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News Archive 2003 NRC finds six problems
in Indian Point shutdowns
By Greg Cannon
Times Herald-Record
December 24, 2003
Buchanan – A government investigation of unplanned
shutdowns at the Indian Point nuclear power plant found six
minor problems, from poor maintenance to delayed reporting,
that need to be addressed.
In a report released yesterday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission said that for the most part, plant owner Entergy
Nuclear Northeast responded appropriately to kinks in the
electrical grid outside the plant's walls that triggered most
of the problems inside. But the NRC found six problems with
how Entergy responded to the outside kinks that resulted in
the shutdown of Indian Point's active reactors.
Those problems are considered green, the lowest level of
seriousness on a four-color scale. However, one was serious
enough to be labeled a violation. Specifically, plant operators
took six and a half hours to report the Aug. 3 shutdown to
the NRC instead of the mandated four-hour limit for notification.
On Aug. 12, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced
that it would conduct a special investigation of the Indian
Point nuclear power plant after a series of unplanned of shutdowns.
Two days later, the mother of all shutdowns happened when
a blackout struck almost the entire Northeast. Among the concerns
raised by the report, was that during this blackout, the plant
lost back-up power at its technical and operations support
centers, raising questions about its emergency response capabilities.
But the NRC report says that back-up plans for dealing with
the loss of back-up power allowed plant operators to keep
on top of the situation.
"These were issues we identified in parallel with the
NRC's investigation," said Entergy spokesman Larry Gottlieb.
"We're in the process of going through a corrective action
program. Public health and safety were never in jeopardy."
Gottlieb said he was limited in his response to the report
because he had yet to see it late yesterday and his colleagues
who had were not available for comment. Most of the plant
shutdowns stemmed from problems outside the facility and Entergy
has been working alongside Consolidated Edison – the
utility that runs the transmission grid and switch yard that
has been blamed for many of the shutdowns – to solve
these.
The NRC has investigated these unplanned shutdowns at Indian
Point since 1997:
- July 26, 1997 – ConEd still owned the plant at this
point
- Dec. 26, 2001 and April 28, 3003 – Technical problems
at the plant caused shutdowns
- Aug. 3, 2003 – A lightning strike caused a shutdown
- Aug. 14, 2003 – The big one
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