A year ago, federal regulators took the unprecedented step of requiring Commonwealth Edison to prove it could safely run all six of its nuclear power plants.
On Wednesday, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission official, clearly frustrated, told the utility it still had not done so. Instead, it had allowed its Quad Cities plant to all but unravel, despite being under unprecedented scrutiny by the NRC.
The plant, located near Moline on the Mississippi River, is now temporarily closed, joining ranks with two other idle Edison plants. Company officials admitted Wednesday that management at Quad Cities had lost its focus on basic safety issues and the plant will not start up again before spring.
Though candid, the admission did nothing to mollify the regulators.
More Top Picks Concussion In Kids Vision Warning Signs
“What else do we have to do?” A. Bill Beach, NRC regional administrator, asked Edison officials at a meeting Wednesday. “What other tools do we have? Have we used all our tools?”
Though rhetorical, Beach’s questions beg answers. The NRC has been working on Edison’s problems for so long that there is almost nothing in their regulatory toolbox that they have not already tried.
It is unlikely that the NRC will shut down any of Edison’s plants, a move the commission did take against the Millstone nuclear plant in Connecticut.
But the NRC has been demanding improvement from Edison for years, and pressure is increasing on regulators to find something to bring Edison in line with standards met by the rest of the nuclear industry.
The full commission could take some action, including adding Quad Cities to its watch list, when it meets next week in Washington.
It was at a similar meeting a year ago that the NRC required Edison to prove it could safely operate its plants, an exercise regulators hoped would help end the utility’s “cyclic performance.” History shows that as Edison has improved one plant, it has allowed another to slip.
“Perhaps it didn’t do the thing we were trying to do,” Beach told Edison officials Wednesday. “We can’t continue to be in the same circle. . . . This January we are back to where we were last January.”
After the meeting, Oliver Kingsley, Edison’s new boss for its nuclear division, said he is not satisfied with the company’s performance but vowed to improve things.
“I think we can run the nuclear power plants safely,” Kingsley said. “But we have to have a sense of urgency, we have to have the right management, we have to have the right systems in place.”
During the meeting, Beach told Edison that the NRC is increasingly trying to look at Edison’s corporate oversight of the plants, suggesting that the real problem lies far beyond the six control rooms.
Again, Quad Cities was a case in point. Six months ago, regulators thought the plant was improving. Now, corporate firefighters are rushing there to snuff out problems, and the plant is months from starting up again.
“That’s more than just a decline,” he said. “That is representative of something that is not right with the system as a whole.”
Edison acknowledged its problems at Quad Cities. Edison’s Steven Perry told the NRC that management at the plant had lost sight of safety issues.
“Top management there doesn’t have a safety focus,” Perry said. “Their question is `How do we keep the plant going?’ instead of `Should we keep the plant going?’ “
Edison has transferred another executive to the site to try to turn around Quad Cities.
“His words to me are that he is taking a dictator’s role, rather than have his people manage, until he solves that problem,” Perry told the NRC.
Meanwhile, Kingsley told the NRC that the Zion plant is a long way from restarting. “I don’t even think it is close,” he said.
The company was warned, however, about taking steps to be certain it has corrected its problems at Zion and other plants.
“We are in a place where there is zero room for any more surprises,” Beach said. “The surprises are over.”