U.S. Orders 110 A-Plants to Check Circuit Breakers

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has sent an unprecedented order to the nation’s 110 nuclear plants requiring them to conduct inspections and tests to ferret out possibly counterfeit and faulty circuit breakers in safety-related applications.

In the Nov. 22 commission bulletin, which was obtained by The Times, the federal agency told utilities that recent inspections it has made “indicate a potential safety concern regarding electrical equipment supplied to nuclear power plants.”

Plant safety systems rely on circuit breakers to trigger equipment that cools reactor fuel with water in an emergency. Commission officials said that in a worst-case scenario, if the circuit breakers were not activated when needed, a plant could release dangerous radiation.

So far, a counterfeit or faulty circuit breaker has never been blamed for any kind of incident at a nuclear plant, according to the agency.

The order grew out of an ongoing investigation by the agency into counterfeit and faulty parts making their way into nuclear plants. Earlier this month, the agency raided four Southern California companies that allegedly sold counterfeit circuit breakers to nuclear plants.

In July, PG&E; reported that it had found 30 counterfeit circuit breakers in its inventory at the utility’s Diablo Canyon nuclear plant near San Luis Obispo. The same month, Southern California Edison Co.’s nuclear plant at San Onofre discovered that it had bought 16 potentially counterfeit breakers.

The new inspections are necessary, the agency said, “to provide reasonable assurance that nuclear power plants can be operated without undue risk to the public health and safety.”

The commission is requiring the utilities to finish their reviews by March 1. If a utility discovers potentially counterfeit circuit breakers that have already been installed and cannot be immediately tested, they must submit “an analysis justifying continued operation,” according to the bulletin.

There have been “numerous failures” of certain types of circuit breakers during preliminary commission-supervised tests, the bulletin said.

The agency is requiring each plant to inspect and test a minimum of 50 circuit breakers. Spokesman Greg Cook said it could take utilities as many as 10,000 hours of labor each to complete the necessary work.

“It’s going to require a lot of money,” he said.

New Plants as Well

Fourteen nuclear plants under construction are also being required to conduct the series of 10 tests.

Spokesman Dick Davin said Pacific Gas & Electric is still evaluating the order and how it will affect its Diablo Canyon nuclear plant.

“We have to put a plan together and we haven’t had a chance to do that yet,” Davin said.

Southern California Edison Co. spokesman Dave Barron said the San Onofre plant, just south of San Clemente, had not yet received the order.

“We will certainly review it and comply,” he said.

Attached to the commission bulletin is a memorandum from Underwriters Laboratory, a nonprofit testing agency that certifies circuit breakers. The laboratory criticized the commission, saying that “the test program is not adequate to provide assurance that the tested . . . circuit breakers would be suitable for their intended purpose.”

But the commission responded that it “considers the test program to provide a reasonable assurance of performance requirements and characteristics most important to ensuring reactor safety.”

Since July, the agency has raided 10 different distributors of circuit breakers that the agency alleges sold counterfeit or faulty equipment to nuclear plants. All of the companies are located in Southern California.

The agency has alleged that at least some of the firms sold used circuit breakers as new and then gave them labels from prominent companies, such as Square D, Westinghouse and General Electric.

The NRC has told utilities that more than 50 companies may be involved in counterfeiting circuit breakers and other electrical components.