VERNON, Vt. (AP) - Federal regulators say security officials at the Vermont Yankee plant violated Entergy Nuclear’s safety procedures last November in how they dealt with a suspected pipe bomb.
The item turned out to be a discarded pump, said Neil Sheehan, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
An anonymous internal report filed by a plant employee says the item was found a couple hundred yards away from the reactor building, the Rutland Herald reports (https://bit.ly/1kStc5W ). Police were called, but there was never a threat to employees or public safety, said Entergy spokesman Robert Williams.
Williams said the company doesn’t comment on security issues.
The report, which was reviewed by NRC inspectors, said the security manager and superintendent “decided that by duct-taping a piece of string to the pipe and then standing back from it pulling the string to see if it ’went off’ was the way to handle the situation.”
Sheehan said Entergy has analyzed what caused the errors and has taken steps to address them.
___
Information from: Rutland Herald, https://www.rutlandherald.com/
Please read our comment policy before commenting.