Pilgrim workers violate federal regulations

By Christine Legere 
Posted Feb 27, 2018

NRC: Two technicians took shortcut that caused safety system to shut down

PLYMOUTH — When federal regulators come to town for the plant’s annual assessment meeting later this month, operators at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station will have one more violation related to poor staff performance to explain.

The incident involved two technicians who threw a safety system offline by taking a shortcut in procedure last March.

The NRC’s Office of Investigations conducted a review and found the behavior of the workers represented a violation of federal regulations.

According to the letter issued Tuesday by the NRC to plant officials, the technicians were heat testing switches on the reactor core isolation cooling system, which required them to dress in protective clothing so they could work inside a radiologically controlled area.

The two technicians “deliberately decided” that only one would enter the radiologically controlled area, “so that the other technician would not have to don the required protective clothing.”

The sole technician who went into the radiologically controlled area to do the testing inadvertently installed a jumper on the electrical junction box for the high pressure coolant injection system, causing it to shut down for 35 minutes at the same time that the reactor core isolation cooling system was offline for testing.

Both systems cool the reactor during an emergency.

Investigators said the deliberate decision to send only one technician in to conduct the test took away the second set of eyes that might have spotted the mistake being made. The investigation also revealed that the two technicians, along with a third who was recording the data, “did not divulge” to plant management that only one worker suited up and went into the radiologically controlled area.

“Entergy promptly reported this matter to the NRC, when it occurred in March of 2017, and took disciplinary action based on the findings of our investigation,” wrote Pilgrim spokesman Patrick O’Brien. “Integrity is a core value at Entergy, and dishonesty will not be tolerated. We will respond to the NRC with details of the corrective actions put in place to prevent recurrence.”

The two technicians involved in the incident “are no longer employed at Pilgrim,” according to NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan.

“The NRC will require that Entergy provide a response to the violation, describing actions the company has taken and planned to create a deterrent effect within the site organization,” Sheehan wrote in an email. “In particular, the NRC has asked that Entergy provide information about actions to evaluate employee standards related to procedural adherence at Pilgrim.”

Sheehan said NRC inspectors will follow up with “targeted inspections primarily focused on independently verifying that the company has taken appropriate corrective actions.”

In a second letter sent yesterday by the NRC, the Office of Investigations said it had also investigated an instance when a supervisor signed off that work had been completed about 40 minutes before the job was fully done. This incident also took place during testing being done last March.

The NRC determined the action had no impact on plant equipment or operating status, so the agency did not take any enforcement action. The NRC also concluded that the violations of procedure were limited to the staff members involved.

“We will continue to perform quarterly follow-up inspections to verify adequate fulfillment of Entergy’s commitments discussed in the Confirmatory Action Letter (CAL) we issued to Pilgrim last August,” Sheehan wrote.

The Confirmatory Action Letter represents an agreement regarding improvements that must be made at the plant along with a timetable for the upgrades.

Pilgrim watchdog Mary Lampert, president of Pilgrim Watch, questioned whether the careless attitude of the staff is related to the plant’s planned permanent shutdown in 2019.

“A demoralized workforce makes mistakes,” Lampert wrote in an email. “Human error caused Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima.”

NRC officials and representatives from Pilgrim and its owner-operator Entergy Corp. will hold a public meeting in Plymouth on March 27 to discuss the plant’s performance in 2017. The session, held annually, always draws a large crowd.

Prior to the meeting, the NRC will release an annual assessment letter that lays out the plant’s shortcomings, based on the federal inspections done in 2017.

Pilgrim is scheduled to permanently close by May 31, 2019.

The Plymouth plant is currently classified in Column IV of the NRC’s performance matrix. The status, shared with two other nuclear reactors that are also owned by Entergy Corp., is one step above mandatory shutdown.

— Follow Christine Legere on Twitter: @chrislegereCCT.

http://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20180227/pilgrim-workers-violate-federal-regulations