The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to downgrade the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station’s safety rating for the second year in a row, following another inspection violation at the New Jersey plant, which is owned by Exelon Corp.
NRC’s “white” finding, which signifies a low to moderate safety issue, stems from a Jan. 4 failure of a 3-inch hose that feeds water from a storage tank to a pump that supplies one of the plant’s emergency diesel generators.
NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said Wednesday that because Exelon has decided not to challenge the finding, the plant will move from Column 1 to Column 2 of NRC’s Action Matrix for the second year in a row, meaning increased NRC oversight at the facility. Column 4 is the lowest rating a plant can have while remaining in operation.
Once the white finding is finalized at the Lacey Township, N.J. plant, NRC will wait until Exelon is ready for a supplemental inspection, in which NRC will analyze the underlying issue, determine the root cause, explore the operation as a whole, and examine what adjustments the company has made, so it doesn’t happen again. Sheehan said there is no timeline for when finalization and the subsequent inspection might occur.
“Earlier this year, technicians identified and repaired a defective coolant hose on one of the generators,” Exelon spokeswoman Suzanne D’Ambrosio wrote in an email Wednesday. “The issue did not result in any elevated risk to the plant but it did result in an NRC violation.”
