Government inspection finds cracks in TVA “safety culture”

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday its continuing inspection of problems at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant has revealed breakdowns in the facility’s “safety culture.”

NRC administrator Leonard Wert told Tennessee Valley Authority leaders at a public meeting the plant needs to get past its “broken-fix it” mentality.

Inspectors cited problems with management programs and procedures that keep equipment in reliable condition. Examples given were failure to log safety issues into the company’s Corrective Action Program, a drain kept together with duct tape, and safety battery chargers whose capacitors were never replaced.

“The bottom line is, we get it, and we agree with everything said today,” Browns Ferry Vice President Keith Polson said. “Our goal is not just to be regulatory-compliant, but to strive for excellence.”

Polson said several action plans, called “Gaps to Excellence,” have been established, including a new maintenance schedule for the safety battery chargers.

“These observations aren’t violations, but they are areas of weakness,” NRC inspection team leader John Jandowitz said.

Jandowitz said this second phase of the investigation was unusually thorough.

“We spent three weeks on site watching maintenance,” he said. “We typically don’t watch maintenance in the field.”

The meeting was meant to be a formal exit of the second phase of the NRC’s inspection and a precursor to the third and final phase, which Wert described as the most “probing” and “intrusive” stage.

Browns Ferry has an open-ended amount of time to bring plant operations and protocols to NRC standards, and the NRC will alert TVA 120 days before the final inspection, which TVA spokesperson Ray Golden said he anticipates in the latter half of the year.

Wert said there would be another public meeting to discuss results of the final phase of inspections.