Nuclear Plant Safety Concern Upheld
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has upheld its finding of a serious safety violation that will require increased inspection activities at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Alabama.
The NRC responded Tuesday to TVA’s appeal of an earlier NRC finding that a stuck valve discovered in October 2010 and then repaired was a rare red level violation.
TVA nuclear spokesman Ray Golden did not return a Wednesday telephone message seeking comment.
Federal regulators have said TVA failed to quickly realize that an old valve on one of two residual heat removal systems on the Unit 1 reactor was stuck shut sometime after March 2009. Employees at the plant discovered the problem when they tried to use the system to shut down the reactor for refueling.
