Fed inspector to answer your nuclear plant questions at Saturday car show

Tri-Cities area residents will have an opportunity to talk to Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors on Saturday about the Pacific Northwest’s only commercial nuclear power reactor 20 miles north of Richland.

The NRC will have a booth at the Cool Desert Night’s Show N Shine car show from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 27 in the Uptown Shopping Center on the 1300 block of George Washington Way in Richland.

NRC inspectors, including the resident inspector based full-time at Energy Northwest’s Columbia Generating Station, will be available to speak one-on-one with the public about how the plant performed in 2025.

Inspectors concluded at the plant’s annual assessment for 2025 that it operated safely.

However, for part of that year the plant was under increased agency oversight due to two “white” inspection findings related to occupational radiation safety.

The NRC conducted a supplemental inspection in February and determined that the issues were corrected.

The NRC uses a color-coded system, with white inspection findings considered to be of low to moderate safety significance.

The plant is currently in the highest performance category of NRC’s oversight program, with only “green” inspection findings, which have very low safety significance.

The white findings stemmed from inspection reports documented in 2023 regarding a 2021 incident that led to employees inhaling airborne radioactive particles during repair and maintenance work.

A lawsuit filed in federal court by two employees who had the highest exposure to radioactive material during the 2021 incident was dismissed.