US probes spill inside Florida nuclear plant

February 28, 1980

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission began a review Wednesday of a Crystal River nuclear power plant control system that "went haywire" and spilled up to 60,000 gallons of radioactive water in a sealed containment building. The accident at the Florida Power Corporation plant Tuesday did not release radiation into the environment, and there was no damage to the reactor core.

The incident was described as the most serious since the Three Mile Island incident last spring, however, and since the Cystal River plant, like TMI, has reactors built by Babcock & Wilcox, Tuesday's incident raised new questions about the safety and reliability of nuclear power plants constructed by the company.