The NRC had a list of 47 items that had to be fixed before the plant could resume safe operation. The NRC knew about 42 items before Salem shut down. Salem is not an isolated case. Among the items being fixed at Cook are things that have been wrong since it first started up in the early 1970s. Thus, the plant had always operated below the NRC's minimum standards.
Fire protection is another example.
Following the 1975 fire at Browns Ferry in Alabama, the NRC implemented more rigorous fire safety regulations. But the NRC failed to enforce those regulations. Instead, the agency granted more than a thousand exemptions and waivers. In 1992, the NRC testified to Congress about temporary measures that would be used by plant owners for about six months until their fire safety problems could be fixed. Nuclear power's past is dismal, but its future could be worse.