Federal regulators issue record fines against TVA over Watts Bar startup problems in 2015

Federal regulators have slapped the biggest combined civil penalties ever against the Tennessee Valley Authority for a handful of violations of federal regulations during the restart of one of its Tennessee nuclear reactors.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday proposed three fines totaling $903,471 against TVA for providing inaccurate and insufficient information to regulators and violating proper procedures in November 2015 when pressurized water levels rose uncontrollably during the restart of the Unit 1 reactor at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, Tennessee.

The NRC also issued citations against two managers and the plant operator at Watts Bar for their roles in the 2015 incident and for failing to adequately investigate and correct the problem.

Although the incident did not ultimately cause any harm to the public or plant employees, NRC investigators criticized TVA’s safety culture and approach to running its newest nuclear plant where TVA also added another nuclear reactor in 2016. That reactor remains the last new commercial reactor added to America’s power grid.

In a letter to TVA Friday, the head of NRC’s enforcement special project team, Kenneth G. O’Brien, singled out the top officials at Watts Bar five years ago for not giving plant operators enough discretion to stop or delay plant operations unless they could directly prove there was a safety problem.