The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reacted to a trio of miscues at the Grand Gulf nuclear plant in Mississippi by sending a special inspection team to investigate. While none of the events had adverse nuclear safety consequences, the NRC team identified significantly poor performance by the operators in all three. The recurring performance shortfalls instill little confidence that the operators would perform successfully in event of a design basis or beyond design basis accident. Read more >

Grand Gulf: Three Nuclear Safety Miscues in Mississippi Warranting NRC’s Attention
November 8, 2017 6:00 AM EDT

Grand Gulf: Emergency Pump’s Broken Record and Missing Record
October 31, 2017 6:00 AM EDT
The Grand Gulf Nuclear Station located about 20 miles south of Vicksburg, Mississippi is a boiling water reactor with a Mark III containment that was licensed to operate by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in November 1984. It recently set a dubious record. Read more >

Severe Accident Management Guidelines for Nuclear Plants
March 8, 2016 6:00 AM EDT
Disaster by Design/Safety by Intent #22
Disaster by Design
The March 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania showed that the procedures used by workers in responding to accidents could be significantly improved. Read more >

Remote Control at Nuclear Power Plants
February 9, 2016 6:00 AM EDT
Disaster by Design: Safety by Intent #18
Disaster by Design
Disaster by Design/Safety by Intent #17 covered command and control problems at nuclear power plants that undermined safety. Remote control is required at nuclear power plants to provide capabilities when the control room has to be abandoned. This commentary covers remote control and some of its problems. Read more >