Federal inspector visits FPL nuclear plant at Turkey Point

Oct 29 - The Palm Beach Post

A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector from Atlanta is overseeing repairs at a Florida Power & Light Co. nuclear plant after workers discovered a quarter-sized hole earlier this week in the steel liner of a reactor containment building, an NRC spokesman said Thursday.

"It's a steel liner. There is some moisture there. It corrodes after a while. The thing the company wants to determine is how this happened," said NRC spokesman Roger Hannah.

Hannah said the special inspector is expected to be at the Turkey Point power plant in Miami-Dade County through next week. The hole in Unit 3 was detected Monday in a 30-inch section of corrosion while the reactor was shut down for refueling.

The liner hole is considered a non-emergency, Hannah said.

However, the corrosion is greater than that allowed by the American Society of Engineering Code and is considered a "serious degradation" of the containment liner, the NRC's report said.

FPL spokesman Michael Waldron said Thursday that workers are replacing the affected section of the liner. The job is expected to take a few days.

"Once that repair takes place, the liner will be tested to verify air-tight performance," Waldron said. "There is no hole in the containment structure. There is no health or safety issue. There was no degradation to the concrete behind the liner.

"This is not an issue that is unique to Turkey Point. The way the nuclear industry works, we share operating experience between the plants in the industry. As part of our routine inspections, we know about this issue and go out and actively look for it," Waldron said.

The unit is one of two reactors at Turkey Point, which went online in 1972. The reactors are housed inside steel-reinforced concrete with five-feet thick walls, Waldron said.

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