Multiple Nuclear Outages Prompt Increased Scrutiny

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Nearly 37,000 megawatts (MW) of nuclear generation is expected to be offline for the month of April in the U.S. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is keeping a close watch on plants to ensure plants are up to code and are free of any potential hazards.

The spring outage season of 2007 has proved to be a busy time for the nuclear stations in the United States. Industrial Info is currently reporting 50% of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas’s nuclear capacity at outage level and nearly 60% being offline in the Northeast Power Coordinating Council’s sector. With so many refuels and repairs happening at once, the NRC is tightening the reigns on the safety concerns and emergency power systems of these stations.

Dominion Energy’s 549 MW Kewaunee Nuclear Station was just tagged with a yellow notice for violations regarding a back-up diesel generator. The color coded safety scale that is used by the NRC ranges from green (the best) to red (the worst). This yellow warning, which is only one from the bottom, sends a message to nukes throughout the country that the NRC is keeping a very close eye on the operational integrity of the nation’s nuclear fleet. Omaha Public Power’s Fort Calhoun and Entergy’s Indian Point stations have recently received less severe white ratings. On the other hand, high ratings and praise go out to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar and Exelon’s top rated La Salle Power Station.

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