Fine for fuel plant spill

Friday, 5 November 2010

Westinghouse has been handed down a $17,500 penalty for violations in safety requirements at a nuclear fuel fabrication plant. 

 

Columbia (Image: Westinghouse)

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed the civil penalty after reviewing a 24 January spill of about 750 litres of waste water containing ammonia and low levels of uranium.

 

This occurred at Westinghouse's Columbia facility in South Carolina, where the company designs and makes nuclear fuel assemblies as well as other reactor-core items like control rods, top and bottom nozzles and neutron absorbers for use in pressurized water reactors.

 

The NRC said the cause of the spill was the failure of a pump. Operators shut down processes after a few minutes and that plant workers cleaned up with nobody suffering any significant exposure. The regulator said noted that there had been "no actual consequences" from the spill, "but the potential consequences to the workers were significant."

 

A special inspection was launched at the site by NRC officials in February to assess the safety significance of the event and check the adequacy of Westinghouse's response and corrective action. The regulator opted to issue a civil penalty because the plant had been under "escalated enforcement" within the last two years.

 

The fine must be either paid or contested with 30 days.

 

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News