NRC Denies Fire Safety Exemptions at Indian Point

BUCHANAN, N.Y. – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has denied a majority of fire safety exemption requests made by Entergy Nuclear for Indian Point Power Plants in Buchanan.

Forty-two of the 50 requests made by Entergy Corporation for use of manual personnel operations, known as Operator Manual Actions (OMAs), in place of automated fire safety systems were denied by the NRC. For Indian Point Unit 2, the NRC is denying the use of OMAs for 24 of the 30 fire zones requested. The agency is rejecting 18 of the 20 fire zone OMA requests at Indian Point Unit 3.

“Although the two units have some deficiencies in their defense-in-depth, they have extensive fire protection programs, including an on-site fire brigade trained to respond to and extinguish fires. In addition, each unit has established fire watches to monitor areas containing the deficiencies,” said Michele Evans, Director of Operating Reactor Licensing in the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.

Spokesperson for Indian Point, Jerry Nappi, said that it’s important to recognize that OMAs are just one aspect of fire protection. 

“The whole program starts with the design of the plant and the fact that they try to put as few combustible materials in the plant as possible,” Nappi said. 

Engineers have 30 days to provide the NRC with a plan for bringing the deficient fire safety measures into compliance; there are not yet estimates of how long it will take the plant to come into compliance. Fire safety measures could include additional fire insulation of electrical cables, additional backup energy capacity, as well as other redundancies.

“We’ve been asking that they look more carefully at the standards that they’ve set, so I think what we’re seeing with fire safety, the reversal of some, not all, of the fire safety issues, is that the NRC is starting to pay a little bit more attention, but there is such a long way to go,” said Manna Jo Greene, Environmental Director for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater.

The plants are under increasing scrutiny as public hearings regarding relicensing inch closer. Governor Andrew Cuomo is committed to closing the plant, and recent New York State Assembly hearings said the plant could be closed without reliability or price burdens on New Yorkers.

 

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