Markey: Back-up generators failed during tests at US nuclear plants

By Beth Daley
GLOBE STAFF

Nuclear plant emergency generators like those that failed in Japan following the tsunami, sparking that country’s nuclear crisis, also failed during tests at Seabrook Station and 32 other US nuclear plants in the last eight years, a new report by Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey’s office shows.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulations also do not require emergency diesel generators to be operational when there is no fuel in a nuclear reactor core – even though it could leave spent-fuel pools without any back-up cooling system in case power is lost, according to the report released this morning. In Japan, large amounts of radioactive material escaped from a spent-fuel pool at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after cooling systems failed.

NRC commissioners are receiving an update this morning from staff on nuclear plant reviews stemming from the Japanese problems and Markey, a staunch nuclear opponent, released the report in hopes of convincing the agency not to issue new license extensions for nuclear power plants until it finishes reviews and upgrades of its safety requirements.

Since the March earthquake and tsunami that triggered the Japan nuclear crisis, the agency has approved 20-year license renewals at Vermont Yankee near the Massachusetts border and three reactors at an Arizona plant, saying they were rigorously reviewed.

“... An examination of NRC regulations demonstrates that flawed assumptions and under-estimation of safety risks are currently an inherent part of the NRC regulatory program, due to a long history of decisions made by prior Commissions or by the NRC staff that have all too often acquiesced to industry requests for a weakening of safety standards,’’ the report reads. “It would be unwise to move forward with any pending licensing actions before the NRC fully completes its review and upgrades of its safety requirements.”

The Seabrook incident, according to the report, took place on Aug. 31, 2006, when the New Hampshire plant shut down because of “inoperable emergency diesel generators”. The shutdown lasted one day.

Alan Griffith, a Seabrook Station spokesman, said this morning he was having staff look for information on the reported problem with the generators but noted there were three separate lines of power that come into the plant and multiple levels of redundancy at the plant in case of power loss.

“These generators are not used to run the plant (day to day), they are for emergencies,” said Griffith.

The report says in the past eight years there have been at least 69 reports of emergency diesel generator problems at 33 nuclear plants. A total of 48 reactors were affected. The failures included 19 that lasted over two weeks and six that lasted longer than a month, the report says. The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth and Vermont Yankee did not have reported problems with back-up generators.

Neil Sheehan, a NRC spokesman, said in a statement this morning: “We take the maintenance and testing of emergency diesel generators very seriously, as their lack of availability raises plant safety risk. The NRC has taken enforcement action against many plants for problems involving the generators. We also track issues associated with them through our Performance Indicators and inspections.”