NRC called lax on fire regs

Harris plant has long-term waiver

A congressional watchdog has warned that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been lax in enforcing fire safety at Progress Energy's Shearon Harris nuclear plant as well as other nuclear facilities.

This week, the Government Accountability Office chided the NRC for granting the nation's nuclear plants more than 900 waivers to federal fire safety rules. The Shearon Harris plant in southwestern Wake County has relied on one such exemption for years to deal with a potential fire hazard.

The GAO, a research division used by Congress, produced the report in response to a request by Democratic Rep. David Price about the Shearon Harris plant. Price's congressional district covers most of the Triangle and includes Shearon Harris.

"They cited the NRC's poor track record of enforcing fire safety rules and a lack of clear standards for granting exemptions," said Paul Cox, Price's spokesman in Washington. "The NRC has been pretty inconsistent in the way it grants exemptions."

The GAO report, issued Monday, did not declare the nation's nuclear plants unsafe. But the GAO did reveal there have been 125 fires at 54 of the nation's 65 nuclear sites since 1995. None of the fires raised major safety risks.

As a result of the study, Congress will press the NRC to improve oversight, Cox said. The fire safety concerns at Shearon Harris have remained unresolved for more than a decade.

Progress Energy uses fire patrols at the nuclear plant because the fire-retardant wrap designed to protect electrical conduits has failed laboratory tests under extreme heat. The electrical lines are needed to operate safety equipment for shutting down the nuclear reactor during an emergency. Critics have said that the safety equipment at Shearon Harris could become inoperable during a fire if the wrap failed to protect electrical conduits.

In May, the Raleigh-based utility proposed to meet an alternative fire-safety regulation. The NRC will take about a year to review the application.

Progress Energy has spent $6.5 million on engineering studies and modifications and expects to spend another $10 million by 2010. The company constructed replicas of nuclear plant equipment and cable configurations to be tested for heat-resistance in a laboratory, Progress spokesman Mike Hughes said.