Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility contractor Shaw AREVA MOX Services said the discovery of substandard piping bought for the facility so far has not delayed construction work at the plant, officials said at a meeting with Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff yesterday. “The particular pipe we’re talking about, of course we stopped the fabrication process while we do the evaluation. We are in the process of sorting and segregating the pipe that we are not going to use until we have the evaluation complete,” MOX Services President Kelly Trice said. About 2,000 feet of piping out of more than 400,000 feet at the project has failed required safety tests, and the contractor is investigating whether additional piping acquired from the same vendor could be impacted. MOX Services is also still determining whether any faulty piping has already been installed.
The NRC is awaiting a follow-up report from MOX Services before deciding what action will be taken. “I think at this point it’s premature to say what the NRC’s actions are going to be on this. They owe us a final report in May of 2013,” NRC Resident Inspector for MOX Brannen Adkins said. “I’ll be monitoring this issue on a fairly regular basis. At this point all we know is that a potential deviation could exist. They have not declared a defect. Until MOX Services completes their evaluation of it and issues a final report at this point we won’t take any formal action on this.” The NRC held the public meeting near the Savannah River Site as a status update for new NRC staff working on licensing the MOX plant, and noted that as construction progresses at the site the regulatory agency is ramping up inspections.