Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant Fire Violations –
Too Dangerous to Allow Endless Delay
A
The Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant has increased its risk of a
radiation disaster by violating federal fire safety regulations for 14 years –
after promising for years to correct all vulnerabilities.
1. Fire is a
leading risk factor for meltdown at US nuclear plants (according to federal studies)
Fire or electrical shorts can cause
operators to lose control of the reactor or safety systems.
Harris has a large number of faulty
fire barriers and inadequate distance between vital electric cables.
Fire could cause overheating of the
reactor fuel and a major release of radioactivity.
2. Harris is
relying on “compensatory” measures that were rejected by NRC last year.
The foremost “compensatory” measures
require operators to quickly enter the plant and perform scores of complex
procedures required to manually operate safety systems during emergencies.
Harris also “compensates” with fire
patrols intended to be used only for weeks, not years.
3. Those
compensatory measures have never been approved – or tested for reliability.
The nuclear industry is now fighting
NRC over how to test the operator manual actions: more delay.
4. Harris fire
violations are heightened by a new ruling on plant security.
The NRC ruled in January that
instead of defending against aircraft or more than a handful of ground
attackers, US nuclear plant owners can rely on measures that control fires and
explosions.
Numerous federal studies show that “allegedly
robust nuclear plant structures are extremely vulnerable to fires from within,”
(Lochbaum 2/1/07) and that fires fed by thousands of gallons of jet fuel could
lead to catastrophic releases. Some of the studies indicate a high
likelihood of meltdown.
5. Serious Fires
have occurred at Harris and other plants.
There have been six “emergency
declared” alerts at US plants since October due to electrical fires.
A major electrical fire at Harris in
1989 required 30 firefighters and led to a weeks-long plant outage.
A 1975 severe fire and near-meltdown
at Browns Ferry led to the rules that Harris is now disobeying.
6. The US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission is allowing Harris to violate fire regulations under the
agency’s “Enforcement Discretion” authority.
NRC plans to let Progress Energy study
fire vulnerabilities for many more years.
NRC plans to extend Enforcement
Discretion until March 2009, an abuse of NRC’s authority.
“Shearon Harris is not safe today. A fire
tomorrow could be like a nuclear Katrina:
People in North Carolina would pay a high price, but
the rest of the U.S. might benefit if Congress makes NRC finally enforce
its own fire protection rules.”
David Lochbaum,
Nuclear Safety Engineer: Union of Concerned Scientists
Progress Energy has
repeatedly misled public officials and media about its fire protection status:
NC WARN, the Union of Concerned
Scientists, and the Nuclear Information & Resource Service are calling for
NRC to suspend Harris’ license or assess heavy fines until all fire violations
are corrected.
Progress officials have stated many
times that “Shearon Harris is in full compliance.”
When challenged, Progress alters the
claim, saying Harris uses “compensatory measures” (instead of regulatory
compliance, as explained above).
An NC WARN letter to Progress
Progress claims NRC changed its fire
regulations, implying that Harris was inconvenienced and is struggling to catch
up.
In fact, after years of pressuring
NRC to relax fire regulations, Progress voluntarily chose to attempt
compliance with a new, optional form of regulation, which allows years to study
the problem.
While NRC’s management and PR team
protect Progress, NRC fire engineers confirm Harris is in violation (NRC
transcript 11-13-06), and said during an October 2005 meeting: “Our
concern is that your plant might not be safe.”
Progress Energy claims it is upgrading Harris fire
protections and will comply with regulations in 4-8 years. Meanwhile,
Harris is currently seeking NRC approval to extend its operating license until
2046, and NRC apparently intends to grant the extension before Harris complies
with fire regulations. Progress Energy should rearrange its
business priorities, and restore the physical protections required by law to
lower the risks associated with fire. The open-ended delay must stop.
“Since the NRC and industry can’t agree on how to test
whether operators could run through
the plant and manually operate multiple safety systems
to prevent a meltdown, how can the
public
bank on those measures as an acceptable substitute for compliance?”
Paul Gunter, Nuclear Information & Resource Service
See the “Delaying With Fire”
report and related documents for details and references at www.ncwarn.org
rev May 2007