The public is invited to observe the meeting and will have an opportunity to communicate with the NRC staff after the business portion and before the meeting is adjourned
– By Stephen Heiser –
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a public meeting on Jan. 26 to discuss the results of a special inspection conducted at the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, located near San Luis Obispo, Calif.
The NRC staff will hold the exit meeting with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. at 7 p.m. The public is invited to observe the meeting and will have an opportunity to communicate with the NRC staff after the business portion and before the meeting is adjourned.
The meeting will be held at the Embassy Suites Hotel, 333 Madonna Road, in San Luis Obispo.
On Oct. 23, 2009, during a maintenance procedure at Diablo Canyon, workers discovered that a set of switches intended to allow control room operators to remotely open cooling water valves were misaligned. The valves are part of a system that would collect water from the floor of the containment building for recirculation to cool the reactor during severe accidents. If the valves could not be opened remotely, operators would be required to manually open them or use a different system to provide cooling water for the reactor.
A four-person team of NRC specialists conducted an inspection from Nov. 30 through Dec. 3, 2009 to determine how two switches were misaligned, potentially impairing the operators’ ability to respond in the event of a severe accident.