That works out to about 167 delayed inspections per week.
And a memorandum dated March 16 from Ashok C. Thandani, director of the commission's Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, spelled out just how unsatisfactory the inspection process was in 1997 -- as well as the request by Con Edison in 1999 to delay inspection until this year.
It did not help matters, Mr. Gunter added, that Con Edison, which last inspected Indian Point's steam generators in 1997, persuaded regulators to delay an inspection scheduled for June 1999 until this June because the plant had already been out of commission for 10 months.
Despite serious safety concerns, the N.R.C. allowed the plant owner to delay an inspection until the reactor was scheduled to be shut down anyway, for refuelling; this arrangement saved the plant owner a lot of money.
The report found that, despite compelling safety concerns, the N.R.C. had allowed the owner of the Davis-Besse plant, outside Toledo, Ohio, to delay an inspection for more than six weeks.
But in the case of Davis Besse, the reactor with the acid problem, the commission allowed the owner to delay an inspection on the theory that clogging would not be a problem, Mr. Lochbaum said.
The agency's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, sought to play down Iran's latest action, telling reporters, "I'm pretty confident that Iran will understand that we need to go within the time scheduled, and the decision to delay the inspection will be reviewed and reversed within the next couple of days".
When another Coast Guard inspection delayed that departure, passengers were told the boat would leave about 4 p.m.
10.22am: Andy Wilson writes below the line: Just confirmed the delayed start, another inspection at 11am - and Jack Birkenshaw is here from the ECB to ensure everything is above board.
Lilly lowered profit forecasts after copycat antidepressants hurt demand for the brand-name Prozac and problems uncovered in plant inspections delayed new products.
