ＥＥＥ会議（米国原子力事情：Indian Point原発の現状）....................................................031225
米国ニューヨーク州のIndian
Point原発が抱える問題については、これまで数回にわ
たって詳しくご紹介してきましたが、その後状況は一向に好転せず、いままた、原子
力規制委員会（ＮＲＣ）の最新報告によれば、同原発の２号機、３号機（１号機は３
０年来シャットダウンしている）は、過去１２ヶ月間に、全米の他の原発に比べて約
３倍の頻度でシャットダウンしている（全米平均は年に０．６４回）とのことで、テ
ロ攻撃の脅威のほかに、安全面でもいろいろ問題だらけのようです。それだけ周辺住
民の監視の目が厳しいということで、大都会の近傍に原発を作ることの困難さを物語
るものと言えましょう。詳細は次のNew
York
Timesの記事でどうぞ。
--KK
*******************************************
Indian
Point Is Criticized for Shutdowns
By STACEY STOWE
Published:
December 25, 2003
The Indian Point nuclear plant had three times as
many unplanned shutdowns
in a 12-month period as any other plant in the
nation, an official of the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission said yesterday. The
agency said in a report
released a day before that a failure to follow
protocol, insufficient
quality control and poor contractor oversight
contributed to the shutdowns
at the plant in Buchanan, N.Y.
The
report, which was first reported yesterday by The Journal News, was
initiated
after the plant's reactors ? Indian Point 2 and 3 ? experienced a
combined
total of eight unplanned shutdowns in a period of a year and a
half, a
spokesman for the regulatory commission said. The national average
for
shutdowns at a power plant is 0.64 per year, he said.
The Indian Point
plant, in northern Westchester County on the Hudson River,
has been a focus
of concern since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It
was later
discovered that one of the hijacked planes had flown close to the
plant on
its way to the World Trade Center.
The 47-page report, which examined
shutdowns from late December 2001 to
August 2003, says diesel generators in
offices at the plant failed during
the blackout of Aug. 14, forcing technical
support and emergency response
crews to relocate and use contingency plans.
Both systems were previously
identified as problematic but were never
repaired, the report said.
"The failure affected their emergency response
facilities, but in a
real-world scenario, there was no safety implication to
that," said Neil A.
Sheehan, the spokesman for the regulatory
commission.
The report, completed Oct. 24 after a one-month inspection,
identifies six
problems at the plant, including poor preventive maintenance
and failure to
follow emergency procedures and proper protocol in response to
unplanned
shutdowns.
In one case, poor protocol during a shutdown
resulted in improper handling
of pressure levels in the reactor coolant
system, the report said. Each of
the findings was categorized by the
commission as posing the lowest safety
risk in its four-tier category.
Entergy Corporation, the New Orleans company
that owns Indian Point, has 30
days to issue a response to the report, Mr.
Sheehan said.
James
Steets, a spokesman for Entergy, said the company plans to improve
oversight
of its contractors, many of whom supplement its 1,500 employees by
working in
such areas as high-voltage electricity repair and maintenance. He
said that
the long inspection and ensuing report found what he called
relatively minor
problems. "They really found very little," Mr. Steets said.
He added that the
areas cited in the report either have been addressed or
are being addressed.
"We're not where we want to be, but we're working
toward that," he
said.
But at least one environmental group said the report was one more
piece of
evidence that should lead to the shutting down of the plant. Kyle
Rabin, a
senior policy analyst for Riverkeeper, the Hudson River watchdog
group,
criticized both Entergy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for
minimizing
the significance of the report's findings, which he said
illustrate serious
safety issues at the plant.
"This is just more
ammunition for elected officials representing the public
in this region to
call for the closing of Indian Point," he said.
Mr. Rabin said the
disclosure that the backup generators had failed on Aug.
14 contradicted a
statement released by Entergy that said generators at the
plant had been
operational. Mr. Steets said yesterday that the statement
referred to the
emergency diesel generators used for the reactors, not in
offices.
One
longstanding problem at Indian Point is the switch yard, an
electrical
substation operated by Con Edison, where power is transmitted from
the plant
to the power grid, the report said. Entergy has "failed to take
appropriate
and timely corrective actions to avoid grid-related reactor
trips," the
report said. At least half of the unplanned shutdowns can be
attributed to
the switch yard or off-site electrical problems like the
blackout, Mr.
Steets said.
"More strides should have been made by
now," Mr. Sheehan said. The Nuclear
Regulatory Commission will conduct an
annual inspection of Indian Point next
spring.
The plants at Indian
Point, 2 of 103 operating reactors at 68 sites in the
nation, produce enough
energy to power two million homes, Mr. Steets said.
There are three reactors,
but Indian Point 1 has been shut down since the
1970's. Indian Point 2 and 3
are licensed to operate for the next decade and
are eligible to apply for
license renewal, Mr. Sheehan said.