Let us hope TVA isn’t pleased with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s report on a series of shutdowns at Browns Ferry Unit 1. The federal agency should not be, given the plant’s troubled history.

Even the words of assurance by site vice president Rusty West don’t match what actually happened on-site to correct problems. The problems came in the days and months following the unit’s $1.8 billion reactivation in 2007.

An NRC inspection report released this week is an indictment of the people running Unit 1 even though the report ends with a measure of praise.

The five shutdown events showed monitoring systems worked to prevent what could evolve into a serious problem each time. Yet, the problems were enough at the time to take the unit out of operation.

What happened after each event is most disturbing. Eugene Guthrie of the NRC said technicians failed to do problem-evaluation reports.

Although the plant did a corrective action plan, it did not implement some of the corrective actions in a timely manner, he said.

Mr. West said protecting the safety and health of the public is the plant’s top goal. NRC, however, indicated that plant technicians could have prevented the three subsequent shutdowns had they taken proper action following the first two events.

TVA was forced to close the facility in 1985 because of operational and management problems. Unit 1 was shut down after a fire in 1975, but came back on line in 1976 and operated until the shutdown. It was the first of the three units built, in 1973.

Units 2 and 3 restarted in 1991 and 1995.

The report, while limited to Unit 1, also calls into question how diligent technicians at the other two units are in carrying out safety procedures.