A Nuclear Regulatory Commission employee last week inadvertently forwarded a staff email to a watchdog group detailing candid observations from an ongoing inspection at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts, fueling calls for the beleaguered plant to be shut down.
The NRC is conducting its third and final increased oversight inspection at the plant, which in 2015 was downgraded to Column 4 of the NRC’s Action Matrix, the lowest safety rating a plant can have while remaining in operation. The 44-year-old facility in recent years has incurred a long list of unplanned shutdowns and operational failures, and it is due to be shut down in 2019. The uncommon inspection, which involves 20 NRC officials, is scheduled to wrap up on Jan. 13.
The 2,300-word email, which was intended for NRC staffers, was written by inspection team leader Don Jackson. Agency spokesman Neil Sheehan said a Region I project engineer mistakenly forwarded the message to Cape Downwinders President Diane Turco on Dec. 5. Jackson’s email includes a long list of issues observed at the plant, including concerns about operator Entergy’s safety culture. Jackson in a recent press briefing said that safety culture at the plant would be a major focus of the inspection.
“In general, the licensee is being responsive, but very disjointed in their ability to populate meetings and answer questions, staffing problems seem to impact how fast the licensee can respond,” Jackson wrote.
As an example, Jackson said the NRC attempted to hold a safety culture meeting with plant security, but no one showed up, as the site’s security adviser “forgot he needed to support it.” Jackson said Pilgrim staff seems overwhelmed by simply trying to run the station, and that some operators claim the inspection is impacting their ability to work. He also said the engineering group appears unprepared to address all of the questions being posed by the team.
“The team is really struggling to figure out what all of this means,” Jackson wrote. “The licensee staff seems to say the right things, and they are genuinely energized about improving. We believe that there are some incremental improvements that look bigger than they actually are to the licensee staff. The corrective actions in the recovery plan seem to have been hastily developed and implemented, and some have been circumvented as they were deemed too hard to complete. We are observing current indications of a safety culture problem that a bunch of talking probably won’t fix.”
Jackson cited various noncompliances, poor maintenance, poor engineering practices, and equipment-reliability issues. On a positive note, Jackson said, the inspection team has not identified performance deficiencies at the same rate as Arkansas Nuclear One, another plant listed in Column 4. He added that the team believes procedures at Pilgrim “are in good shape.”
NRC Regional Administrator Daniel Dorman sent a letter to the town of Plymouth, Mass., on Tuesday in response to a Dec. 9 letter to the NRC from the town. He called Jackson’s email “less-than-fully developed information,” which has caused “considerable consternation in the community.”
“I truly apologize for any distress this may have caused,” Dorman wrote. “Let me assure you that Pilgrim is operating safely. Our inspectors continuously evaluate plant safety as issues are identified and Pilgrim remains safe.”
Dorman characterized Jackson’s email as a “running list of raw observations and data points” that “does not represent a fully developed perspective on Entergy’s performance.” He also pointed out that many statements in the email reflect specific inspector observations regarding open questions, which require further elaboration during the remainder of the inspection.
“They are not intended to be generalizations of overall performance or plant conditions,” Dorman wrote, adding that the type of information found in the email is not unusual for the early stages of an inspection. “It is, however, understandable that someone not familiar with the process and specifics of the inspection could easily read this email and take the information out of context and inappropriately extrapolate it.”
In its own letter, the Plymouth Board of Selectmen said Jackson’s letter “could lead a reasonable person to conclude that there are serious operational deficiencies in the plant.” The board also requested that NRC staff appear before the board within two weeks to discuss the email. Dorman declined to attend.
“I am declining your offer to speak in person because the inspection is ongoing, and it is critical to focus on the results of the two weeks on site in support of the preparation for the final inspection week in January,” Dorman wrote. “Additionally, specific information on the progress of our review is considered ‘pre-decisional’ and would be inappropriate to be publicly discussed at this time in the process.”
Following the conclusion of the inspection, the NRC will hold a public meeting in Plymouth to discuss the final results.
Entergy did not respond to request for comment.
