Akhir 12, 1432 / March 17, 2011, SPA -- Spotty inspections of the U.S. nuclear power industry allow plants to continue to operate even when there are known problems in their safety systems, a report by a group of U.S. scientists found, Reuters reported. The report by the Union of Concerned Scientists analyses 14 "near-miss" incidents at U.S. plants and noted that the rate of incidents was "high for a mature industry. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission allowed one reactor to continue operating despite a leaky liner in a refueling cavity and in another case allowed workers at a plant to slow their pace of control rod testing to avoid a shutdown. It also found incidents where the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which it said evaluates about 5 percent of plant activity, fixed problems by requiring plant operators to run tests that proved equipment was faulty even when the plant owner denied there had been a problem. The report noted that previous nuclear disasters, including at Three Mile Island in the United States in 1979 and in Chernobyl in 1986 became catastrophic because plant operators failed to fix known problems. The UCS said its report had been in the works before the Friday earthquake and tsunami in Japan that triggered the current nuclear crisis. -- SPA
