Press Release-09-012, NRC Issues Safety Evaluation Report with Open Items for Indian Point Nuclear Plant License Renewal Application

Press Release-09-012: NRC Issues Safety Evaluation Report with Open Items for Indian Point Nuclear Plant License Renewal Application

ML090160217
Person / Time
Site:	Indian Point
Issue date:	01/16/2009
From:	Office of Public Affairs
To:
References
Press Release-09-012
Download: ML090160217 (2)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov Site: http://www.nrc.gov No.09-012 January 16, 2009 NRC ISSUES SAFETY EVALUATION REPORT WITH OPEN ITEMS FOR INDIAN POINT NUCLEAR PLANT LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has issued its Safety Evaluation Report (SER) with Open Items for the proposed renewal of the operating licenses for Indian Point nuclear power plant, Units 2 and 3.

Entergy submitted an application to the NRC in April 2007 to extend the Indian Point licenses by 20 years. The plant, operated by Entergy, is located in Buchanan (Westchester County), N.Y. The current 40-year operating licenses expire Sept. 28, 2013, for Unit 2, and Dec.

12, 2015, for Unit 3.

The SER documents the results of the NRC staffs review of the license renewal application and site audit of Indian Points aging management programs to address the safety of plant operations during the period of extended operation. Overall, the results show that Entergy has identified actions that have been or will be taken to manage the effects of aging in the appropriate systems, structures, and components of the plant and that their functions will be maintained during the period of extended operation.

In a letter dated Jan. 15, Brian Holian, director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulations Division of License Renewal, provided Entergy with the SER and requested responses to the open items by March 16. The SER is available on NRCs Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applications.html .

Issuance of an SER with Open Items is a typical milestone in a license renewal review.

The SER identifies open items that still need to be addressed by the applicant before the staff can complete its review. The open items in this SER involve scoping of plant systems and components, aging management reviews, and aging management programs.

After Entergy provides satisfactory information to address the open items, the NRC staff will present its final conclusions on the license renewal application in an update to this SER. A Final SER is estimated to be issued in late July 2009.

The SER and the license renewal application have also been provided to the NRCs Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS), an independent body of experts that advises the NRC on reactor safety matters. An ACRS subcommittee is expected to discuss the SER with open items during a meeting in March. The meeting, which will take place at NRC Headquarters in Rockville, Md., will be open to the public and will be announced on the agencys web site at http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/index.cfm. The full ACRS will later issue a report discussing the results of its review.

A copy of the letter and the Safety Evaluation Report with Open Items will be available in the NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management Systems (ADAMS) under accession number ML090150414 . ADAMS is accessible via the agencys web site at:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Help in using ADAMS is available by contacting the NRCs Public Document Room at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at PDR.Resource@NRC.GOV.

Additional information concerning license renewal in general and the Indian Point application in particular can be found at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal.html.

News releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address:

http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web site.