Incident Report Subject: Browns Ferry nuclear plant had a control room fire in January, regulators took months to notify public Date of Email report: Fri 20/07/2012 Report Detail:
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- TVA's Browns Ferry nuclear plant near Athens had a fire in one its control rooms in January, but public notice of the event was not issued until this week. The roughly 10-minute fire in the Unit 3 control room was caused by an electrical component determined to be about 34 years old, some four times older than its recommended shelf life, according to a TVA incident report. TVA's report on the Jan. 26 fire was submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on March 26. An NRC spokesman said Friday he had no explanation why the report was not made public by the NRC until July 9. The fire was reportedly caused by a failed power supply in a panel. It burned out some plant alarms and warning lights. TVA determined the fire did not affect safety systems and did not last long enough to warrant immediate reporting to the NRC. An NRC inspector at the plant responded to the control room shortly after the fire but there were conflicting versions of what occurred, NRC spokesman Joey Ledford said Friday. "He was told there was no fire, no damage to any adjacent equipment," Ledford said. "He asked all the typical questions and determined it had been a minor problem." Then TVA issued the report in March, Ledford said, which was the first time the NRC "heard there was an actual fire." Ledford said the NRC is still reviewing the incident, but a "disposition" is expected by late August. He said there has been no inspection finding issued. Ray Golden, a TVA spokesman said control room operators smelled burning insulation and acted quickly on the day of the fire. Golden said no plant operation were affected by the fire, as "redundant" systems provided the same function as the burned out panel. The fire has caused the utility to develop a maintenance program for the capacitors, which do not deal directly with safety systems. "Those events were opportunities to look into the preventative maintenance program for the components to learn what TVA learned after this one -- that eight to 10 years is the recommended replacement frequency," Lochbaum said. "TVA plans a preventative maintenance task to replace the Unit 2 and 3 power supplies every 10 years. A company focused on ensuring safety and preventing failures would replace them every eight years or even more often." TVA reported the Unit 3 capacitors all dated back to the original construction of the unit, 34 years ago. Browns Ferry was the site of the worst nuclear plant fire in U.S. history in 1975. A plant employee using a candle to look for air hose leaks accidentally ignited some sealing material, the fire resulted in operators having no control over the plant for about an hour. Browns Ferry officials didn't notify Limestone County Emergency Management officials about the fire until the following day. Many of the current nuclear plant fire regulations followed the 1975 incident. TVA takes fire safety very seriously, Golden said. "We have made some physical improvements and are doing a lot of engineering and analytical work to enhance fire protection, but we still have some ways to go," Golden said. "We are absolutely committed to having state of the art fire protection programs at all of our plants, especially at Browns Ferry." Additional Documentation: Browns Ferry Unit 3 Fire Report
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