In 2015, three of the ten near misses reported at U.S. nuclear power plants occurred at reactors owned by one company—Entergy.
Washington DC – infoZine – There were only 10 “near miss” incidents at U.S. nuclear reactors last year, but more than 60 percent of the near miss safety violations occurred at three plants owned by Entergy Corp., according to the Union of Concerned Scientists’ (UCS) annual review of Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) performance and nuclear plant safety.
A near miss incident is an event or condition that could increase the chance of reactor core damage by a factor of 10 or more, prompting the NRC to send an inspection team to investigate. The number of near miss incidents has declined since UCS initiated its annual review in 2010. In 2010, there were 19; last year there were nine. All told, from 2010 through 2015 there were 91 near misses.
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Last year’s near misses occurred at eight nuclear facilities: Calvert Cliffs in Maryland, Duane Arnold in Iowa, Fort Calhoun in Nebraska, Indian Point in New York, North Anna in Virginia, Pilgrim in Massachusetts, River Bend in Louisiana, and Virgil C. Summer in South Carolina. Entergy owns Indian Point, Pilgrim and River Bend, which also experienced a near miss in 2014.
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“Many U.S. reactors are entering their fourth decade, and as they age, safety equipment will wear out and need to be repaired or replaced,” said Lochbaum, who worked in the nuclear industry for 17 years before joining UCS. “Given the very real possibility that one of these screw-ups could lead to a serious accident, plant owners have to make sure their workers make repairs correctly. If they don’t do it right the first time, aging reactors will experience even more problems.”
Read more at Union of Concerned Scientists Annual Review of U.S. Nuclear Plant, Near Misses
