NRC to meet with Westinghouse over spill at Columbia nuclear fuel plant (AUDIO)

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff will meet with Westinghouse officials in Atlanta Friday to discuss violations related to an overflow of uranium wastewater at the Westinghouse commercial nuclear fuel plant.  NRC spokesman Roger Hannah says the incident at the Columbia plant occurred in January and involved a few hundred gallons of wastewater that overflowed into an area inside the plant designed to catch overflow.

AUDIO: Hannah talks about wastewater spill and meeting(:52)

The NRC has identified seven violations connected with the spill. 

 Hannah says the Columbia plant produces fuel rods used to power nuclear reactors.

They put the fuel into long fuel rods.  Those rods are then put into long assemblies and sent to nuclear plants.  When these are first manufactured they’re not very radioactive at all.  Then once they’ve been used in a nuclear power plant, they become spent nuclear fuel.

 Hannah says inspectors found that plant workers failed to properly identify and respond to an alarm that warned that the overflow was about to occur.  He says the spill posed danger to the public.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS