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NRC issues fine for missing fuel rods at nuclear plant |
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| USA: June 27, 2002 | ||
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WASHINGTON - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed this week fining the owners of the Millstone nuclear power plant in Connecticut $288,000 for losing two of the reactor's radioactive fuel rods.
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The NRC has ordered tighter security at nuclear power plants following the Sept. 11 attacks to not only protect the facilities from sabotage but also to keep terror groups from obtaining radioactive material that could be wrapped around conventional explosives to make a so-called "dirty bomb." The agency said it found no evidence that the rods were stolen. "The very high radiation level of the material would have made theft difficult, dangerous and highly unlikely," NRC said. Northeast Utilities , the former operator of the Millstone plant, told the NRC in November 2000 that two fuel rods from the facility's unit 1 reactor were unaccounted for when the company conducted an inventory of rods in the plant's storage pool. The company said that the fuel rods had most likely been cut into segments and sent to a low-level radioactive waste facility along with other irradiated reactor hardware sometime between March 1985 and December 1992. The NRC agreed with the company's conclusions, but still levied a fine on the plant's new owners - Dominion Resources' subsidiary Dominion Nuclear Connecticut. "Notwithstanding the fact that there was no realistic threat, past or present to the public health and safety, the loss of highly radioactive fuel rods is unprecedented and is a very significant violation," NRC said in a letter Dominion. Dominion has 30 days to respond to the proposed fine.
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REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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