Ground settlement occurs naturally, caused by factors like rain, drying and earthquakes, and can affect structural integrity, but the NRC hasn’t identified what caused the ground settling in the plant’s area.
“These are some of the questions that the special inspection is looking at, trying to get a feeling for whether there are actually other systems related to safety that will be affected by ground settling and looking at what the causes of ground settling may be,” said Viktoria Mitlyng, senior public affairs officer for the NRC.
Failures in the plant’s fire protection water piping system in October 2022 and March 2023 were likely the result of stress from ground settling, according to the NRC. If the power station is unable to reliably receive water, it’s in greater danger in case of a fire.
After the damages to the water piping, “NRC inspectors verified the plant was in a safe condition and that the licensee took prompt action to restore the fire protection function after both fire protection piping failures,” according to a statement from the NRC Office of Public Affairs.
The special inspection will feature a five member team with experience in fire protection, aging components, seismology, geology and geotechnical science. It’s been tasked with establishing a timeline of ground-settling events, assessing action Energy Corp. took to evaluate the situation and monitoring or mitigating the situation and its potential impact on equipment.
The NRC doesn’t have an expected completion date for the inspection, but when it’s finished the findings will be shared publicly.
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This article appears in Apr 19 – May 3, 2023.