
DATE: Wednesday, November 26, 1997          TAG: 9711260690

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY AKWELI PARKER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   70 lines

VIRGINIA POWER OWNS UP TO FIRE CONTROL PROBLEMS AT SURRY THE NUCLEAR FACILITY POSES NO IMMEDIATE THREAT TO SAFETY

After realizing that fire safety precautions at its Surry nuclear power station didn't cut it, Virginia Power fessed up to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

That honesty could cost the company tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

If so, it's a small price to pay to keep the NRC watchdog at bay, said Rick Zuercher, spokesman for Virginia Power's nuclear operating unit.

``You don't want NRC finding anything - you find it yourself,'' Zuercher said.

Virginia Power said the shortcoming does not pose a threat to public safety.

The company's forthrightness ``will be taken into consideration,'' said Ken Clark, a spokesman with the NRC's Southeast regional office in Atlanta.

Clark added, ``it's not an immediate safety problem.''

Representatives from Virginia Power will meet with regional NRC officials in Atlanta Dec. 4 to discuss the apparent fire-control problems, including how Virginia Power intends to deal with them.

Probably within 30 days of that meeting, the NRC will decide what enforcement action, if any, to take.

The NRC proposed a $55,000 fine against the company in September for failure to follow a rule on plant maintenance.

The fire safety problems, like most other things in a nuclear plant, are complex.

But simply put, regulators are concerned that the electrical equipment serving the plant's control room and back-up control room don't have the protection to withstand ``a consuming fire.''

That's bad because if a reactor doesn't automatically ``trip,'' or shut down, in an emergency like it's supposed to, and there just happens to be a fire raging out of control in both the control room and the ``remote'' control room, workers can't drop the reactors' control rods to prevent a meltdown.

``The scenario is that the control room is completely engulfed in fire,'' Zuercher said.

``It's a very unlikely situation,'' he said, but ``still we have to look at it and make sure we meet the regulatory requirements.''

Ironically, Virginia Power put itself in the current predicament a few years ago when making an ``upgrade'' to its plants by removing an isolator from its ``bus system'' - electrician talk for a grouping of circuitry that controls certain components, like the control room controls.

It wasn't until later that the company realized the change put the company in violation of NRC rules, Zuercher said.

The utility has reinstalled the isolator on Surry Unit 2 and will do so on Unit 1 next fall, the next time the reactor is scheduled for refueling and major maintenance, according to Zuercher.

Virginia Power is a subsidiary of Richmond-based Dominion Resources Inc., a worldwide energy and financial services firm. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

Shirley Ann Jackson, the chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory

Commission, tours Virginia Power's nuclear power facility in Surry

County during a routine site visit in 1996. The chairwoman was

accompanied by James P. O'Hanlon, left, who remains a vice president

of Virginia Power.

Graphic

PAST FINE

In September the Nuclear Regulatory Commission penalized Virginia

Power for failing to meet provisions of ``the Maintenance Rule,'' a

complicated set of procedures for monitoring plant maintenance.

The fine: $55,000