Counterfeit Valves Found at Diablo, 2nd Nuclear Plant

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday that counterfeit valves have been found in at least two nuclear plants, including the Diablo Canyon facility near San Luis Obispo.

Pacific Gas & Electric notified the NRC in April that it had found 60 counterfeit 2-inch valves in use at Diablo Canyon in systems that were not related to plant safety, agency officials said at a public hearing into the counterfeiting problem. The valves first came to the utility’s attention after they started leaking.

Officials said the counterfeit valves that were discovered did not endanger the public, but they added that such devices could conceivably pose a safety problem if found to be in widespread use in the nation’s nuclear power facilities.

Cook said it would be “extremely unlikely” that failure of the counterfeit valves would have caused the release of dangerous radiation, but similar valves also are used as part of the plant safety system that cools reactor fuel with water in an emergency.

In addition to Diablo Canyon, the NRC said counterfeit valves were discovered at Consumers Power Co.’s Palisades nuclear plant near Kalamazoo, Mich., where the agency said it had identified about 65 valves that contained parts that were believed to be counterfeit.

The NRC said it still is trying to determine the extent of the problem. “I can’t imagine this could only be limited to two isolated circumstances,” said a high-ranking NRC official who requested anonymity.

Series of Disclosures

The discovery of the valves is the latest in a recent series of disclosures involving counterfeit material at nuclear plants around the nation. Tuesday’s public hearing was held to announce the results of the NRC’s first five months of investigations into other counterfeit parts that have been found, including circuit breakers, pipes, fittings, bolts and screws.

The agency said it has not turned up any examples of safety problems caused by these parts. “I don’t think we are close to . . . any (dangerous) cliffs,” said Brian Grimes, spokesman for the commission’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.

Nevertheless, in the case of valves alone, the NRC said plants such as Diablo Canyon may be using as many as 40,000 valves in safety and non-safety systems. Given the large number of companies that sell valves to nuclear plants, some sources said they fear that counterfeiters may have successfully infiltrated nuclear plants with their products on a wide scale.

The labels on the valves found at Diablo Canyon indicated that they were made by Henry Vogt Machine Co. of Louisville, Ky., but company officials confirmed that they were counterfeit. PG&E; bought the valves from an undisclosed Southern California distributor.

The NRC last summer warned owners of the nation’s 110 nuclear plants to beware of counterfeit valves. Last Friday, the commission sent a special notice to utilities asking them to be on the lookout for counterfeit valves like those recently found at the Palisades plant in Michigan.

Like those at Diablo Canyon, the counterfeit valves at the Palisades plant were found when they started to leak. The valves were sold with labels that said they were manufactured by Masoneilan-Dresser Co., a Norwood, Mass., company that said the valves were rebuilt counterfeits.

Consumers Power Co. did not say whether they were used in safety-related systems.

At times during Tuesday’s hearing, NRC Chairman Lando Zech seemed irritated with staff members who kept pointing out that some of the parts had been found in non-safety related systems. “As far as I’m concerned,” he said, “everything in a nuclear power plant involves safety.”

The NRC is pursuing 20 separate investigations of the use of counterfeit parts, according to William Hutchinson of the NRC’s Office of Investigations.

Distributors Raided

Since July, the NRC 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 in Southern California.

The NRC, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Defense Department have launched a nationwide effort to crack down on counterfeiters whose parts have made their way into commercial jetliners and the space shuttle, as well as nuclear plants and missiles.

Gregory Crouch reported from Los Angeles and Douglas Jehl from Washington.