Worst plant owner? Entergy blamed for majority of nuclear near misses
There were only 10 "near miss" incidents at U.S. nuclear reactors last year, but more than 60 percent of these near miss safety violations occurred at three plants owned by Entergy Corp., according to the Union of Concerned Scientists' (UCS) annual review of Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) performance and nuclear plant safety.
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Credit: Entergy |
The number of near miss incidents has declined since UCS
initiated its annual review in 2010 when there were 19; last
year there were nine.
A near miss incident is an event or condition that could
increase the chance of reactor core damage by a factor of 10 or
more, prompting the NRC to send an inspection team to
investigate.
"Overall, this is a positive trend," said report author David
Lochbaum, director of the Nuclear Safety Project at UCS. "Five
years ago, there were nearly twice as many near misses. That
said, the nuclear industry is only as good as its worst plant
owner. The NRC needs to find out why Entergy plants are
experiencing so many potentially serious problems."
Last year's near misses occurred at eight nuclear facilities:
Calvert Cliffs in Maryland, Duane Arnold in Iowa, Fort Calhoun
in Nebraska, Indian Point in New York, North Anna in Virginia,
Pilgrim in Massachusetts, River Bend in Louisiana, and Virgil C.
Summer in South Carolina. Entergy owns Indian Point, Pilgrim and
River Bend, which also experienced a near miss in 2014.
Four of the 10 near misses were due to inadequate equipment repairs.
"Many U.S. reactors are entering their fourth decade, and as they age, safety equipment will wear out and need to be repaired or replaced," said Lochbaum, who worked in the nuclear industry for 17 years before joining UCS. "Given the very real possibility that one of these screw-ups could lead to a serious accident, plant owners have to make sure their workers make repairs correctly. If they don't do it right the first time, aging reactors will experience even more problems."
For more:
- see the
report
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