The Nation - News from April 26, 1987

Fourteen nuclear power plants each reported more than 50 mishaps to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1986, a study by the nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen said. None was in California. More than 3,000 mishaps were reported, including a fatal accident in Virginia, it said. The study was based on public NRC documents and data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. NRC spokesman John Kopck said that the agency had not seen the report but that the incidents were “operational events with safety implications.” He said that during the first half of 1986, 2,818 “licensee event reports” of mishaps were made.