A random fitness for duty test last week suggested a senior reactor operator at the Salem nuclear plant had been using cocaine.
The licensed employee's access to the plant was restricted after the failed test, PSEG reported to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Wednesday. The South Jersey Times reported that the employee in question was a senior reactor operator who was working as a shift supervisor. The operator's work in recent weeks was reviewed after the test results arrived on Tuesday, but no problems were found.
Employees are routinely tested for drugs and alcohol at all U.S. power reactors, and substance abuse on the job is rare. A PSEG spokesman told the Times that positive test results came back for only two of 1,486 employees tested at the utility's three-reactor Artificial Island complex last year. Among the nuclear power industry as a whole, an NRC spokesman said the drug and alcohol test failure rate was .30 percent in 2012.