News Archive 2004

Indian Point wins high rating from NRC
Roger Witherspoon
The Journal News
November 25, 2004

The twin nuclear power plants at Indian Point have received high marks for a safe, effective operation in their third-quarter evaluation by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The "green" rating, the highest the agency awards in its color-coded evaluation system, means Indian Point is considered among the best-run of the nation's 103 nuclear plants. By year's end, it will begin receiving the minimum level of oversight and inspections for the first time in four years.

"It has been a slow, gradual climb for Indian Point back to the performance levels it should be at," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said. "Since 2000, they had red, then yellow or white findings, so it was a turning point for them earlier this year when, for the first time, they didn't have any findings beyond green."

The agency's inspectors did write "deviation memos" when the green rating first was issued in April, requiring a heavier load of inspections than normal at Indian Point. The increased inspections were needed because there still were problems with equipment, training and procedures. The memos are still in effect, but the number of extra inspections has been reduced as plant performance has improved.

"There has been a gradual stepping down in oversight, so they are not getting the baseline inspections," Sheehan said. "They still have issues to work on, though, and we will continue to keep a close watch on Indian Point."

The evaluation, covering the quarter that ended Sept. 30, found some minor problems with maintenance practices at Indian Point 2 and 3. The evaluation was released this week by the NRC. Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns the plants in Buchanan, declined comment on the evaluation.

NRC inspectors were critical of Entergy's ability to find the causes of major equipment failures. The plant shut down twice in September, and reduced power on a third occasion, because of problems maintaining proper water levels in one of the plant's four steam generators.

Brian McDermott, the NRC's lead evaluator of both plants, said Entergy's staff "made several unsuccessful attempts to identify the direct cause of the feedwater problems, due to the fact that they didn't apply a very formal troubleshooting and root cause analysis. They did things on a piecemeal basis and didn't work together as well as they should have."

McDermott said the lack of a systematic problem-solving system during the first shutdown Sept. 1 led to the two subsequent interruptions at the site. But, he said, Entergy officials learned from their mistakes and correctly evaluated the situation when the second shutdown occurred Sept. 24. There was no danger to the public during the incidents.

BACK TO TOP