Continuing Safety Concerns at Shearon Harris

3/23/04

Twenty-five years after the meltdown at Three Mile Island, the U.S. nuclear power industry faces an increasing number of problems.  Many relate to longstanding but uncorrected design flaws, many to aging and embrittlement of components, and all to a lack of independent regulatory oversight.

Eight cooling system failures in 2003

Since 2002, Harris is ten times over the industry average for SCRAMS  (reactor trips).  As UCS Nuclear Safety Engineer David Lochbaum points out, Three Mile Island had 12 recurring cooling system failures – which plant owners didn’t understand or correct – in the year preceding the 1979 meltdown.

Nine fire protection violations remain unresolved

Including the use of a fire barrier product cited by the NRC since 1992 as being flammable.  Vital electrical cables must be separated by distance or fire barriers so that a single fire or other accident doesn't cut power to both a critical system and the equipment designed to back it up in an emergency.  As reported in The New York Times, (11/29/03), instead of forcing plants to protect vital cables from fire, the NRC proposes allowing plants to “designate technicians who would run through the plant and operate equipment by hand if the control cables had burned away.”

Increased risk of meltdown due to design flaw

The Union of Concerned Scientists revealed last year that NRC data shows a 100-fold increase in the risk of a meltdown at 69 U.S. nuclear plants, including Harris.  Containment sump drains have a serious design flaw that could cause a blockage of back-up coolant circulation.  Although a decade-old problem, the NRC has given the industry three more years to correct it.

Potential for degraded reactor vessel head

As a result of the recent discovery of severe degradation of the reactor pressure vessel head at Ohio’s Davis Besse plant – which led to a near-meltdown – the NRC is investigating the structural integrity of vessel heads at 69 pressurized water reactors, including Harris.

Vulnerability to ground level and various air attacks

Harris is storing over four million pounds of “spent” nuclear fuel in high-density pools.  NRC has recently weakened security testing requirements, even though 27 state attorneys general urged Congress in late 2002 to order protection of the largest and most vulnerable targets at nuclear plants – the pools. 

Inadequate emergency evacuation plan

From maintaining emergency sirens to notifying the community of evacuation routes, Harris emergency plans are riddled with holes and largely untested.

Back-up generators

Emergency diesel generators are susceptible to overheating and frequently fail, but are tested for only one hour per year.   The NRC rates the loss of offsite power as a major risk factor for a reactor meltdown, which could also lead to a waste pool fire.  On August 14^th the largest electrical blackout in history caused sixteen nuclear plants to automatically shut down in the U.S. and Canada, requiring reliance on back-up generators. 

NRC as non-regulator

The most dangerous aspect of nuclear power is the industry’s control over the NRC.  An independent survey in 2002 showed that many NRC employees perceive a nationwide "compromise of the safety culture" and that

outdated programs "leave the security of the nuclear sites within the U.S. vulnerable to sabotage."   Only 53 percent of NRC employees think that it is "safe to speak up in the NRC.”

“In 2003, the industry saw the highest number of safety system actuations since 1995, the highest number of scrams while critical since 1996; the highest precursor occurrence rate since 1991; and reported the highest [generating] capacity factor in history. The reason that capacity factors are at record levels and safety is dropping fast is related to the first item -- the NRC is prioritizing business at the expense of safety.  If NRC keeps it up, they are going to kill somebody. “    David Lochbaum, Nuclear Safety Engineer at Union of Concerned Scientists

March 2004                             NC WARN     919-416-5077  POB 61051, Durham NC 27715-1051     www.NC WARN.org