The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass., was operating safely in a report that said the plant's owner Entergy was correcting longstanding issues that had landed the plant in the agency's column 4 safety status.
The NRC completed Phase A of a review in January. That inspection “did not find any longstanding, risk-significant issues in the corrective action program that were not addressed or assigned appropriate corrective actions,” said NRC spokesman Neil Sheenan.
While concerns were being addressed, the plant remains in column 4, one regulatory category away from a mandatory shutdown.
In the January inspection, the NRC reported a violation that it termed “very low” in regards to its implications to safety. That violation focused on a failure to completely fix a leak that became apparent after a reactor shutdown on Jan. 27, 2015. Plant operators are working to address the issue, said Sheenan, noting that a leak creates a potential for air pockets to develop that could, in turn, “impact the system's ability to inject water into the reactor core during an emergency."
Phase B of the special inspection process is expected to focus on more recently revealed problems at the plant, which landed in column 4 last year. A third phase, Phase C, is expected to begin by the end of the year.
More recently, it was reported that a security officer at the plant over a two-year period had falsified records involving mandatory fire checks.
In early February, the plant was shut down in anticipation of a potential loss of offsite power due to an impending snowstorm. The plant automatically shut down in February 2014 and January 2015 during snowstorms that interrupted offsite power.
Entergy has said it would close down Pilgrim in June 2019 at the latest, citing poor market conditions that were limiting the plant's ability to make a profit.