US nuclear power plants not following safety rules: auditors

Wednesday, July 2, 2008 at 5:07 am

Operators of nuclear power plants in the United States have yet to comply with some of the
government’s fire safety rules three decades after they were issued, a congressional report has said.

The Government Accountability Office yesterday said there were 125 fires reported at 54 power plants since 1995, an average of nearly 10 a year, although none threatened safe emergency reactor shutdown or posed any significant safety threats. The fires were mostly electrical or maintenance related.

But the GAO study said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been unable to resolve “several long-standing issues” with the industry over fire safety including full compliance with NRC fire rules put in place in 1976 and 1980 as a result of the fire at the Browns Ferry plant in Alabama in 1975.

The blaze, which raged for seven hours at the Browns Ferry Unit one reactor, was the worst fire ever at an American nuclear plant. It exposed for the first time that nuclear reactors needed special fire protection to assure a fire did not prevent a reactor from safely shutting down.

The report said some nuclear reactor operators are using unapproved fire safety manuals. Relying on interim, temporary fixes in response to fire damage instead of making permanent
repairs.

In one case a plant used “fire watches” designed as temporary safety procedures for five years instead of replacing damaged parts.

Continuing to rely on manual responses, such as a person having to close or open a valve, instead of passive fire protective measures.

(Agencies)

( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)

US nuclear power plants not following safety rules: auditors

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