ML020850179
| ML020850179 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Indian Point  |
| Issue date: | 02/26/2002 |
| From: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| References | |
| FOIA/PA-2001-0256 | |
| Download: ML020850179 (1) | |
Text
IG REPORT ON IP2 General Comments:
The Commission appreciates the report from the IG. Indian Point 2 (IP2) is a facility that has operated safely but which has a number of issues warranting NRC attention as related in the EDO's letter to ConEd's Chairman on May 23, 2000. Although the overall reactor safety and emergency preparedness measures functioned successfully to maintain plant and public safety during the February event, there is much to learn from the event and the IG's report will assist the Commission in that regard.
The Commission generally accepts the findings of the IG and will use them to improve our programs and our effectiveness.
Regarding our overall oversight of IP2, the NRC has devoted substantial attention to this facility in our inspection and assessment activities over the past several years, the Senior Managers designated IP2 as an Agency focus plant in May 2000, and substantial senior manager and staff attention will be provided to this facility under our Reactor Oversight Program (ROP). Regarding our oversight of steam generators, the NRC has been devoting significant effort to the generic issue of steam generator tube integrity and a number of activities are underway that may lead to improvements in our oversight of this area; one of these is a Lessons-Learned Task Force that will provide findings and recommendations in the upcoming months to the Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. Our actions in this area should result in improvement to our oversight while also maintaining the principles that, first, licensee's have primary responsibility for maintaining and monitoring steam generator tube integrity, and secondly, NRC has an important oversight role that must not only be effective but must also make efficient use of NRC resources across the broad spectrum of the reactor safety arena. Incidentally, the staff expects to issue very shortly its inspection report that details our finding (previously summarized in our July 27, 2000 letter) about ConEd's performance during their 1997 steam generator tube inspections. Regarding emergency preparedness (EP), although there have been a number of issues that have caused escalation of NRC attention to this area, licensee performance has been adequate to maintain reasonable assurance that adequate measures would be taken to protect the public during emergencies. The licensee has recently achieved some improvement in this area, and the staff will continue to monitor licensee efforts to further improve EP.