More violations at Westinghouse nuclear fuel plant. But feds keep details secret
Federal nuclear inspectors have identified safety violations at a Columbia atomic fuel factory for the second time in three months — and this time, questions are surfacing about whether Westinghouse was doing enough to protect nuclear material from theft.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission won’t release a report that includes details of its November inspection, citing security concerns.
But The State has learned that there were questions about whether Westinghouse had properly managed a safety system that is supposed to keep nuclear material from being stolen.
Noel Pitoniak, an NRC official in Atlanta, said the concern was about devices known as tamper seals, which are installed on containers of nuclear materials to make sure no one opens the contents. The seals are supposed to be registered so that unauthorized people don’t use unapproved tamper seals to cover up the theft of nuclear material.
“What we noticed is that they were not controlling some of the access to those seals properly,’’ Pitoniak said, declining to provide details of the inspectors’ findings.
The concern is that a person with access to tamper seals could open a container of nuclear material; break the original, registered seal; clean out the container’s contents; and then replace the first seal with one that was improperly obtained. As a result, plant auditors would be less likely to know if nuclear material had been stolen from the container, a safety expert said.
“If somebody had gotten their hands on a tamper seal improperly, they could have gone into a room, stolen the material, and put another tamper seal in its place,’’ said David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer who worked at atomic power plants for 17 years. ““So when the next audit rolls around, it looks like the room was’’ sealed.
Tamper seals can be used on locked rooms or on individual barrels of atomic material.
Unscrupulous people who obtain tamper seals without permission increase chances material could be stolen for a “dirty bomb,’’ an explosive device with both nuclear and conventional materials, said Lochbaum, a national expert on nuclear safety who worked for years with the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Such homemade bombs can disperse nuclear materials over small geographic areas.
Both the NRC and Westinghouse said they’ve found no evidence any nuclear material at Westinghouse was missing or the public was ever in danger. The NRC says its findings are more focused on the system and intended to make sure problems don’t occur in the future.
But the federal agency said it wants Westinghouse to address the issue, according to a Jan. 10 letter to the company’s Mike Annacone, who manages the Bluff Road site.
The NRC classified the Westinghouse lapse as a Severity Level Four Violation, a sanction that requires Westinghouse to resolve the problem or face further penalties.
The most recent incident marks the second time in less than three months Westinghouse has been slapped with a Level 4 violation by the NRC. The NRC cited the company in November 2019 after discovering that contaminated barrels were shipped across the country from Westinghouse after workers failed to properly examine them. A Level 4 violation is the least severe of four violations the NRC can issue, but it also requires action to be taken or harsher sanctions could follow.
In a statement last week, Westinghouse said the most recent NRC concerns have been addressed.
“Immediate actions were taken upon identification in November and longer term corrective actions have been implemented,’’ company spokeswoman Sarah Cassella said in an email. “There is no danger to the environment, our employees or the local community.’’
Roger Hannah, a spokesman for the NRC, said the agency would not release details of its inspection report for security reasons.
Mary Jackson Kirkland, who co-chairs a Lower Richland advisory group concerned about the nuclear factory, said the latest violations are part of a frustrating pattern neighbors of the plant must deal with. Westinghouse has expressed a commitment to making improvements, but it’s hard to see progress, she said.
“The community is concerned,’’ she said. “It’s like death by a thousand pin pricks. ‘’
The 51-year-old nuclear fuel plant, a major Columbia-area employer with more than 1,000 workers, is located between Interstate 77 and Congaree National Park a few miles from the Congaree River. The plant has been a source of increasing concern among neighbors and nuclear safety watchdogs in the past five years.
At least nine incidents have been documented at the plant since 2016, ranging from the potentially dangerous buildup of uranium in an air pollution control device to the exposure of workers to harmful solutions. In 2018, state regulators learned that a uranium solution had leaked through a hole in the plant’s floor.
In addition to nuclear safety issues, the plant also has caused extensive groundwater pollution beneath the site. People who drink from private wells in the area have expressed concern about the contamination, but state health officials say the pollution isn’t flowing in the direction of homes.
Company officials acknowledge the problems, but say they are optimistic Westinghouse will show improvement as changes at the plant continue to take effect.
This story was originally published January 22, 2020 at 2:37 PM.
