Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
FPL nuclear power plant workers fired
They falsified safety inspection of critical piece of equipment
Several maintenance workers at a South Florida nuclear power plant have been fired for not completing the safety inspection of a critical piece of equipment — and then falsifying records about it, a public safety concern, according to newly released documents by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
After an internal investigation by Florida Power & Light confirmed regulators’ findings, the utility company fired at least three employees involved in the January 2019 incident at the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station.
Turkey Point, situated more than 60 miles south of Fort Lauderdale,
provides power for roughly 1 million homes across South Florida. Its two nuclear reactors came online in the early 1970s.
Because of the age of the reactors, some critical systems have to be regularly taken apart and checked for age-related issues. It was during one of these checks that investigators from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission say maintenance crews falsified work records.
Workers inspecting a valve for wear and tear in the aging reactor’s backup cooling system failed to use specialized equipment to measure a valve for signs of weakness, according to investigative documents. The valve must be taken apart and measured with specialized equipment every three years.
Investigators found that the
maintenance crew tasked with taking the valve apart hadn’t checked out the necessary tools for the job, even though they reported completing the task on maintenance paperwork. Workers had written the measurements from 2015 onto a form in 2019.
The valve under inspection is classified as “safety related” in Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents, meaning that its failure could potentially lead to problems.
The valve controls the flow of water in the reactors’ backup feedwater cooling system. That cooling system is designed to draw heat away from the reactor in case the primary cooling system stops working.
Nuclear reactors often run at incredibly high temperatures and risk melting down if not consistently cooled.
Edwin Lyman is a nuclear power expert with the Union of Concerned Scientists, a watchdog group that keeps an eye on the nuclear industry. He sees a safety concern: A failure in the pump system that the valve helps regulate could be dangerous, especially if the primary cooling system is out.
“If something happens to those pumps, you have all the heat in the reactor with nowhere to go. And even if you shut it down, you have all the heat there and it has to go somewhere or the reactor can overheat,” he said.
But Peter Robbins, an FPL spokesman, said the utility’s detailed review found that “at no time was the safety of the plant or the public compromised.”
“Turkey Point does not compromise when it comes to safety,” Robbins said. “As soon as we became aware of this situation, we conducted a thorough investigation and the individuals involved in this issue no longer work for Florida Power & Light.”
Documents released by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission say that at least two maintenance workers and a supervisor were involved in the incident. The documents do not name those involved.
FPL did not offer any additional information about the employees, beyond confirming that everyone involved had been terminated. Despite the utility’s assurances there was no safety threat, the investigation’s findings still worried South Miami’s former mayor, Phil Stoddard, a biologist who has kept close tabs on the aging power plant throughout the years. “We live in the shadow of a nuclear plant, quite literally, that’s our reality,” he said.
Any radiation leaked from the plant because of an accident could easily travel far across South Florida, though the official evacuation zone extends for only 10 miles around the power plant, he said.
“These reactors are 18 miles south of my house, the average wind velocity is 11 mph, and it takes two hours for a nuclear release to get reported to the public,” Stoddard said. “So essentially we’d already be covered by the radiation cloud (if there were a nuclear release).”
A spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said FPL has 30 days to respond in writing to the investigative findings and can elect to go through a disciplinary process or have the issue settled via mediation with an outside party.
Along with Turkey Point, FPL also operates a second pair of nuclear reactors in Saint Lucie County. They are the only active nuclear power plants in the state.