ML20149M184

Forwards Article by M Mcintire Published in Courant on 961016 Re Problems at Nuclear Power Plants

ML20149M184
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Site:	Millstone
Issue date:	10/16/1996
From:	Blanch P AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
To:	NRC
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References
NUDOCS 9612130055
Download: ML20149M184 (3)

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i  !

From: PAUL M. BLANCH <PMBLANCH91x.netcom.com>

t To:

WN02.WNP3(jaz),WND1.WNP2(hjm),TWDI.TWP4(gam) l

Date: 10/16/96 4:43am  !

Subject:

. Page 1 Headline 1

Jim Riccio:

You made front page again.

l i

Many reactor sites reporting flaws to NRC l By MIKE McINTIRE This story ran in the Courant October 16, 1996 ,

l Nuclear power plant operators elsewhere in the country are already

reporting problems similar to those at Millstone and Connecticut Yankee, providing a glimpse of what lies ahead as the nation's reactor owners j respond to a crackdown by federal regulators.

A review of daily event reports filed with the Nuclear Regulatory l Commission shows many reactor operators are reporting design and procedural flaws, some involving safety systems.- The reports have been trickling in at

, a rate of one or two per day since'the spring, when the NRC began stepping

! up scrutiny of regulatory compliance after serious problems were found at Connecticut's four nuclear plants.

l

. The NRC last week gave operators of the nation's other 104 nuclear reactors l 120 days to explain, under oath, whether their plants conform to all j requirements of their operating licenses and federal regulations. Some i industry observers say the wide range of plants already reporting procedural and design problems is an ominous sign.

i Reactor, after reactor, after reactor have been reporting these kinds of l deficiencies, said James Riccio, of Public Citizen's nuclear watchdog i project in Washington. I think that's an indication of a nationwide l problem that's looming out there.

1

! In another development Tuesday, two Massachusetts lawmakers released a i letter asking the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of

! Congress, to review how the NRC identifies troubled plants. Citing the belated addition of Millstone to the NRC's watch list this year, Sen. John

'F. Kerry and U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, both Democrats, said the

! ' longstanding design and procedural problems the agency is now pursuing should have been acted on much sooner.

k

We find the delay in naming Millstone to the watch list to be entirely 4 unacceptable and potentially symptomatic of. broader problems in the NRC's j oversight over the nuclear utility industry, the lawmakers wrote.

While some of the problems being voluntarily reported by other plants are i potentially serious, none has led to a shutdown. And no utility has reported i the same avalanche of discrepancies and flaws discovered at Millstone, where j plant operators have developed a. punch list of more than 1,000 problems to J- 9612130055 961210 j PDR ORG NRRA

! be fixed.

i Other plants in the Northeast reporting deficient engineering designs or operating procedures are Pilgrim in Plymouth, Mass., Vermont Yankee in

Vernon, Vt., and Maine Yankee in Wiseasset, Maine. In addition, Dresden units 1 and 2 in Illinois and Indian Point 3 in New York, which are also on the NRC's watch list of troubled plants, have reported problems.

For example, Dresden reported last Tuesday that a pressure control valve on a piece of reactor piping had been improperly modified in 1978 and was no j

. longer considered safe. Also last week, the Kewaunee nuclear plant in Wisconsin reported that 294 of 3,373 tubes in its steam generator system were cracked and could rupture, a problem the utility says may date from the plant's construction in 1974.

Both utilities said the problems were only recently discovered.

A clue as to why the NRC is going on the offensive can be found in a report Aug. 29 of an annual inspection of the Monticello Nuclear Plant in Minnesota. In the report, the NRC says the plant operators failed to identify or report problems on their own, a lapse in responsibility that is 1 one of the main reasons cited by the agency for its nationwide crackdown.

] Self-assessment efforts were not always effective in identifying these issues before they became self-revealing or NRC-identified, the NRC said

. in its Monticello report.

Alan Nogee, an economic analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the sweeping review of operations at all nuclear plants is bound to make it more difficult for poor performers to continue operating. Correcting problems at its three Millstone units, which are shut down, is expected to cost Northeast Utilities hundreds of millions of dollars.

This is a serious enforcement action by the NRC, Nogee said. There are some plants that are already on the margins of competitiveness, where any findings of noncompliance with regulations will push them over the edge.

The industry, meanwhile, pledges to voluntarily correct its problems - a commitment that the NRC says has not been met in the past.

f

A number of utilities have undertaken programs on their own to make sure things are not slipping by them, said Scott Peters, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's Washington- based lobbying arm.

The industry should not have been caught off guard by the NRC's hard line.

The agency, under the direction of newly appointed Chairwoman Shirley Ann Jackson, has been signaling its intention for months to require plant operators to adhere to the letter of their licenses and the law.

Jackson has conceded that past efforts by the NRC to ensure compliance have t

fallen far short. NRC officials were not available for comment Tuesday. But at a commission meeting in January, Jackson pressed the agency's top 4

k officials to explain this failure, prompting one to chide his colleagues for being asleep at the switch

There is absolutely no excuse, said Stewart D. Ebneter, an NRC regional administrator. The reason [for lack of compliance] is sitting right here at the table. The regional administrators aren't enforcing it. That is where the problem is.

I am glad to hear you say that, said Jackson. But more than that, if

, you are saying it, is that then a commitment?

Absolutely," said Ebneter.

j Staff Writer Michael Remez contrib uted to this report.

[lmbe]

l Paul M. Blanch Energy Consultant

135 Hyde Rd.

West Hartford CT 06117 i Voice 860-236-0326

Fax 860-232-9350 1

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