US Nuclear Commission Launch Investigation of Damaged Containment Vessel

US Nuclear Regulatory Commission stated that it began an inspection on one of its containment vessels after one of its units at Summer Nuclear Station in South Carolina was reported damaged.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) began an inspection on one of its containment vessels after one of its units at Summer Nuclear Station in South Carolina was reported damaged, according to the NRC statement.

“The Nuclear Regulatory Commission began a special inspection today of inadvertent damage to the containment vessel during construction at Unit 2 of the Summer nuclear plant,” the NRC statement read on Monday.

Earlier in February, employees of the world's largest energy infrastructure company Chicago Bridge & Iron (CB&I) damaged the containment vessel’s bottom head while drilling, according to the report by energy corporation SCANA Corp. provided to NRC.

“While the actual damage appears to have been minor, we want to make sure we completely understand its potential impact and the apparent breakdown in controls that might have prevented it,” NRC Region II Administrator Victor McCree said in the company’s statement on Monday. “We are also concerned about the delay in CB&I reporting the issue.”

The three-member NRC inspection team will spend about a week on site reviewing the events and the CB&I and SCANA assessments in addition to producing its own independent assessment, according to the nuclear commission’s statement. The NRC team’s findings will be made public within 45 days of the end of inspection.