Page 3 - aruba-today-20201114

A3
U.S. NEWS Saturday 14 November 2020
Federal utility fined $900K for nuclear violations, coverup

By TRAVIS LOLLER people in parts of seven
Associated Press southeastern states, and
Federal regulators have the Nov. 6 fine is one of sev-
fined the nation's largest eral recent actions against
public utility more than the utility by regulators. Last
$900,000 for violating pro- year, the NRC fined TVA
cedures during the startup $145,000 for submitting in-
of a Tennessee nuclear complete and inaccurate
reactor and subsequently information on a backup
misleading investigators. system at Watts Bar. Also
Two managers and a plant last year, TVA was ordered
operator who worked at to rehire and pay thou-
the Tennessee Valley Au- sands of dollars in back
thority's Watts Barr Nuclear pay and compensation to
Plant in Spring City were a whistleblower who raised
also issued violations by the concerns about nuclear
Nuclear Regulatory Com- safety. A utility executive
mission. who the NRC said played a
Howard Hall, director of the significant role in that firing
University of Tennessee's In- was banned from working
stitute for Nuclear Security, in any activities that require
said the notice of violation licensing by the NRC for
to TVA points to "a systemic In this April 29, 2015 file photo, a boat travels on the Tennessee River near the Watts Bar Nuclear five years.
problem in management." Plant near Spring City, Tenn. In its Nov. 6 letter, the NRC
"As someone who has Associated Press wrote that TVA took ac-
worked in this field essen- tions to address the causes
tially my entire life, I would ments, on Nov. 11, 2015, ed in the plant's logbook duction and cost to over- of the 2015 violations but
have been appalled to a shift manager at Watts and managers later misled ride safety." did not "articulate or docu-
receive such a letter," Hall Bar directed the control NRC investigators about "The problem is not so much ment broad, comprehen-
said. room to begin heating up what had happened. The the way TVA handled the sive and substantive cor-
In a notice dated Nov. 6, a reactor even though the shift manager told inves- startup — it wasn't like we rective actions."
regulators noted a "sub- plant's usual pressurizer sys- tigators he wasn't truthful were 30 minutes away from However, TVA CEO Jeff
stantial safety culture issue" tem, which keeps the reac- with them at first because losing Knoxville, or some- Lyash said Friday that the
at Watts Bar at the time tor water from turning to he feared that whatever thing like that — it's that problems identified by the
of the incident. They also steam, was out of service. he said would be relayed TVA managers misled or NRC are "problems of the
found that "TVA senior man- When trying to heat up back to management. The lied to the NRC investiga- past."
agement and staff failed to with an alternate system, shift manager has since re- tor," said Dave Lochbaum, "Certainly, you've got to
communicate with candor, the pressurizer rapidly be- linquished his senior reactor a nuclear engineer who keep a focus on it, make
clarity, and integrity during gan to fill with water. Staff operator's license, accord- has worked with both TVA sure you never see that
several interactions with then had to "take actions ing to the letter. and the NRC as well as the creep back in. But I'm very
the NRC during the course outside of proper operat- The NRC determined that Union of Concerned Scien- confident that the orga-
of the inspection and inves- ing procedures" to bring several of the violations tists. nization, its culture today,
tigation." the water level down. were willful, writing that The Tennessee Valley Au- don't exhibit those same
According to NRC docu- The incident wasn't record- managers allowed "pro- thority serves 10 million behaviors," Lyash said.q

Microsoft: Russian, North Korean hackers target vaccine work

BOSTON (AP) — Microsoft Korea and the United of people associated with
said it has detected at- States — were "directly in- the targeted organiza-
tempts by state-backed volved in researching vac- tions. The Lazarus Group
Russian and North Korean cines and treatments for posed as job recruiters
hackers to steal valuable COVID-19." It did not name while Cerium targeted
data from leading phar- the targets but said most spear-phishing emails that
maceutical companies had vaccine candidates masqueraded as missives
and vaccine researchers. in various stages of clinical from World Health Organi-

It said in a blog post Friday trials. zation representatives, Mi-
that most of the attacks in The company identified crosoft said.
recent months were unsuc- one of the state-backed The blog post coincided
cessful, but provided no hacker groups as Fancy with an appearance by
information on how many Bear, the Russian military Microsoft president Brad
succeeded or how serious agents who Britain's Na- Smith at an international
those breaches were. tional Cyber Security Cen- forum calling on nations to
Chinese state-backed ter said in July were behind protect health care facili- This April 12, 2016 file photo shows the Microsoft logo in Issy-
hackers have also been such intrusion attempts. ties from cyberattacks. This les-Moulineaux, outside Paris, France.
targeting vaccine-makers, Two others were North Ko- year, the Paris Peace Fo- Associated Press
the U.S. government said rea's Lazarus Group and a rum is taking place online.
in July while announcing group Microsoft calls Ce- Optimism about a CO- nary data showed its vac- have soared more than
criminal charges. rium. VID-19 vaccine has grown cine to be 90% effective. 40% over the past two
Microsoft said most of the Most of the break-in ef- since pharmaceutical gi- At the same time, corona- weeks to an average of
targets — located in Can- forts involved attempts to ant Pfizer announced ear- virus cases are surging. In more than 1,100, the high-
ada, France, India, South steal the login credentials lier this week that prelimi- the U.S., deaths per day est level in three months.q