ML20149M176

Submits Article by Allen Published in Boston Globe on 961011 Re Safety Problems at Millstone

ML20149M176
Person / Time
Site:	Millstone
Issue date:	10/11/1996
From:	Blanch P AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
To:	NRC
Shared Package
ML20149M049	List: ML20149M047 ML20149M059 ML20149M063 ML20149M084 ML20149M104 ML20149M105 ML20149M118 ML20149M123 ML20149M125 ML20149M127 ML20149M129 ML20149M130 ML20149M132 ML20149M138 ML20149M145 ML20149M150 ML20149M152 ML20149M154 ML20149M157 ML20149M160 ML20149M172 ML20149M175 ML20149M176 ML20149M184 ML20149M192 ML20149M196 ML20149M200 ML20149M208 ML20149M235 ML20149M238 ML20149M243 ML20149M246 ML20149M252 ML20149M255 ML20149M262
References
NUDOCS 9612130024
Download: ML20149M176 (2)

Text

-._= _ _

From: PAUL M. BLANCH <PMBLANCH@ix.netcom.com>

To: WND2 WNP3(jaz),WND1.WNP2(hjm),TWDI.TWP4(gam)

Date: 10/11/96 5:05pm

Subject:

BOSTON GLOBE Pg 3 While I may have said 20 years, I meant to say 15 or whenever NUREG 0737 was issued.

US orders sweeping review of reactors By Scott Allen, Globe Staff, 10/11/96 Alarmed by the thousands of safety problems discovered this year at the Millstone nuclear power plant in Connecticut, federal regulators ordered every nuclear reactor in the country yesterday to begin an exhaustive review of its safety performance.

The sweeping order could open a Pandora's box for the nuclear industry, finding long-neglected problems that activists predict could force some reactors to shut down. A review at Millstone, which provides 10 percent of New England's electricity, has forced the three reactors to remain closed since March.

Millstone is not unique. ... They are requiring the utilities to prove that i they meet all safety standards, said Jim Riccio, an attorney at the l antinuclear Pubiic Citizen group in Washington. This is going to cost them an immense amount of money, and I believe it will shut down more reactors."

The order, from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairwoman, Shirley Jackson, calls on operators of all 109 US reactors to tell under oath how they know they are following thousands of rules contained in shelf-long documents called Final Safety Analysis Reports.

Millstone workers have spent thousands of hours reviewing these documents i page by page, finding thousands of violations such as water pumps and safety valves that were not set up properly, pipes that might shatter in an accident ,

or computer malfunctions that could hobble emergency systems. And the owner, Northeast Utilities, has not finished the job after eight months.

The NRC order does not explicitly require nuclear plants to follow M111 stone's example, but Jackson suggested that reactor operators that do not have a firm grasp of all safety rules may face intensified inspections.

We think the problems that exist at Millstone are' fairly unique in their severity, said iE: spokesman Victor Dricks, but we want to be absolutely sure. '

The order comes at a time when the nuclear industry is under growing economic pressure from other power sources such as natural gas. Any expensive problems discovered could prove fatal to some plants, especially older reactors that have fewer years left to operate anyway.

~

, 9612130024 961210 PDR ORG NRRA PDR

h J

Officials at the NRC, an agency long accJsed of not strictly enforcing its rules, said Jackson's order had been inspired by significant safety problems at two other New England reactors, Maine Yankee and Connecticut Yankee, as '

well as Millstone.

At Maine Yankee, the US attorney is investigating criminal charges in ,

connection with allegedly fraudulent safety data used to show that the plant i could withstand an accident similar to Three Mile Island. NRC officials have limited Maine Yankee to 90 percent output because of continued questions

.i about the issue, raised by an anonymous whistleblower last winter.

At Connecticut Yankee in Haddam Neck, Conn., where owners said this week that l they will probably close the reactor permanently, a special NRC inspection  !

i found serious weaknesses in emergency systems, i The magnitude and scope of the problems that the NRC staff has identified i

raise concerns about the presence of similar design, configuration and operability problem; at other plants, wrote Jackson to the nation's reactor operators. l l Some nuclear plant owners anticipated Jackson's crackdown and have begun

' their own reviews. Engineers at Pilgrim nuclear plant in Plymouth are expected to spend more than 1,000 hours0 days <br />0 hours <br />0 weeks <br />0 months <br /> by the end of the year reviewing safety reports.

There have been no major findings, said a Pilgrim spokesman, David l Tarantino. However, he said engineers had discovered two problems that have  :

been repaired and reported to the NRC.

Paul Blanch, a former engineer at Millstone and now a company critic, predicted that Jackson's order will prove fatal to some plants. This is the biggest thing to hit the nuclear industry in 20 years, Blanch said.

This story ran on page a3 of the Boston Globe on 10/11/96.

Paul M. Blanch Energy Consultant 135 Hyde Rd.

West Hartford CT 06117 Voice 860-236-0326 Fax 860-232-9350 i

e i A