As part of efforts to improve Browns Ferry's safety and operational record, Tennessee Valley Authority executives are planning to hire an additional 100 people at the nuclear plant in the coming year.
The Decatur Daily on Thursday quoted TVA and Browns Ferry leaders as saying the new positions in engineering, maintenance, radiation protection, chemistry, work control and emergency planning will start to be filled in the next couple months. The plant added about 60 engineering positions last year.
All three Browns Ferry reactors are currently under enhanced regulatory scrutiny. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's ROP Action Matrix, unit 1 is in the Multiple/Repetitive Degraded Cornerstone Column because of a faulty low-pressure coolant injection valve discovered in October of 2010 and a resulting red finding. The other two reactors are in the agency's Regulatory Response Column for white findings in the second quarter of this year, including an excess of unplanned reactor trips per 7,000 critical hours at unit 3.