Palisades Nuclear Power Plant gets new inspector

South Haven — 

 

The troubled Palisades Nuclear Power Plant near South Haven has a new resident inspector, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced today.

April Scarbeary joins Senior NRC Resident Inspector Thomas Taylor at the facility.  Each commercial nuclear power plant in the United States has at least two resident inspectors who monitor day-to-day operations at the plant.

“Scarbeary’s background, training, and experience will assist the NRC in carrying out its mission of protecting people and the environment and ensuring the safe operation of nuclear power plants,” said Cynthia Pederson, Acting Regional Administrator for NRC Region III.

Since joining the NRC, Scarbeary has completed an inspector qualification program as well as the agency’s Nuclear Safety Professional Development Program as a member of the class of 2010.

Palisades was listed as one of the four lowest rated power plants in the nation in a Nuclear Regulatory Commission annual assessment released in March.

Of the 104 commercial reactors in the United States, 99 were performing at a high level.
Palisades was not and was listed as performing at a “degraded level.”

The facility was downgraded in February as the result of an NRC investigation of an electrical fault in September. The incident resulted in a reactor trip and the loss of half of the control room indicators.

Radioactive steam was released into the environment, though the radiation levels were within acceptable levels.
The plant at 27780 Blue Star Highway in Covert Township is owned by Entergy and provides about 18 percent of the power for Consumers Energy. It began operation in 1971. Its license expires in 2031.

Parts of Allegan County are within a 10-mile-radius Emergency Planning Zone — the prime area where people could be effected by a radiation leak from the plant and evacuations would be mostly likely in an emergency.

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