Content area
Full Text
FREDERICTON (CP)--It will be years before NB Power knows whether safety reforms at its troubled Point Lepreau nuclear plant are successful, a company spokesman said Wednesday. The Atomic Energy Control Board issued a scathing report on Lepreau this spring, warning the plant's entire safety culture has slipped. It said the utility must take urgent action to fix the concerns. Rod White, head of the government-owned utility's nuclear division, said NB Power is trying to improve staff performance through training programs and safety courses. But results will take more than a few months--probably several years. How well it has taken on people is something you have to measure over time and see if it's going in the-right direction or not," he said after he appeared before a legislature committee reviewing NB Power. They're soft issues and they're harder to measure." The utility must report its progress to the atomic regulatory agency Oct. 9. Lepreau is New Brunswick's only nuclear reactor. It has been shut down for most of the past two years for repairs. NB Power has hired an outside consultant to look at Point Lepreau, which some critics suggest should take a lesson from Ontario Hydro. The New Brunswick consultant's study won't be the same as the one for Ontario Hydro, said NB Power president James Hankinson. We believe we understand what our current condition is now, we don't need a further study to comment on that," he said. "We know the areas where we have difficulty, where we have to make improvement."