Incident Chronology at Peach Bottom Atomic Power Plant: 1974- 2012
Download 1.04 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- September 12, 2012
- Nov. 14, 2012
July 23, 2012 – The NRC issued a letter to Peach Bottom officials informing them of some security inspection issues in January 2011. Specifically, the NRC said its Office of Investigations determined that a security lead supervisor and a security officer “willfully falsified security post inspection documentation.” The incidents occurred on Jan 16 and Jan. 25 in 2011, the NRC said. On these two dates, the NRC said, the lead supervisor did not physically access security posts to conduct inspections that are designed to make sure the security officer is attentive to duties and is free from any condition that would detract from workplace performance. On those two days, the NRC said, the lead supervisor contacted the security officer by phone, and then forged the security officer’s signature on a post inspection form with the security officer’s consent. “Additionally,” the NRC said, “the security officer forged the lead supervisor’s signature on the post activity log with an entry indicating the inspection had been conducted.” The NRC said the violation was of very low safety significance because, “although the (lead supervisor) did not access the post locations on those occasions to monitor the environmental conditions and to monitor the assigned security officer for attentiveness and signs of fatigue, other (plant) security supervisors inspected those posts both before and after the (lead supervisor) failed to do so. Additionally, when the lead supervisor contacted the security officer by telephone, the security officer answered the telephone.” The NRC said that corrective actions were take by the plant, including disciplinary action against the lead supervisor and the security officer, and training with security department personnel on the proper procedures for signing logs. The OI completed its investigation on April 11, 2012. September 12, 2012 About 50 workers at Peach Bottom nuclear plant exposed to low levels of radiation Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in Peach Bottom Township. (FILE) York, PA - Roughly 50 workers at Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station were exposed to low levels of radiation early Tuesday after a discharge of contaminated steam. At 1 a.m. that morning, workers were loosening a two-inch vent on top of the Unit 2 reactor vessel head when a "puff" of radioactive steam escaped from a flange, said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Radiation monitoring alarms sounded as workers, dressed in bright yellow radiation-protection suits, hurried to close the vent. In total, the length of the release lasted about 2 minutes. The reactor is offline for a planned refueling outage. About 2,000 contracted or outage workers at the plant will spend the next several weeks completing maintenance work and replacing nearly one-third of the reactor's fuel. Initially, 51 of the 138 workers stationed in the area of the Unit 2 reactor vessel early Tuesday didn't clear the plant's radiation monitors, meaning that they still registered a higher dose of contamination, Sheehan said. After a change of clothes and a shower, seven of the 51 workers no longer triggered the monitors. Of the remaining workers, 27 had been exposed to more than 10 millirems of radiation and 17 registered a dose of less than 10 millirems. A millirem is a measure of radiation exposure. One worker came back with a dose of 173 millirems- the highest level of exposure tied to the radioactive steam, Sheehan said. "For that employee, follow-up monitoring shows that contamination levels have fallen off and, today, are almost at the level of being undetectable," said David Tillman, a Peach Bottom spokesman. The occupational radiation exposure limit for nuclear industry workers is 5,000 millirems per year, Sheehan said.
The average American citizen is exposed to 610 millirems each year from natural and manmade sources, he said.
What happened? On Tuesday morning, as workers disassembled the vent, a step in the process of refueling Unit 2, water levels inside the reactor were higher than expected, Sheehan said. Nov. 14, 2012 – The NRC issued its report on its inspection of Units 2 and 3 of the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station for the third quarter ending Sept. 30. In the report, the NRC identified one self-revealing finding of very low safety significance. In addition, the report listed one licensee-identified violation determined to be of very low safety significance. The NRC finding involved the failure of the plant operator to avoid a situation during maintenance activities of the lower pressure coolant injection system at Unit 2. The incident occurred on July 25, 2012, when electricians were performing an electrical cable pull “for the multiple spurious operations project into the Unit 2 energized low pressure coolant injection swing bus motor control cabinet.” During the pull, lubrication contacted one of the electrician’s gloved hands and caused the hand to suddenly slide up the cable and contact the edge of an adjacent interposing closing relay, the report said. The contact actuated the relay, the report added, resulting in an over current alarm in the control room The NRC said the potential over-thrust event “called into question the qualification and operability of the valve.” The report added, “The inspectors noted that the workers performed a two-minute-drill to assess the hazards and safety concerns in the work area, but did not consider the possibility of lubrication contacting their work gloves and causing their hands to slip during the cable pull. The inspectors also noted that the operational risk of the cable pull was not communicated to the workers.” The report also mentions a Sept. 11, 2012, review of radiological issues due to the release of steam during the opening of the reactor vent line flange at Unit 2. “A total of 47 individuals received internal uptakes and were whole body counted,” the report said. “There was no radioactive release from the rector building due to this event.” The licensee identified violation involved the failure to promptly correct defective welds in the E-3 emergency diesel generator lube oil piping that were identified in 1998. A leak was identified in the piping during surveillance testing on Sept. 3, 2012. Corrective action was taken. Directory: files -> 2012 2012 -> Top 10 Natural Disasters 2012 -> Us history & Government Study Guide I. Influence of Geography 2012 -> Atlantic Basin and eastern Pacific they are called hurricanes 2012 -> Crct review: ga studies Study Guide 2012 -> Schedule, Date and Times 2012 -> Duke University Tour Guide Training Manual 2012 -> De sales university Download 1.04 Mb. Share with your friends:
|