SOCIAL TOPICS (Archive): ENVIRONMENT

Published, April 1995

       Enforcement action by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) against an Emerson Electric subsidiary that acted in “careless disregard” of public safety regulations prompted USTC to sell Emerson holdings in December.

       The NRC in late December issued a notice of violation to Emerson’s Rosemont Nuclear Instruments subsidiary because the firm did not promptly notify power plant customers that its pressure monitoring devices could fail without warning. In addition, the NRC criticized Rosemont for providing the commission with “inaccurate and incomplete information” during its ensuing investigation of the matter.

       USTC sold Emerson stock from portfolios of social clients with product safety screens largely because Rosemont waited four years before communicating to customers the potential defects of a devise that provides information on core reactor conditions in a nuclear power plant. Rosemont compounded the problem with its lack of candor during the NRC’s probe in 1989.

       Rosemont transmitters, which measure the flow, pressure and levels of fluids critical to the safe operation of nuclear power plants, are used in some 67 plant safety systems.

       The NRC has acknowledged that Rosemont in 1993 moved to correct problems so they wouldn’t recur. The company has replaced many of the defective transmitters. However, NRC is again being petitioned to take further enforcement action against Rosemont for “knowingly and consciously failing” to notify its customers of yet another alleged defect in the firm’s transmitters.