Report Faults Tracking of Nuclear Equipment Failures in U.S.

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/us/25nrc.html

Report Faults Tracking of Nuclear Equipment Failures in U.S.

By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS and KIM SEVERSON
Published: March 24, 2011

American nuclear power plants are not reporting some equipment failures to the government because of badly written regulations, the inspector general of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission warns in a new report .

Those rules, which are often contradictory, leave the N.R.C. without the necessary muscle to enforce the intent of the federal law requiring the reporting of such problems, the inspector general said in the report, which was issued on Wednesday.

From December 2009 to September 2010, the report said, the inspector general’s office found 24 instances in which equipment problems were not reported. If the regulations are not improved, it said, they “could reduce the margin of safety for operating nuclear power reactors.”

The commission, which is independent from the inspector general, countered in a statement that it “has a variety of other regulations that effectively encompass reporting all defects.” It added, “The N.R.C. continues to conclude plants are operating safely.”

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Read the report here: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/insp-gen/2011/oig-11-a-08.pdf