LIMERICK - The maker of the casks that will hold spent fuel from the Limerick Nuclear Generating Station was cited last month for violating a manufacturing procedure.

During June inspections at two manufacturing locations in Japan, Kobe Steel Ltd. and Hitachi Zosen Mechanical Corp., inspectors for the Nuclear Regulatory Agency found a violation - the failure to adequately measure the thickness of casks being manufactured there.

The casks in question are not those destined for Limerick, said NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan. "They haven’t even started working on the Limerick casks yet," he said.

The two Japanese manufacturers have been contracted by Columbia, Md.-based Transnuclear Inc., a subsidiary of the French company Areva, to build the casks. Transnuclear holds the license from the NRC for its NUHOMS cask system, which is the one that will be used at Limerick.

Sheehan said the violation is a "level four violation," the lowest issued by the NRC. There are no fines involved as of yet.

In a July 10 letter to Transnuclear President and CEO Tara Neider, NRC official Robert J. Lewis wrote that the company must respond to the violation and the response would be used "to determine whether further enforcement action is necessary."

Neider said Friday the violation notice "had no impact on product quality."

She said other than the paperwork issue for which the violation was received, "the NRC lead auditor said we were otherwise in compliance with NRC regulations and the quality of the construction is excellent."

Beth Rapczynski, spokeswoman for Exelon, e-mailed the following statement after The Mercury forwarded a copy of the NRC notice to their offices Tuesday: "We were aware that Transnuclear was putting corrective actions into their processes surrounding the testing of thickness of steel, but we were not aware on Tuesday that it was going to be considered a notice of violation.

"That is because a notice of violation is between Transnuclear (the licensee) and the NRC (the regulator. Transnuclear has fully briefed us on this issue and we are confident they are making the changes and improvements necessary to deliver us a quality, safe product," Rapczynski wrote.

Despite these reassurances, David Kane, chairman of the Limerick Board of Supervisors, called the news of the violation "troubling."

"Any time there is a violation with anything that has to do with those casks, it is a major concern to Limerick Township," Kane said.

"We intend to contact NRC and Exelon and ask for a full explanation," he said. "We need to be sure there aren’t any more mistakes and that the rest of this project is mistake-free."

The thickness of the casks is important because it is the first shield against the radiation and 400-degree heat the spent fuel will generate for years. The steel casks will rest inside a pre-cast concrete housing, the inside of which will be air-cooled through vents in the concrete.

Sheehan said the violation notice does not necessarily mean that the thickness inspection did not take place, only that it was not property documented as NRC rules require.

Neider said the thickness inspections were done and were documented. "It was just that the documentation that was done was inconsistent with what they are supposed to write down."

She said "corrective measures" have already taken place at the Hitachi Zosen Mechanical Corp. yard where the violation occurred. She said that yard will play a part in the construction of the Limerick casks.

"They do good work for us there," said Neider.

The NRC inspection report notes that while construction on the casks for Limerick has not yet begun, "planning and material procurement is under way."

The same is true of the "transfer cask" which will be used over and over to transfer the radioactive spent fuel from the 45-foot pool of water in which it now rests to the "dry casks," to be located outside the reactor building.

The approval to build the concrete pad on which those outdoor casks will rest was issued July 27 by the Limerick Board of Supervisors.

The approval was not an endorsement of the project, Kane has insisted several times. It was merely a land development approval which the board could not deny, due to the fact that Exelon Nuclear, the company that owns and operates the plant, had met all the legal requirements, he said.

Some residents and a local environmental advocacy group have pushed for further precautions to be taken, particularly against a terrorist attack, but the NRC has made no change in its regulations.

Exelon maintains it will follow NRC regulations.

Evan Brandt ebrandt@pottsmerc.com

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