The Tennessee Valley Authority has appealed a serious violation that federal regulators leveled against the Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Alabama.

TVA spokesman Ray Golden said Thursday that the utility disputes federal criticism that its testing program was inadequate for failing to identify that a valve on an emergency cooling system on the Unit 1 reactor was stuck shut. Golden said that valve would not be disassembled and inspected during normal testing.

NRC spokesman Roger Hannah said the agency was reviewing the appeal.

The NRC last month issued the rare red finding and ordered stepped-up inspections for the plant near Athens, Alabama. It's one of five red findings issued since the NRC started its current oversight program in 2001.

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