Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko told a
Congressional panel Thursday that three nuclear plants would receive increased
attention from NRC inspectors this year, down from four when the results of
annual reports were announced earlier this month.
Of five levels of increasing seriousness that the NRC uses
to categorize the safety of nuclear plants’ operation in the last year, Omaha
Public Power District’s Fort Calhoun plant in Nebraska, Progress Energy’s H. B.
Robinson in South Carolina and Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp.’s plant in
Kansas ranked at the third level. They will receive more attention from the NRC
for having one “degraded safety cornerstone.”
Absent from Thursday’s list was Duke Energy’s Oconee plant
in South Carolina, which an NRC spokesman told Reuters has been removed.
The ratings caught the attention of legislators and news
organizations after Jaczko mentioned them a House Appropriations Committee
Hearing. Among the frequent inspections nuclear facilities receive from the
NRC, each of the 104 commercial reactors in the U.S. receives an annual review
from the agency. While 98 were given the top 2 safety ratings for 2010, the
remainder faced more regulatory scrutiny for unplanned scrams and safety
violations that were not deemed severe enough to stop operations.