By Associated Press
Athens AL – Federal regulators are conducting a special inspection at the Browns Ferry nuclear plant in north Alabama.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, which operates the plant, found significant degradation of heat exchanger service water flow control valves on Unit 3 last month.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a statement Tuesday that it decided to do a special inspection because of the importance of the valves, the common nature of the degradation and the inability of current surveillance tests to detect the degraded condition.
The residual heat removal system removes heat during shutdowns and refueling operations to control the temperature of the reactor coolant system.
The inspection started Monday and is expected to take several days.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.