MedicalConspiracies- Radiation leaking at Perry Nuclear Generating Station - federal regulators probing safety issues

Perry Nuclear Generating Station under intense scrutiny by federal
regulators probing safety issues
Nuclear Regulatory Commission finds violations

Posted: 02/19/2013

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/Perry-Nuclear-Generating-Station-under-intense-scrutiny-by-federal-regulators-probing-safety-issues

By: Ron Regan, newsnet5.com By: Ron Regan, newsnet5.com

NORTH PERRY, Ohio - The Perry Nuclear Generating Station near Cleveland
is under intense scrutiny by Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors,
who have uncovered a pattern of safety violations inside the plant.

The plant, located 35 miles east of Cleveland in the small community of
North Perry, opened in 1987 and produces enough electricity to power one
million homes.

But lately, Perry has been generating headlines.

Chuck Casto is a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Regional Administrator
who is overseeing ongoing inspections at the plant following a series of
safety violations involving workers inside the plant.

"It starts to worry you about the spread," Casto said. "Are problems
spreading?"

Our exclusive 5 On Your Side investigation obtained NRC inspections
reports, letters from regulators to FirstEnergy, which owns the plant,
and gained rare access to the NRC's "Incident Response Center" that
monitors nuclear plants around the clock from a control center in
Chicago, 300 miles away.

We found that safety problems at Perry in 2011 triggered an NRC response
that dropped the plant two full safety levels to what it refers to as a
"Column Three" plant, a "degraded" category that's shared with only two
of 104 nuclear plants in the entire country.

"They were in 'Column Three' because they had several issues in the
worker protection area," Casto said. "Also they had one issue in
security, which, obviously, I am not going to talk about."

Casto said the security issues was resolved, but Perry violated federal
safety regulations when workers, in April 2011, removed an instrument
from deep inside the reactors core.

"They misunderstood the conditions," Casto said. "That instrument was
highly radioactive." Casto called it a "near miss" of "significantly
overexposing some workers."

But our exclusive 5 On Your Side investigation reveals that problems
continue at the plant.

Last March, NRC inspectors found "performance at the plant continued to
exhibit weaknesses." And in June, low level radioactive wastewater
spilled onto the floor.

Jennifer Young is a FirstEnergy spokeswoman who said a pipe broke while
moving from a storage tank to a shipping container.

But documents obtained by NewsChannel 5 indicate the company waited six
months before it ultimately found that an "emergency condition" should
have been declared under NRC regulations.

"After some discussion with the NRC and after some discussion
internally, we said we probably should look at right by where the spill
was--how much did it go up," Young said.

It turns out that FirstEnergy failed to properly calculate radiation
levels until a review of the incident last November, resulting in what
the company calls "equivalent to a catscan." Even so, an NRC report into
the spill called the incident a "performance deficiency."

Meanwhile, a former employee at the plant claims he was fired for
alerting NRC inspectors to potential safety violations.

"It shows that people are violating basic safety procedures and if they
don't care about their own safety, how can they care about your's or the
community's?" Bryan Reo said.

FirstEnergy denied Reo's allegations and said "all those were
investigated at the time they were raised and none of those cases did we
substantiate a safety concern."

The NRC's ongoing probe of safety at Perry is also being followed by the
Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group that follows energy issues.

David Lochbaum is a nuclear engineer and the organization's nuclear
safety director, as well as a former NRC instructor.

"So far, the radiation breakdowns haven't resulted in excessive exposure
to workers," Lochbaum said. "But in many cases, that was more luck than
skill."

FirstEnergy said it is working hard to correct deficiencies at the plant
and improve workers safety. Even so, the NRC has given the company a
strong warning.

"We need to see behavior changes in terms of worker behavior with
radiation," Casto said. "Those changes need to be procedure changes and
the need to be sustainable."

If not, Lochbaum said he believes the NRC is "running out of patience"
with FirstEnergy and the future of the plant could be in jeopardy.

"If progress isn't made in short order, six months, the next, more
onerous step could be taken by the NRC which could include shutting the
plant down until these fixes are made."

The NRC expects to complete its series of investigations in the plant
safety by this spring.

Read more:
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/Perry-Nuclear-Generating-Station-under-intense-scrutiny-by-federal-regulators-probing-safety-issues#ixzz2LmTsvx7Q

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