TMI Scrutiny Stepped Up After Flood Safety Failure

Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear power plant is under heightened scrutiny by federal regulators because of a problem involving protections against flooding.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday seals in the conduits that hold electrical cables in the plant’s air intake tunnel were not adequate to maintain the plant’s external flood barrier. As a result, the NRC said severe flooding could have threatened plant safety equipment.

The NRC says it discovered the problem during a visual inspection last fall. It says extra scrutiny of Three Mile Island will continue until it is satisfied the problem has been corrected. It says a follow-up inspection will be done at an unspecified future date.

Plant spokesman Ralph DeSantis says plant officials took corrective action last fall and no issues have surfaced since then.