Most employee complaints
The U.S. nuclear power plants where employees made the most allegations about safety problems from 2012 through 2015 were: 1. Millstone units 2 & 3, 55 complaints 2. Watts Bar Unit 1, 54 complaints 3. Browns Ferry units 1,2 and 3, 52 complaints 4. Susquehanna units 1 and 2, 50 5. Indian Point 2 & 3, 43 complaints Source: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The NRC has received six safety concerns from employees at Watts Bar already this year, bringing to 54 the number of such complaints made to regulators in the past three years. Only the Millstone Nuclear Power Station, the biggest power plant in Connecticut, has had more such complaints from its employees since 2012.
More allegations have been substantiated by the NRC in 2016 for Watts Bar than for any other plant. In fact, the only allegation substantiated by the NRC in 2016 for the entire fleet of operating nuclear plants was at Watts Bar.
NRC spokesman Roger Hannah said Wednesday that regulators take each of the employee safety allegations seriously, especially since utilities have their own internal employee concerns program to try to deal with problems before they reach a regulatory level.
"But more important than the number of these allegations is their seriousness, so just adding up the number may not indicate how serious a problem there may or may not be," Hannah said.
The NRC spokesman also noted that when more workers are at a nuclear plant, as they have been during construction of the Unit 2 reactor at Watts Bar, there are often more concerns voiced by employees.
But regulators have concluded that TVA has a problem with employee safety concerns and the way they are being handled at the Watts Bar nuclear plant, where thousands of workers have spent the past six years working to finish a second reactor at the twin-reactor facility.
The NRC last week issued a warning and request for more information from TVA after determining that a "chilled work environment" exists within the operations staff at the Watts Bar plant. An NRC review found that some operations employees may not have felt free to raise safety concerns, and some licensed operators may have been unduly influenced and directed by sources external to the control room.
"While we believe TVA management understands these issues, the chilling effect letter documents the NRC concerns and our expectations that TVA fully address them and ensure that all plant employees feel free to raise any safety problems," said NRC Region II Administrator Cathy Haney.
TVA officials must respond to the letter within 30 days with a plan describing how the work environment concerns will be addressed.The NRC will then schedule a public meeting with TVA to discuss its plan as well as NRC monitoring and inspection of corrective actions.
TVA spokesman Jim Hopson said the utility takes the NRC letter "very seriously" and is working to respond "in both a timely and comprehensive manner" while trying to improve the plant's work environment.
"We have a robust employee concerns program and continue to actively encores employees to raise concerns, including reporting them to the NRC," Hopson said. "Our actions are focused on ensuring a healthy work environment for raising concerns so issues are identified, addressed and resolved."
TVA plans to soon start limited power production at the unit 2 reactor at Watts Bar, 43 years after construction began. Work on the reactor has been started and stopped several times through the years. But TVA plans to have the reactor running at full power and declared a commercial unit by June, Hopson said.