An extra 1,000 hours of inspection by Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors will be performed in 2013 at the Palisades nuclear power plant in Covert Township, but beyond that, the NRC says the plant's safety culture has improved greatly over the past year. Region Three administrator Chuck Casto says there are still some concerns they have.
As for whether or not the NRC is getting any pressure from Congress, and specifically Fred Upton as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to get the plant in line, Casto says that's not happening. He says he's trying to be as open as possible about the plant.
Palisades has been moved out of the column of the worst-performing plants and is now listed in "column one," called the "licensee response column," which is the most common and has the least amount of oversight. Parent company Entergy has to pay for the extra inspections at a cost of $248 per hour, with that money going to the U.S. Treasury and not the NRC. For 2013, that means they'll shell out another 248-thousand dollars on top of the nearly 500-grand spent on extra inspections in 2012.
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As for whether or not the NRC is getting any pressure from Congress, and specifically Fred Upton as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to get the plant in line, Casto says that's not happening. He says he's trying to be as open as possible about the plant.
|
Listen: |
|
Palisades has been moved out of the column of the worst-performing plants and is now listed in "column one," called the "licensee response column," which is the most common and has the least amount of oversight. Parent company Entergy has to pay for the extra inspections at a cost of $248 per hour, with that money going to the U.S. Treasury and not the NRC. For 2013, that means they'll shell out another 248-thousand dollars on top of the nearly 500-grand spent on extra inspections in 2012.
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