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Michael Norris Reactor Licensing Team Leader Emergency Preparedness Division   When you think of the NRC’s role in emergency preparedness, nuclear power plants probably come first to mind. While we certainly pay a lot of attention to commercial reactors, we also oversee emergency plans for plants that...

Victor Dricks Senior Public Affairs Officer, Region IV   As the eyes and ears of the NRC, resident inspectors never know when they might have to respond to an emergency at the plants they monitor. Fred Sanchez, Arkansas Nuclear One Senior Resident Inspector, was preparing to attend Easter services with...

Neil Sheehan Public Affairs Officer Region I   True to forecasts, New England states bore the brunt of the winter storm dubbed Nemo. With respect to nuclear power plants in the region, only one – Pilgrim, in Massachusetts – had its operations interrupted by the powerful Nor’easter. At 9:17 p.m. Friday...

Neil Sheehan Public Affairs Officer Region I   New England states and other parts of the Northeast are battening down the hatches in anticipation of a winter storm dubbed “Nemo” by the Weather Channel. Unlike “Finding Nemo,” the 2003 hit movie from Disney featuring a clown fish dad roaming the seas...

Neil Sheehan Public Affairs Officer Region I The NRC staff has issued the findings of the Special Inspection it conducted at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant to review events related to “Superstorm” Sandy. The inspection was launched on Nov. 13. Our three-member team’s primary focus was the timing...

Victor Dricks Senior Public Affairs Officer Region IV   At 4:40 p.m. Central Time Tuesday, officials at the South Texas Project nuclear power plant near Bay City, Texas, notified the NRC’s Operations Center that a fire had broken out in the main transformer of Unit 2, causing an automatic shutdown. Unit...

This past weekend I had the honor of leading a delegation of U.S. officials to an international conference in Japan designed to keep up the global momentum of enhancing nuclear safety after the Fukushima accident. We met in Koriyama City, some 30 miles west of the scenic Japanese coast, where recovery...

Just over five weeks after Sandy battered the Northeast, all three of the reactors that experienced a shutdown as a result of the storm are now back at full power. Two of the affected reactors, Salem Unit 1 and Indian Point 3, returned to service not long after Sandy struck on Oct. 29. Indian Point ...

Whenever severe weather events occur – such as last week’s Hurricane Sandy – it always prompts questions about how nuclear power plants are prepared to handle them. The answer is always the same: Every U.S. nuclear plant has a list of severe weather conditions that require it to shut down as a precaution...

The Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan shut down Sunday after workers noticed steam leaking from a drain valve on the piping from one of the reactor’s two steam generators. The shutdown was uneventful, and the NRC has no immediate safety concerns with this issue. Here’s what happened: The workers were...

There’s a feeling of normalcy in the NRC’s Region I today. After days of tracking Sandy and assuring the nuclear power plants in the Northeastern U.S. were in a safe condition, the storm is now out of the area and we’re open and back to business as usual. Beginning last week – well in advance [...]

In addition to opening the headquarters and Region I offices tomorrow, the NRC is also beginning to return to normal inspection coverage for nuclear power plant sites in the Northeastern United States. Heightened coverage will continue at Oyster Creek, a plant in Lacey Township, N.J., still in an “Alert...

We continue to maintain our heightened watch over nuclear power plants impacted by Sandy – including three reactors that experienced shutdowns during the storm and Oyster Creek in New Jersey, which remains in an “Alert.” The three reactors to experience trips, or shutdowns, during the storm are Nine...

The NRC continues to monitor impacts of Sandy on nuclear power plants in the Northeastern U.S., including an Alert declared at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey. The plant, currently in a regularly scheduled outage, declared the Alert at approximately 8:45 p.m. EDT due to water exceeding...

The NRC continues to monitor impacts from Hurricane Sandy on nuclear power plants in the Northeastern U.S., and as of 3 p.m. EDT today, no plants have had to shut down as a result of the storm. Two plants in the region, Oyster Creek and Salem Unit 2, were already out of service for regularly [...]

The NRC is prepared for the Hurricane Sandy, with inspectors at all nuclear power plants that could potentially experience impacts from the storm. The inspectors are independently verifying that plant operators are making the proper preparations, are following relevant procedures and are taking appropriate...

Due to the approach of Hurricane Sandy, the NRC has postponed Tuesday’s scheduled Commission briefing on the status of the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant. Chairman Macfarlane agreed with the staff’s recommendation to postpone the hearing out of concern for the safety of members of the public...

Flooding is one of many natural hazards that U.S. nuclear power plants must withstand in order to safely shut down and protect the public. Well before last year’s accident at Fukushima, the NRC was hard at work ensuring U.S. plants have robust flood protection measures in place, and now we’re focused...

As Tropical Storm Isaac develops off the Gulf coast, one only hopes that it will lessen in force and simply bring much needed rains. But the reality is that NRC staff prepares for adverse conditions — to include hurricane force winds in excess of 75 mph — and takes action before the storm...

Early in the afternoon last August 23, people living near the small town of Mineral, Va., felt a 5.8 magnitude earthquake. That earthquake also hit the nearby North Anna Nuclear Power Station. The plant, operated by Dominion, automatically shut down and lost electrical power from off site. The plant...

On April 26, 1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Ukraine spewed radioactive material into the environment — with immediately tragic effects. Two workers at the site died within hours of the explosion from non-radiation causes. Another 134 suffered from acute radiation...

Ten years ago, the nation was still reeling from the events of Sept. 11th, and the NRC was gearing up to face a changed world with, among other actions, a newly created Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response (NSIR). In those early days, the new NSIR team was working at a hectic pace, requiring...

In the aftermath of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant tragedy, there has been an increased focus on the issue of communicating nuclear issues during a crisis. There is an axiom that an accident at a nuclear plant anywhere is an accident everywhere. The parallel is that in today’s communications...

With hurricane season in the Atlantic beginning this month, the NRC staff has already prepared to take action to ensure NRC-licensed nuclear plants and other facilities remain safe — even during damaging hurricane-force winds and storm surges. Although nuclear plants are built to withstand the...

Last week, the NRC’s Region III Office in Chicago spent the better part of a day dispelling rumors of a nuclear emergency on the border of Indiana and Michigan after two non-governmental radiation monitoring networks allegedly showed extremely high radiation readings. Before the readings were verified...