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Feds look at nuclear plant risk

Progress Energy and federal officials will talk in Atlanta about a problem at the Crystal River plant.

By JIM ROSS and ABBIE VANSICKLE
Published July 16, 2005

CRYSTAL RIVER - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet with Progress Energy officials on Friday in Atlanta to discuss a problem the agency discovered - and that Progress Energy has since corrected - when inspecting the nuclear power plant north of Crystal River.

The problem involved "the lack of protection from fire damage to electrical cables at the plant," according to an NRC news release. "Fire damage to the cables could adversely affect a safe shutdown."

The inspection found that "a local manual action by an operator to recover from the effects of the fire damage to the cables" would not be practical because it would require "entering a potentially smoke-filled room."

Progress Energy officials already have fixed the plant to ensure it's up to the inspectors' standards, company spokesman Mac Harris said Friday.

"There is no issue today," he said.

He said the inspectors concerns' were unrelated to the fire at one of the fossil plants Friday morning at the complex.

NRC findings are classified by color: green (very low safety significance), white, yellow or red. This issue is classified greater than green.

At the Atlanta meeting, federal regulators and Progress officials will discuss the risk significance of the finding. But the NRC won't make any decisions, or announce any possible enforcement action, until later.

The meeting is open to the public. It begins at 10 a.m. at the NRC office in the Atlanta Federal Center.

[Last modified July 16, 2005, 00:24:14]