NRC reviewing Three Mile Island security - refused to reveal what happened

[Breeze54]

NRC reviewing Three Mile Island security

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-24039822.htm

March 26, 2008: 01:20 PM EST

Mar. 26, 2008 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) --

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -

A security problem occurred last year at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, but federal regulators who are reviewing it have refused to reveal what happened.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission examined the issue as part of a routine security inspection that was completed Feb. 8, agency spokeswoman Diane Screnci said Wednesday.

Screnci would not describe the problem, saying federal rules prohibit the disclosure of nuclear plant security deficiencies. A letter with a preliminary report released by the agency characterized the matter as having moderate to serious significance.

The problem was identified last summer by the plant's operator, AmerGen Energy LLC, and was quickly corrected, The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reported in Wednesday's editions.

AmerGen spokesman Ralph DeSantis also declined to explain the nature of the security lapse, citing NRC rules, but said no one was disciplined as a result of it.

'At no time was public health and safety compromised,' DeSantis said.

Although AmerGen, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Exelon Corp. (NYSE:EXC) , was not required to report the problem when it occurred, the NRC was aware of it, Screnci said.

Screnci said the lapse did not involve sleeping or inattentiveness by plant guards -- something that occurred last year at another Exelon-owned plant on the Susquehanna River, Peach Bottom. Exelon fired the private security company, Wackenhut Corp., it had been using at Peach Bottom and nine other nuclear power plants after a videotape surfaced of guards napping on the job.

AmerGen has 10 days to respond to the preliminary report, Screnci said.

Three Mile Island, about 10 miles southeast of Harrisburg, was the site of the nation's worst nuclear accident when a partial meltdown occurred in a reactor in March 1979. Its other reactor continues to operate.

Well, if they weren't sleeping on the job this time, then it had to be much worse!!