SURRY NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) monitored 10 US nuclear power plants and found a "serious breakdown in quality assurance," noting that internal auditors failed to identify any of the 200+ reported incidents. The study found that 44 percent of problems were caused by poor procedures and 35 percent by worker mistakes. While some plants like Surry and Oyster Creek demonstrated proactive safety cultures, others like LaSalle and Sequoyah showed systemic failures, including ignored warnings and repetitive errors. UCS recommends better training for auditors and workers, revised procedures, and stronger NRC enforcement.

• There is a widespread failure in the nuclear industry's internal quality assurance programs, as internal auditors at all 10 monitored plants failed to detect any of the more than 200 reported incidents during the study period.
• Human error and inadequate guidelines are the primary drivers of safety incidents, with poor procedures accounting for 44 percent of problems and worker mistakes accounting for 35 percent.
• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) identified 16 percent of the problems at the focus group plants, highlighting a reliance on external regulators rather than internal plant discovery.
• Certain plants exhibited severe, long-term safety failures; for example, LaSalle's owners ignored warnings from General Electric for 17 years regarding faulty control switches that affected virtually every emergency system.
• Some plants demonstrated a high standard of proactive safety; Surry was the best performer, with the NRC finding none of its reported problems and workers identifying issues at the first opportunity 69 percent of the time.
• Oyster Creek showed strong self-assessment by discovering 11 percent of its problems through the review of incidents at other plants, significantly higher than the focus group average of 3 percent.
• Sequoyah Unit 1 was the lowest performer in the group, with maintenance activities causing 26 percent of its problems, compared to a group average of 9 percent.

APA

Lochbaum, D. (1998). SURRY NUCLEAR POWER PLANT. Union of Concerned Scientists. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-10/goodbad-1.pdf

Chicago

Lochbaum, David. SURRY NUCLEAR POWER PLANT. Union of Concerned Scientists, 1998. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-10/goodbad-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Lochbaum |first1=David |title=SURRY NUCLEAR POWER PLANT |publisher=Union of Concerned Scientists |date=1998 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-10/goodbad-1.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lochbaum1998surry, author = {Lochbaum, David}, title = {{SURRY NUCLEAR POWER PLANT}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {1998}, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-10/goodbad-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }