Dive Brief:

• A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission report dated Aug. 12, covering the second quarter of this year, found two "Green" violations of low significance at the FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in upstate New York, including allowing radioactive material to accumulate for four years.
• Another violation found workers were sent into radioactive areas without proper monitoring.
• Entergy, the owner of the plant, issued a statement saying each issue is being addressed and at no point was public safety in danger.

Dive Insight:

News of safety violations at FitzPatrick broke a week after the plant's owner struck a deal to sell the facility, but officials say any issues are already being taken care of.  

"Each [violation] has already been entered into the station’s corrective action program," Entergy said in a statement. "At no time was the health or safety of our employees or members of the public at risk."

But NRC's Q2 integrated inspection report found twice in January "operations personnel failed to notify the Radiation Protection (RP) department and non-licensed operators in the field when operating plant equipment that created high radiation areas (HRAs)." According to the report, the areas therefore were not surveyed by RP to determine dose rates prior employees accessing the areas.

"Personnel entry into HRAs without knowledge of the current dose rates is a performance deficiency," the report concluded. "In both instances, RP evaluated the operators’ dose, validated the dosimeter alarms, surveyed both areas in response to the dose rate alarms, and reposted the areas as HRAs."

NRC said the finding was "more than minor because it resulted in the unintended exposure of two workers."

In another Green violation, NRC found that "for at least the past four years, Entergy allowed leakage of the solid radwaste processing system to occur, resulting in spilled radioactive waste that accumulated and remained on the floor of the filter sludge tank room in the radwaste building."

In its statement, Entergy said the sludge tank identified in the NRC report "is located in a room in the station’s radwaste facility and contains spent resin and corrosion products. The room is locked at all times."

Access to the room is controlled, Entergy said, and the radwaste facility is monitored "at all times for any changes in radioactivity and the sludge remains contained to the room. There has been no release of radioactive material to the environment as a result of the sludge."

Entergy had planned to shutter the 838 MW plant, located in Scriba, New York, but subsequently struck a deal with Exelon Corp. to sell the plant, contingent on the state passing subsidies to support its carbon-free generation.

The state regulators approved a Clean Energy Standard Aug. 1 to support renewable power as well as its existing upstate nuclear fleet. On Aug. 9, Entergy and Exelon announced the sale would move ahead and the plant would remain in operation.