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Westinghouse, a major U.S. corporation, owns and operates the Bluff Road nuclear fuel fabrication facility near Columbia, South Carolina. The plant was built in 1969 and employs about one thousand people. It is one of a few facilities in the U.S. that makes nuclear fuel assemblies for commercial nuclear power plants.
In 2016, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspectors discovered that unsafe levels of uranium had built up in an air pollution control device at the facility. The buildup of the uranium could have led to the release of a small burst of radiation that would have endangered nearby workers. Following the discovery of the uranium buildup, the NRC has been carrying out more inspections and more atomic-safety violations have been found there.
In 2017, there were two minor violations at the plant including the failure of a safety system that was supposed to prevent the accumulation of water in ducts. More recently, Westinghouse failed to provide documentation of its efforts to prevent a small radiation burst. They did not properly study and explain exactly how they would ensure that radioactive, fifty five gallon drums did not react with nuclear materials leaking from a solvent extraction area. According to the NRC, the violation was a relatively low one as far as safety was concerned but it is still an indication that the NRC should have watch the operations at the plant closely.
Westinghouse is attempting to renew its NRC operating license. Spokesmen for Westinghouse have admitted that the company had inadequate safety controls in 2016 and that it has worked to improve them since then. According to Mike Annacone, the factory vice president who was assigned to correct the problems, significant progress has been made. Workers are encouraged to report any potential safety problems and are rewarded for their reporting. The company has also upgraded equipment and has made double-checks a routine part of procedures at the plant.
Annacone said “I have not had a (financial need) that was not supported by our company. That's important. Our company has been going through bankruptcy and recovering from bankruptcy, and through that entire time period, we've been fully supported with what we need to move the plant forward.”
A Westinghouse spokeswoman said, "We are instilling values and improving processes in our organization, intently focused on effectively monitoring our own performance, and promptly self-identifying and correcting problems. Our goal is to find and fix issues before they become significant or before others have to identify them. When problems do self-reveal or are identified by others, we critically assess why we did not find that issue and focus on not only fixing the problem but fixing why we did not self-identify it.”
The NRC does believe that Westinghouse has made the facility safer for the one thousand workers and the public who live nearby. An NRC inspector said, “We're seeing good behavior, and their management is reinforcing that. It's going to take a little time, improving the safety culture, but they are on the right path.”