United States The NRC has cited Wisconsin Electric’s Point Beach plant for a potential problem. The NRC issued a final decision that a backup cooling water system at the plant might fail to work under certain unusual operating conditions. Normal plant operations were not affected by the problem.

The NRC said that the potential failure was tagged with a red safety code, signifying “high safety significance.” In addition to the red finding, the NRC issued a violation notice to plant operator Nuclear Management Co for inadequate operating procedures for the backup system and for failing to identify and fix the problem between 1997 and 2001.

The utility subsequently took steps to revise procedures and train reactor operators to handle safety concerns. The backup cooling system was also modified.