Oconee Nuclear plant: “quality issues with vendors”

So you think this stops at Oconee?

Repko and his colleagues blamed “quality issues with vendors” and waiting too long to assess the root causes of the delays.

This is the oldest game of delaying a inspection, investigation or root cause investigation for self interest....engineering the timeframe for a investigation...

The NRC can't enforce standards on Oconee and Oconee can't enforce standards on their venders.

Welcome to the to the world of the mad dog rabid "I hate the government standards anything" teabagger right wing extremist Republicans...

Nuclear station fire improvements delayed until 2016

　
ROCKVILLE, Md. — Duke Energy officials said Tuesday that fire safety upgrades at the Oconee Nuclear Station may not be complete until November 2016.

Duke executives met with Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff Tuesday to explain why the upgrades, which were due for completion at the end of 2012, are still not done. Temporary measures such as portable water pumps for firefighting, enhanced training for employees and mutual-aid agreements with Oconee County’s emergency management office are now in place.

Regis Repko, the Duke vice president in charge of the Oconee station, admitted that the temporary measures are little comfort.

“Incremental risk management cannot excuse the fact we missed the date,” Repko said.

Repko and his colleagues blamed “quality issues with vendors” and waiting too long to assess the root causes of the delays.

“We did not understand the full breadth and scope of the project,” Repko said.

Duke asked in July 2012 for an extension until 2014 to finish the project, only to be rebuffed by the commission. When pressed Tuesday for an estimate of when the work would be complete, Repko and his colleagues said it would probably be November 2016 — four years past the deadline and two years later than they estimated last summer.

They said many of the corrective actions have only come since the beginning of this year, after the extension request was denied.

“It sounds like a lot of this was in response to the (enforcement) letter sent earlier this year,” noted NRC staffer John Monninger

Industry watchdogs listening in on a conference call were incensed.

“I find it troubling that they’ve laid off a timeline three and a half years down the road,” said Tom Clements of Friends of the Earth in Columbia.

David Lochbaum, the Knoxville-based watchdog for the Union of Concerned Scientists, called for the “immediate shutdown” of all three nuclear reactors at the Oconee facility until Duke is in full compliance.

Monninger, who ran the meeting, wrapped up the proceedings by stressing that no action, civil or otherwise, has been determined. No date has been set for the NRC to announce what, if any, sanctions Duke will face.