The Wolf Creek nuclear power plant near Burlington got a bad report card Friday.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that because an electrical short caused an unplanned shutdown last January, the plant will face increased federal oversight. There will be more inspections, which the plant operators will pay for.
Increased oversight might have prevented the problem, which happened because electrical wires were improperly connected by electrical workers in April 2011.
The safety status of nuclear plants in the United States is ranked in five categories. According to an Associated Press report, 62 of our 104 nuclear plants qualify for “column one,” the best rating, because they meet all safety requirements. Another 34 are in “column two,” with one or two problems that need to be resolved. Kansas’ only nuclear plant is now in “column three,” along with three reactors in New Jersey and one each in Florida, Michigan and Ohio. Only the Browns Ferry reactor near Athens, Ala., is in the fourth column, and none are in the last column, reserved for plants that need to be shut down.
The pros and cons of nuclear energy have been debated since the first reactor, near Arco, Idaho, generated power in 1951. That was also the first reactor to have a partial meltdown, in 1955. In the 1960s, plans began for the Wolf Creek plant, which took years to build as protests mounted in the ’70s and ’80s.
Wolf Creek’s operators note that the plant “has been safely providing clean energy to the citizens of Kansas and Missouri since 1985. The plant generates about 1,200 megawatt electrical, which is enough energy for approximately 800,000 homes!”
And, concerning Friday’s news, Wolf Creek spokeswoman Jenny Hageman said the problem that caused the shutdown was quickly corrected and followed up with extensive inspections. “At Wolf Creek, operating the plant safely is our highest priority, and we take the NRC’s finding seriously,” Hageman said in a statement. “Our corrective actions are focused on enhancing oversight of work and the people who perform it at the site.”
Now the NRC can help sharpen that focus.