"NRC Begins Significant Activity under Heightened Oversight at Pilgrim Nuclear Plant"
https://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov/…/nrc-begins-signific…/…
https://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov/…/nrc-begins-signific…/…
Neil Sheehan
Public Affairs Officer
Region I
Public Affairs Officer
Region I
A significant activity at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant gets underway today when a team of inspectors arrives at the Plymouth, Mass., facility to examine a variety of aspects of its operation.
Included on the 20-member team will be inspectors tasked with evaluating the state of equipment reliability, human performance, plant procedures and the plant’s corrective action program.
What’s more, the team will look carefully at the plant’s safety culture. Among other things, safety culture encompasses the willingness of plant employees to raise safety concerns without fear of reprisal.
This inspection is being performed as part of NRC increased oversight of Pilgrim, which was initiated in September 2015. That occurred after performance issues triggered a change in where the plant falls on the agency’s Action Matrix. The matrix uses inspection findings and performance indicators to guide the level of scrutiny at each plant.
The “95003” inspection process spells out the steps to be taken by the NRC staff to ensure a plant’s owner has taken the appropriate actions to remedy deficiencies. Two earlier team inspections, carried out in January and April, were also part of this oversight regimen.
The inspection beginning today will involve three weeks of on-site reviews. Any findings coming out of the evaluation will be made available in a report due out within 45 days of the inspection’s conclusion.
More information on the NRC review activities regarding Pilgrim can be found on a webpage devoted to that subject.
"NRC Begins Significant Activity under Heightened Oversight at Pilgrim Nuclear Plant"
https://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov/…/nrc-begins-signific…/…
Neil Sheehan
Public Affairs Officer
Region I
A significant activity at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant gets underway today when a team of inspectors arrives at the Plymouth, Mass., facility to examine a variety of aspects of its operation.
https://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov/…/nrc-begins-signific…/…
Neil Sheehan
Public Affairs Officer
Region I
A significant activity at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant gets underway today when a team of inspectors arrives at the Plymouth, Mass., facility to examine a variety of aspects of its operation.
Included on the 20-member team will be inspectors tasked with evaluating the state of equipment reliability, human performance, plant procedures and the plant’s corrective action program.
What’s more, the team will look carefully at the plant’s safety culture. Among other things, safety culture encompasses the willingness of plant employees to raise safety concerns without fear of reprisal.
This inspection is being performed as part of NRC increased oversight of Pilgrim, which was initiated in September 2015. That occurred after performance issues triggered a change in where the plant falls on the agency’s Action Matrix. The matrix uses inspection findings and performance indicators to guide the level of scrutiny at each plant.
The “95003” inspection process spells out the steps to be taken by the NRC staff to ensure a plant’s owner has taken the appropriate actions to remedy deficiencies. Two earlier team inspections, carried out in January and April, were also part of this oversight regimen.
The inspection beginning today will involve three weeks of on-site reviews. Any findings coming out of the evaluation will be made available in a report due out within 45 days of the inspection’s conclusion.
More information on the NRC review activities regarding Pilgrim can be found on a webpage devoted to that subject.
Why does Charlie Baker have "full confidence in the NRC?" Gov Baker, what gives you that confidence? We the people don’t feel safe here with Pilgrim, especially since it is the same model as Fukushima. We are asking you to protect the people of MA, our safety depends on you. CLOSE PILGRIM NOW
http://www.capecodtimes.com/…/nrc-team-dives-into-pilgrim-i…
"Mary Lampert, director of Pilgrim Watch, had requested that an independent nuclear engineer accompany the NRC inspection team. While federal regulations allow the governor’s office to appoint a representative to tag along, during past inspections the state has used its longtime appointed liaison with the NRC, John Giarrusso, a Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency employee, whose background is limited to site security at nuclear plants.
Giarrusso is once again onsite for this latest inspection. 'I really think the governor has missed an important opportunity,] Lampert said Monday. 'He has the responsibility and the ability to protect the interests of the Commonwealth.'”
Brendan Moss, speaking for the Baker administration, said the governor has full confidence in the NRC inspectors and has sent along an observer 'as other states have done.'”
The 20-person team is capable and unbiased, Jackson said.
“'We’re doing the public’s work here,'” he said. 'We’re doing everything we can to ensure safety. There’s a high degree of independence.'”
“'We’re doing the public’s work here,'” he said. 'We’re doing everything we can to ensure safety. There’s a high degree of independence.'”
NRC team dives into Pilgrim inspection
PLYMOUTH — As protesters clamored for the permanent closure of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station from the edge of the property on Monday, 20 experts sent by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission began their exhaustive inspection of the old and problem-plagued reactor, evaluating everything from equipment and procedures to staff performance.
The inspection is the final of three conducted over the last year, required because of Pilgrim’s standing as one of the worst performing plants in the nation.
Federal regulators have conducted only 12 such inspections since the oversight process started in 2000. Of those 12 reactors requiring closer scrutiny based on poor performance, five are owned by Entergy Corp., the Louisiana-based company that owns Pilgrim.
Donald Jackson, chief of operations for NRC’s Northeast region and leader of the inspection team now at Pilgrim, said members would be hands-on in their approach.
“This isn’t 20 people just sitting in a room looking at documents,” Jackson said. “We’ll be getting out and beating shoe leather, going into the plant and making sure it’s operating according to design.”
Protesters outside of the entrance of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth:
Jackson said a high priority will be gaining confidence that operators at the Entergy-owned plant demonstrate they can find the root causes of problems and fix them.
Past inspection reports have criticized Pilgrim operators for identifying problems, developing action plans, and failing to implement them.
Under federal regulations, the outcome of the special inspection will determine whether the plant should continue to operate, and if it does, whether even more action must be taken to turn around its declining performance. When the inspection is complete, the NRC will issue a “confirmatory action letter” that outlines the shortcomings they found and the actions Entergy has agreed to take to address them.
The inspection also provides an independent assessment of whether “an unacceptable margin of safety exists.”
Safety culture, related to the comfort level workers feel in reporting issues to management without fear of reprisal, will be part of the inspection process as well.
Raymond Lorson, chief of reactor safety for Northeast Region I, will oversee the process from the NRC's Maryland headquarters, but will also spend some time at Pilgrim. The reactor safety director couldn’t recall an instance when a plant was ordered shut down after an intensive inspection like the one being done.
“Licensees put a lot of effort into preparing for inspection,” Lorson said. Plant operators look for problems and address them prior to the arrival of inspectors. “Our inspection is to evaluate their efforts,” he said.
The inspection will run for two weeks and, after a short hiatus, wrap up with another week on site in January and a meeting with plant operators. The inspection team will put together its report and make results public about 45 days after the onsite process is completed.
Lorson noted it generally takes two years or more for a plant to get out of the category Pilgrim is in, meaning Pilgrim will likely remain in the poor performance category until it closes.
Mary Lampert, director of Pilgrim Watch, had requested that an independent nuclear engineer accompany the NRC inspection team. While federal regulations allow the governor’s office to appoint a representative to tag along, during past inspections the state has used its longtime appointed liaison with the NRC, John Giarrusso, a Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency employee, whose background is limited to site security at nuclear plants.
Giarrusso is once again onsite for this latest inspection. “I really think the governor has missed an important opportunity,” Lampert said Monday. “He has the responsibility and the ability to protect the interests of the Commonwealth.”
Brendan Moss, speaking for the Baker administration, said the governor has full confidence in the NRC inspectors and has sent along an observer “as other states have done.”
The 20-person team is capable and unbiased, Jackson said.
“We’re doing the public’s work here,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to ensure safety. There’s a high degree of independence.”
During the first of the three inspections, done last January, federal regulators issued a report expressing concern over Pilgrim’s constant failure to follow through. They cited a water leak in the system that cools the reactor after a sudden shutdown. The leak had allowed air bubbles to enter the system, which could significantly impede water flow.
Operators discovered the flaw after a blizzard in January 2015, yet they did not enter it into the plant’s action plan until a year later.
After the second special inspection, conducted in April, federal regulators again cited Entergy for lack of follow-through on maintenance.
This time, the infraction involved the breakdown of bearings on one of the pumps used to draw millions of gallons of seawater from Cape Cod Bay into the plant to cool the reactor building. The system cools emergency and safety-related equipment.
Problems with the bearings were previously known to plant personnel.
Entergy spokesman Patrick O’Brien called the ongoing inspection “the next step in Pilgrim’s process toward a return to industry excellence."
“We have worked hard to address the issues that led to station performance decline and look forward to demonstrating to the NRC that we have made significant progress in these areas through the inspection process,” O’Brien wrote in an email.
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