Oyster Creek Cited for Two Safety Issues by the NRC

Malfunctions at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant in Lacey draws the attention of federal regulators. In newly-issued findings, the NRC cites safety issues connected to breakdowns of two Electromatic Relief Valves (EMRV) and an Emergency Diesel Generator (EDG).

In reports sent to Exelon Generation Company Senior Vice President Bryan Hanson, the NRC gave Exelon a Yellow, a finding of substantial safety significance, for the failures of the EMRV's. Following the NRC's December 16, 2014 inspection at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station it noted that the original design of the valves did not account for the impact of vibration during plant operation. The NRC said it caused an increased gap between the post and guides increasing the possibility that springs could wedge between them. It said the inadequate design resulted in two EMRV's being inoperable for a period greater than the Technical Specification allowed outage time.

The NRC goes on to say that the finding does not represent an immediate safety concern since Exelon replaced all of the actuators with redesigned actuators during its October 2014 refueling outage.

A second report was generated after an inspection on December 31, 2014. The NRC gave Oyster Creek a White finding denoting a low to moderate safety significance related to the failure of its Emergency Diesel Generator No. 2. Inspectors determined that Exelon failed to review the suitability of a different maintenance process for tensioning the cooling fan belt on the EDGs. According to the report, the new method imposed a stress above the fatigue endurance limit of the shaft material, making the EDG cooling fan shaft susceptible to fatigue and subsequent failure on July 28, 2014.

Oyster Creek spokeswoman Suzanne D'Ambrosio said "these violations failed to meet Oyster Creek's high standards for operational excellence but they don't represent a larger pattern of safety and reliability at the station. You know if Exelon or the NRC had any doubt about Oyster Creek's ability to run safely, this plant would not be operating. It's just that simple. You know, regulatory findings and violations are an important part of our industry's open and transparent mission to continuously improve but they're somewhat rare at Oyster Creek"

Plant operators have 90 days to respond.

Meanwhile, scientist and the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) continue to investigate why Menhaden or bunker fish are turning up dead in Oyster Creek's discharge canal. In January an estimated 5,000 dead fish were found dead in the canal and D'Ambrosio said that a minor fish loss is still occurring. However, preliminary findings said it was not connected to operations at the nuclear power plant.

"It's some type of environmental anomaly that we're still looking in to," said D'Ambrosio.

The nation's oldest operating nuclear power plant is scheduled to cease operations in 2019.