POLITICS ON THE HUDSON

Bad bolts at Indian Point 'largest seen to date'

Joseph Spector
Albany Bureau Chief
A view of the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan Jan. 27, 2016.

ALBANY -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it found an unprecedented number of deteriorating bolts at the Indian Point nuclear plant.

The federal agency said a recent review at the Buchanan, Westchester County, plant found 227 of 832 "baffle-former bolts at the plant were degraded, which means any indication of cracking. What’s more, two bolt heads were missing."

The amount of troubled bolts were more than the NRC has ever encountered, according to a blog post on its website Tuesday.

"The number of degraded baffle-former bolts was the largest seen to date at a U.S. reactor," the agency wrote.

The review came after Indian Point reported the bad bolts during a planned outage last month. Entergy, the plant's owner, said at the time that a scheduled inspection of more than 2,000 bolts on a liner in the plant’s Unit 2 reactor “revealed issues” with about 11 percent of the bolts, or about 220 of them.

The company said the problems included “missing bolts” and “other degradation requiring replacement of the bolts."

The company and the NRC said degradation of the bolts at nuclear plants go back decades.

"The issue of bolts that degrade over time is known in the industry and is the reason we undertook these comprehensive inspections," Entergy said in a statement Friday.

"Entergy committed to the NRC to do these inspections, our experts identified the issues with the bolts, and we are using expert engineers and technicians to perform the maintenance."

The company added that, "The bolt replacement work has begun, and we will ensure the plant is safe to operate before returning Unit 2 to service, which is expected to occur by late June."

The NRC said it will review the work at Indian Point.

"We will independently review the company’s analysis and bolt-replacement plans to ensure safety," the blog post, which was first reported on by Politico New York, said. "The results of those reviews will be documented in an upcoming inspection report for the plant."

When the faulty bolts were first announced, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the issue raised "deep concerns."

He has called for the closure of the nuclear facility, citing its location in the densely populated New York City area.

“This is the latest in a long series of incidents that raise deep concerns about the management, maintenance and equipment standards at this plant,” Cuomo said in the statement March 30.

Entergy has been seeking since 2007 to extend its licenses for Indian Point’s two reactors, Units 2 and 3, for 20 more years. But the licenses have yet to be extended, and the plant can continue to operate in the meantime.

Cuomo's office has put pressure on the plant, particularly after radioactive tritium-contaminated water was discovered in groundwater earlier this year. Entergy said the situation had no impact on public health or safety.

Last November, the state refused to give Indian Point a certificate to use the Hudson River, and Entergy has since sued.