PHOENIX, Feb. 23 (UPI) — U.S. nuclear regulators issued the lowest of a tiered safety significance finding for the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced the finding Thursday, after inspections and reviews of the plant’s faulty backup generator.

NRC inspectors found an electrical relay wasn’t working and the emergency diesel generator that relied on it was unusable numerous times in the past three years, including for 18 days last year, according to an NRC release.

“This finding was caused by performance deficiencies similar to others noted by NRC at Palo Verde since 2004,” Bruce Mallett, NRC’s Region IV administrator, said in the release. “The NRC will determine the appropriate follow-up actions to ensure performance improvements at Palo Verde.”

Palo Verde is west of Phoenix.

The backup generator is used to keep the nuclear reactor safe when there is a power outage or other generating issues at the plant.

“Diesel generators are critical components of every nuclear power plant’s defense in depth and are relied upon to supply power to key safety systems during an emergency should the need arise,” Mallet said. He said the Arizona Public Service Co., Palo Verde’s operators, failed in maintaining the generator, the latest in other safety issues the NRC has identified at the plant in recent years.

The white finding is the second lowest of the four-tiered color-coded system.

BEIJING, Jan. 15 (UPI) — China National Petroleum Corp. signed a deal with Myanmar’s Energy Ministry to conduct oil and gas exploration at three deep-sea blocks off the Rakhine coast.

Exploration will be conducted at blocks AD-1, AD-6 and AD-8, covering an area of 3,861 square miles, under the production sharing agreement between CNPC and the former Burma’s Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise.

Between October 2004 and January 2005, a consortium of the Chinese firms China National Offshore Oil Co. Myanmar Ltd. and China Huanqiu Contracting and Engineering Corp., and the Singaporean firm Golden Aaron Pte. Ltd. reached deals with Myanmar on exploration at onshore Block-M ( Kyaukphyu) and A-4 in western Rakhine state, Block M-10 and M-2 in the Mottama offshore area, onshore Block C-1 (Indaw-Yenan area) and Block C-2 (Shwebo-Monywa area) in northwestern Sagaing division, the Xinhua news agency reported.

State-run Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise represented Myanmar.

The number of product recalls in the UK has increased by 8% in the last year to 179, it has been revealed.

Businesses are acting more decisively to protect their reputation from the harm caused by faulty goods, according to City law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain.

The largest increase came in the consumer goods sector, where recalls jumped by more than 20%.

Those of food products actually fell by almost 7%, but still remained high with a total of 71.

Reasons for recalls varied from mislabelling to the discovery of glass, wood - and even moths - in food.

Partner Mark Kendall said the negative media coverage of Cadbury’s slow response to finding salmonella in its chocolate clearly illustrated the dangers of not taking pre-emptive action.

The company was criticised by the Food Standards Agency last year after it waited five months before reporting that traces of salmonella had been found in some of its products.

Seven product lines and more than a million chocolate bars were eventually recalled on June 23 and the Health Protection Agency later confirmed that Cadbury’s chocolate was the most likely cause of an infection outbreak in more than 30 people.

Mr Kendall added: “Corporate reputations have become more fragile as consumers increasingly use the internet and other media to share and publicise information about faulty products.

“The Sony laptop battery debacle, which saw nearly 10 million battery packs recalled, is a perfect example.

“The growth of sites like YouTube meant millions of consumers saw videos of a computer spontaneously catching fire due to the fault.”

The Sony batteries recall reportedly cost some 200m, the law firm said, highlighting how expensive the action can be.

However, compensation costs and legal fees from lawsuits that result from a faulty product and a botched recall can be even higher.