At the Brunswick nuclear plant, Halon gas – a fire suppression agent – was mistakenly discharged into the basement of the building housing the emergency diesel generator, on June 6, 2010. The release of the toxic gas into a vital area prompted control room operators to declare an alert – the third-most-serious emergency classification.
Workers did not know how to notify emergency responders, the NRC team discovered, so it took 2-1/2 hours to fully staff and activate onsite emergency response facilities – twice as long as specified in the plant’s emergency response procedures.
Fortunately, the incident was not an actual emergency, the report author notes.
