The "Race" to Resolve the Boiling Water Reactor Safety Limit Problem
Dave Lochbaum, former director, Nuclear Safety Project
April 24, 2018 6:00 AM EDT
General Electric (GE) informed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in March 2005 that its computer analyses of a depressurization event for boiling water reactors (BWRs) non-conservatively assumed the transient would be terminated by the automatic trips of the main turbine and reactor on high water level in the reactor vessel. GE's updated computer studies revealed that one of four BWR safety limits could be violated before another automatic response terminated the event.
Over the ensuring decade-plus, owners of 28 of the 34 BWRs operating in the US applied for and received the NRC's permission to fix the problem. But it's not clear why the NRC allowed this known safety problem, which could allow nuclear fuel to become damaged, to linger for so long or why the other six BWRs have yet to resolve the problem. UCS has asked the NRC's Inspector General to look into why and how the NRC tolerated this safety problem affecting so many reactors for so long. Read more >
Special Inspections: Safety Relief Valve Problems at Perry and Hatch
August 8, 2016 6:00 AM EDT
Near-Miss Summary
The Near-Miss
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) sent special inspection teams to the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Perry, Ohio and to the Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant near Baxley, Georgia early this year. Both plants feature boiling water reactors (BWRs) and both experienced problems with safety relief valves that prompted the NRC's reactions. Read more >
Nuclear Plant Emergency Preparedness: Failure to Communicate
June 14, 2016 6:00 AM EDT
Disaster by Design/ Safety by Intent #36
Nuclear plant owners are required to develop plans for responding to accidents that describe actions to be taken by workers onsite as well as describing communications to local, state, and federal organizations so they can taken actions offsite. Among other things, the emergency plans detail when to activate the sirens that warn people in the community about an accident at the plant. Read more >
The Importance of Nuclear Training
February 23, 2016 6:00 AM EDT
Disaster by Design/Safety by Intent #20
In nuclear power safety, training has nothing to do with steam engines, diesel engines, passenger cars, freight cars, and cabooses. In nuclear power safety, training encompasses education, experience, and qualifications seeking to ensure that workers know what to do, and what not to do. Training is not just a good idea, it's the law. Read more >
February 2, 2016 6:00 AM EDT
Command and control is often used to describe the authority of military leaders in directing armed forces in battle. It can also refer to senior managers at nuclear power plants and the resources they command and control to fend off safety challenges.
Faulty intelligence, or flawed situational awareness, undermines command and control when leaders have the wrong understanding of hazards and/or response capabilities. Read more >