3 "Minor" Safety Violations at Millstone.

Millstone sited for “minor” safety violations.

A worker inhaling radioactive material is considered “minor”. Hey, that stuff happens.

Two contractors working on radioactively contaminated pipes April 20 failed to wear respirators that were not required by the plant.

A previous evaluation by the plant, owned by Dominion Resources Inc., determined that work on the replacement of a safety injection system valve should be done with respiratory protection.

However, two contractors (Contractors are people brought in who usually don’t know what they are doing….But they are cheaper) began machining radioactively contaminated piping to prepare for welding a new valve and were not wearing respirators.

(So you are inside a nuclear power plant and you decide to cut pipe without knowing what the pipes do? …Sure why not…..What could go wrong with that?)

A machinist breathed in a fine, dust-like material containing radioactivity that was from the interior surfaces of the piping being machined. Some of the material would likely have become airborne as the pipes were cut.

The nuclear plant also was cited for failing to maintain procedures at its two units to assess a loss of cooling during refueling operations.

(Why would you need procedures for a loss of cooling in a nuclear power plant? I am sure they can figure out a plan once a problem occurred. Cooling at a nuclear power plant is very over rated)

The NRC said Dominion established temporary measures (Turn on a fan) to correct the problem, including procedure changes to direct operators to the shutdown safety assessment checklists.

Federal regulators also said Millstone failed to maintain an adequate procedure for filling and draining reactors that incorporates guidance from the NRC.

Keep in mind we still don’t know what happened with the ruptured tank (spilling radioactive water) that occurred in May. These “minor” violations are separate from that minor incident.

http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20140812/connecticut-power-plant-cited-for-3-minor-safety-violations