NRC Holding Public Meeting on Status of TVA's Work Environment
The Oct. 18 meeting concerns corrective actions the Tennessee Valley Authority agreed to make at its nuclear plants and corporate offices after NRC staff in 2016 expressed the concern that some operations employees may not have felt comfortable raising safety concerns at the Watts Bar nuclear plant.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a public meeting Oct. 18 with Tennessee Valley Authority officials in order to be briefed on the current status and progress of actions to improve the safety-conscious work environment at the Watts Bar nuclear plant, which is located near Spring City, about 60 miles southwest of Knoxville, Tenn. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. at the Comfort Inn, 2811 Decatur Pike in Athens, Tenn.
NRC's announcement of the meeting states that the NRC staff issued a letter to Knoxville-based TVA on March 23, 2016. In it, staff expressed the concern that some
operations employees may not have felt comfortable raising safety concerns at the plant. After a mediation session in June 2017, NRC issued a Confirmatory
Order to TVA, which agreed to an extensive list of corrective actions to address the safety-conscious work environment issues.
Although the issues were identified at the Watts Bar plant, TVA also agreed to implement actions at its Browns Ferry (near Huntsville, Ala.) and Sequoyah (near Chattanooga, Tenn.) nuclear plants and also in its corporate offices.
During the Oct. 18 meeting, TVA officials are expected to provide an update on those corrective actions, and NRC officials will ask questions and discuss the agency's continuing oversight regarding the issue. NRC staff will be available after the business portion of the meeting to answer questions from members of the public and the media.