NRC: Despite April 2012 power outage, Catawba nuclear plant is safe
Following a loss of offsite power last year at the Catawba Nuclear Station, officials at Duke Energy say a number of changes have now been made to prevent similar events in the future.
This week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and representatives from Duke Energy held a public forum on the annual assessment of the power plant.
Kevin Henderson, site vice president of the Catawba Plant, explains what’s changed since incident on April 4, 2012.
:Henderson said the second half of the fix involved reworking the level of review given to products supplied by outside vendors.
A team of NRC inspectors work at the plant day in and day out to keep the plant’s day-to-day operations in line with federal regulations.
:The incident posed no threat to public safety, but Henderson says any incident — no matter how small — is scrutinized very carefully.
:Following the loss of offsite power, one of the two reactors immediately shut down as Emergency Diesel Generators came online to power the plant.
That incident came two days after a fire in an on-site power inverter, that could have disabled certain equipment that would have started the emergency generators.
Duke officials and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have yet to identify a root cause for the loss of offsite power.
A similar incident of loss of outside power occurred at the plant in 1996.
