United States The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering whether to cite TXU Energy for an apparent violation involving a leaking steam generator tube at the 1150MWe Commanche Peak 1 PWR.
The NRC has presented its preliminary results of a special inspection done after the leak, said NRC public affairs officer Roger Hannah. He said: “We came to the conclusion that in three instances there were indications during previous testing that were missed by the analyst looking at this particular problem. In one case, the one that led to the leak, there was an apparent violation. There were no violations in the other cases.
“We’re still doing the risk analysis, and we won’t know for sure what our actions will be as an agency until we complete the risk analysis. The bottom line is, from a safety standpoint, TXU took conservative action and shut the plant down when it saw this small leak. There was no detectable radiation released into the environment.” TXU Energy spokesman David Beshear said that the company has already retrained their analysts to look for this particular kind of problem.
