10:07 AM EDT

Regulation and Nuclear Power Safety #1

In July 1981, water flooded the Radwaste Processing Building containing highly radioactive waste for Unit 1 at the Nine Mile Point nuclear plant in upstate New York. The flood tipped over 55-gallon metal drums filled with highly radioactive material. The spilled contents contaminated the building’s basement such that workers would receive a lethal radiation dose in about an hour. The Unit 1 reactor had been shut down for over two years and was receiving heightened oversight attention when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) investigated the matter. But the NRC was reacting to a television news report about the hazardous condition rather than acting upon its own oversight efforts. The media spotlight resulted in this long over-looked hazard finally being remedied. Read more >

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