NRC finds no safety issues at Robinson plant in 2009
By JIM FAILE
Progress Energy operated its H.B. Robinson Nuclear Plant in a manner that preserved public health and safety in calendar year 2009, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said Wednesday.
The 40-year-old Robinson plant just north of Hartsville met all NRC standards during the agency’s review and assessment of the plant’s performance for the year, NRC officials told Robinson and Progress Energy officials during the agency’s annual assessment meeting with Robinson officials.
Overall, the NRC staff concluded that the Robinson plant operated safely in 2009, NRC officials said. Inspectors found no performance indicators or safety issues that would cause the NRC to increase its level of oversight and inspection and the plant met all basic objectives for the safe and secure operation of a nuclear plant, said James Hickey, NRC senior resident inspector at Robinson.
Hickey said as a result the NRC plans to continue only baseline inspections at Robinson in 2010. Baseline inspections are the detailed routine inspections that all nuclear power plants in the U.S. receive.
Eric McCartney, site vice president at the Robinson plant, said the plant is closing out its 40th year of operation and entering its 41st, one of five U.S. nuclear power plants entering an extended licensing period.
He said the men and women of Robinson remain committed to the safe and efficient operation of the plant.
The NRC uses color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators to assess plant performance. The colors start with “green,” which has very low safety significance, to “white,” “yellow” or “red,” based on the significance of the issues.
“They are a ‘green’ plant and in the license response column,” Hickey said, referring to the Robinson plant’s rating on the safety significance scale.
Hickey and Douglas Bollock are the NRC resident on-site inspectors assigned to the Robinson plant. Routine inspections are carried out by NRC resident inspectors assigned to plants and by inspection specialists from the Region II office in Atlanta.
Areas at the Robinson plant inspected during 2009 by NRC specialists included groundwater protection, dissimilar metal welds and operator licensing exams.
“Every year, the NRC evaluates the safety performance of nuclear plants in a systematic and detailed way,” said NRC Region II Administrator Luis Reyes. “These reviews allow us to respond to ongoing issues, if needed, and to plan our future inspections.”
The annual assessment meetings are open to the public and are designed to give local citizens and local officials an opportunity to learn more about NRC oversight with opportunities NRC officials.
Wednesday’s meeting had nothing to do with a March 28 fire at the Robinson plant which led to a special NRC inspection, officials said.
That investigation by an Augmented Inspection Team formed by the NRC is still ongoing, said NRC spokesman Roger Hannah. Once it is complete, a separate meeting, also open to the public, will be scheduled to discuss the findings of that investigation, he said.
The fire triggered an alert at the plant, and the plant remained shut down and entered a planned refueling outage three weeks early, officials said. The refueling outage is still continuing, Robinson spokesman Andy Cole said.
The NRC regulates the 104 nuclear power plants across the U.S. that supply about 20 percent of the electricity in the U.S., Hickey said.
The agency regulates nuclear reactors, nuclear materials, nuclear waste and nuclear security, he said. The agency issues licenses for nuclear facilities, provides oversight through inspection, enforcement and evaluation of operational experience, conducts research to provide support for regulatory decisions and responds to events and emergencies, Hickey said.
To assure plant safety, the NRC requires “defense-in-depth” at nuclear plants, meaning that if one safety system goes wrong, another is in place to back it up, according to Hickey. The agency also requires long-term maintenance of equipment, continual training of operators and verifies compliance with regulations, he said.
The NRC also regulates storage of spent reactor fuel in fuel pools or dry storage casks, both of which are used at Robinson, Hickey said.
On the security side, the NRC requires plants have well-armed and well-trained security forces, surveillance and perimeter patrols, state-of-the-art site access equipment and controls, physical barriers and detection zones and intrusion detection systems and alarm stations.
Hickey outlined the process the agency uses in its reactor oversight function.
Baseline inspections cover such areas as equipment alignment, fire protection, operator response, emergency preparedness, radiation release controls, worker radiation protection, corrective action programs and correction action review cases, he said.
The NRC’s annual assessment letter for the Robinson plant is available on the NRC website at http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/rob_2009q4.pdf.