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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