The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, will be in the Quad Cities on Tuesday, June 12th, 2012 to inspect Exelon's Quad Cities Generating Station in Cordova, Illinois.
The safety check includes surveying the day-to-day operations at the plant, as well as learning about the station's radiation protection, fire protection, plant modifications, problem identification and resolution, as well as emergency preparedness, among other things.
Staff with the NRC are also looking for feedback from the community. They're hosting an open house tonight from 4pm-6pm at the Cordova Civic Center, 11th Street South and Ill. Route 84, in Cordova.
"It's important not only to the NRC, but to Exelon Generation to ensure that the people who live in this area, particularly the people who live near the nuclear plant, are comfortable and feel safe in the operation of this facility and we look forward to the meeting tonight and look forward to meeting with all the public," says Bill Stoermer, Communications Director with the Quad Cities Generating Station.
The NRC found that the Quad Cities Generating Station operated safely in 2011. Since then, its had a busy year. In March 2012, 2,000 technical workers performed more than 14,000 tests, improvements, and upgrades to the plant. NRC inspections are likely to use their findings in 2011 and the all the work that's been done so far in 2012 as a basis for this year's safety inspection.
The NRC conducts safety checks every year and at all the nation's nuclear power facilities, but they've become even more important and more detailed since March 2011, when the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant experienced a series of equipment failure, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials following the Japan earthquake and tsunami.
As a whole, Exelon operates the largest collection of commercial nuclear plants in the United States with 17 reactors at 10 sites.