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NRC to hold meeting on Robinson nuclear power plant

August 22, 2011 By

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has scheduled a regulatory performance meeting to discuss the H.B. Robinson nuclear power plant. The meeting is scheduled on Thursday, August 25 in Hartsville to discuss corrective actions with findings at the plant.

Officials will discuss the performance indicator for unplanned shutdowns in the third quarter of 2010 and related issues to an emergency diesel generator breaker, operator training objectives and failure to implement some procedures during the March 2010 shutdown. Two inspections have been completed by the NRC staff and their report said the corrective actions taken by the company were appropriate.

Discussions are regarding a “white” performance indicator and three “white” inspection findings in the third quarter of 2010. The NRC evaluates regulatory performance at commercial nuclear power plants with a color-coded system which classifies findings as green, white, yellow or red in increasing order of safety significance.

The meeting is open to the public and is scheduled at 2 p.m. in the Hartsville Public Library, 147 W. College Avenue in Hartsville. Additional information is available on the NRC website.

Filed Under: Energy, News

Overturned truck blocks Highway 378

August 19, 2011 By

Crews work to clean up tractor-trailer accident on Garners Ferry Road.

Traffic was still backed up and moving at a snail’s pace hours after a tractor-trailer overturned on Garner’s Ferry Road near Antioch Church Road. State troopers say the 18-wheeler crashed around 4:30 a.m. blocking the west bound lanes of Highway 378 about a mile past SC 601.

Travelers merged into one lane eastbound and one lane westbound as a result of  both lanes being blocked by the accident.

No injuries were reported.

Filed Under: Accidents & Disasters, News

Woman fights off attacker at Midlands mall

August 18, 2011 By

Columbia police are searching for a suspect in the attack of a woman at Columbiana Centre Mall.

The victim told police she was leaving a public restroom inside the Northwest Columbia mall Wednesday morning when a man grabbed her around the face and neck from behind. She screamed and fought back using her hands and high heels as weapons. During the struggle, the two fell down but she kept screaming and the man ran out of the mall. The victim was not seriously injured.

Her attacker is described as a black male with possibly a beard, 25 to 30 years old, about 5’6”, 250 pounds. He was said to be wearing a dirty white T-shirt and dark pants.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, News

Infant unrestrained, dies in auto accident

August 18, 2011 By

Official say an infant killed in an automobile accident was not properly restrained.

Authorities believe an infant who was thrown from a vehicle and killed in a two-vehicle accident yesterday afternoon may have survived if properly restrained in a car seat.   The accident happened just before 5:00 p.m. near the Two Notch Rd. on Interstate 20. The collision sent two vehicles off the side of the road and caused them to flip over.

Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said 11-month-old Ayden Ferby of Columbia was unrestrained and thrown from one of the vehicles. The infant died at the scene. Watts said the tragedy most likely could have been avoided if the baby had been properly restrained in a car seat. Another passenger was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

It is unclear if any charges will be filed. The South Carolina Highway Patrol continues to investigate.

Filed Under: Accidents & Disasters, News

Report shows little improvement for SC kids in poverty

August 18, 2011 By

Every year the Annie E. Casey Foundation  releases a data book that ranks the 50 states in terms of the well-being of children.  

According to the project called Kids Count, the Palmetto State still ranks 45th in the nation for child well-being and says there are 260,000 children, or one-in-four, that qualify as ”poor.”  Twice that many, or half of the Palmetto State’s children, live in severe poverty.

Baron Holmes, Director of South Carolina Kids Count program says South Carolina’s ranking is typical of the state’s position over the last twenty years.  ”That 45th ranking leaves us at the back of the pack, where we don’t want to be,” says Holmes. “ The fact is, that we’ve remained there for two decades reminds us that we’re going to have to do something really different if we’re going to want to move up.”

Despite the grim report on the state’s children, Holmes says that there were improvements during the past decade among South Carolina’s adolescents.  Holmes explains, “The birthrate of teens, the death of teens, the graduation rate and reduction in teens who were either not working or were not in school, all of those improved.”  However, Holmes says on the other hand, the economic and family side continued to get worse, “So the poverty increased and that was affected by single children in single-parent families with one or no paycheck.”

Holmes says the state’s status was most likely made worse by the Great Recession. “The biggest difficulty that South Carolina has is that we are caught with low education, low paying jobs and unemployment or underemployment,” he emphasizes.   The report released by the Kids Count foundation showed how the Great Recession has increased the state’s poverty rate from 21 percent to 24.5 percent.

Growing worse, was the percentage of kids in families where no parent has full-time, year-round employment and children living in single-parent families. Holmes says the state appears to be stuck in place. Holmes added, “Our poverty, low education, low health and other consequences are all a package that we’ve not managed to unravel.”

Highlights of economic data

South Carolina is one of the original seven states to be tracked in this project which began in 1990.

Filed Under: Economy, News
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