Lara Uselding
Public Affairs Officer
Region IV
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As we turn the page on a new year, the NRC is watching closely as the operators of the
Fort Calhoun nuclear plant,
located in Omaha, Neb., are working around the clock in hopes of
returning the plant to service. It remains to be seen if the NRC is
convinced the efforts of the Omaha Public Power District’s (OPPD) are
sufficient.
The
plant has been powered down since April 9, 2011, for a refueling
outage. The outage was extended due to historic flooding along the
Missouri River followed by an electrical fire that led to an “Alert”
declaration and further restart complications.
On
Jan. 8, OPPD officials and the NRC Fort Calhoun Oversight Panel members
met before the five-member NRC Commission to discuss the current plant
status. Positive change is on the horizon. “They [OPPD] are looking at
problems with a different set of eyes today,” said Mike Hay, NRC Branch
Chief and panel member. Some NRC Commissioners also noted the efforts by
OPPD management to turn things around. It is also clear more work needs
to be done.
In
November 2012, the NRC issued a detailed inspection plan listing some
450 items that require attention, inspection, and resolution. Many of
these items are subsets of the familiar issues that have been reported
over the past two years including the breaker fire, flood strategy
concerns, containment penetrations, and containment internal structures
issues.
In
2013, there will be numerous NRC inspectors carrying out a very
rigorous inspection schedule. Starting next week, a five-member team
will be on site for two weeks to independently verify results from a
third-party safety culture assessment done last year. As part of the
inspection, NRC will hold focus group interviews with plant works to
assess the current climate and help the NRC understand how in tune
management is with staff. Later in February, these results will be used
to fuel a second, larger team inspection to fully assess human
performance and safety culture at Fort Calhoun.
There
is more to come. There will be an announcement soon with details for
the next public meeting in Nebraska. The staff will continue to post
updates and helpful information to the
Fort Calhoun specific Web site.
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