Business

February 7, 2008

Feds issue 2 radioactivity alerts linked to PPL plant

Equipment shipped to facility focus of one; other concerned monitoring.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has so far this week issued two radioactivity alerts regarding PPL Corp.’s Susquehanna nuclear plant in Salem Township.

On Tuesday, the NRC released the cause of radioactivity detected above regulatory limits in a shipment to the plant last month.

A piece of equipment for an upcoming refueling and maintenance outage shifted and a filter housing with residue on it got too close to the box’s walls, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan announced.

The box was opened Tuesday in the presence of an NRC resident inspector to determine the cause. An inspection of the box on Jan. 18 produced a result of 350 millirems per hour, almost double the limit set by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The average American is exposed to about 300 millirems annually, according to the NRC.

PPL Corp., which has a majority ownership in and runs the Susquehanna plant, will not face any enforcement action, Sheehan said.

Regarding enforcement actions against GE Wilmington, which shipped the equipment from North Carolina, Sheehan said the NRC would defer to the state enforcement agency because it is an agreement state, meaning it signed an agreement with the NRC to assume nuclear regulatory activities within its borders.

On Wednesday, the federal agency announced a required monitoring system had unintentionally been left off at the plant while irradiated fuels were moved on Tuesday. The safety hazard was very low, Sheehan said, because other detection systems were working, so PPL could potentially face enforcement action, but it’s unlikely.

PPL spokesman Joe Scopelliti said the system should have been on, but managers noticed the oversight about an hour after fuels had been moved. He said fuel movement has been stopped and other activities that don’t require the alarm system on are being performed before the fuel is moved and the alarm is reactivated.

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

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