ABC27 WHTM Exelon finds flaw in TMI generators

Exelon finds flaw in TMI generators

Exelon Nuclear has found flaws in a pair of 500-ton steam generators that were installed at Three Mile Island after a long crawl through Lancaster and Dauphin counties in 2009.

According to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission document, more than 2,000 of the 31,000 tubes in the generators were found to have unexpected wear after just two years of use, with nine tubes exceeding the wear limits set by federal regulators.

The problem was discovered during a refueling outage in October.

Exelon Nuclear spokesman Ralph DeSantis said TMI, the NRC, and generator manufacturer AREVA were working to identify the problem in order to find a solution.

Until then, DeSantis said the problem tubes, when identified, will not be used.

He said the problem poses no threat to the public.

Eric Epstein, chairman of the watchdog group TMI Alert, credits the facility for recognizing the problem, but he feels the NRC needs to step in and not leave the problem in the hands of AREVA.

"Right now, it's open ended," he said. "We're allowing AREVA, the people that caused the problem, to investigate the problem at their own leisure. That doesn't work. What we need is an aggressive timeline that says, 'Hey, this is the cause of the problem. This is when we'll fix the problem.'"