NRC: Control rod movement glitch is generic to W reactors

This article looks at the conditions which prompted the issuance of Generic Letter 93-04 by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This letter was sent to all but one Westinghouse pressurized water reactor licensee. It was prompted by observations of control rod problems at the Salem-2 reactor at the end of a refueling outage. Following a series of control rod movement irregularities, the operator stopped startup. The NRC sent an Augmented Inspection Team, and along with a local Significant Event Response Team, they concluded that the most probable cause of the observed problems was electrical problems in microcircuitry which was part of the rod control system. Voltage spikes were observed from a replacement counters with an electric fault, which were damaging other rod control circuitry