Press Release-I-09-017, NRC to Hold Meeting on April 2 in Middletown, Pa., to Discuss Annual Assessment of Three Mile Island 1 Nuclear Plant

Press Release-I-09-017: NRC to Hold Meeting on April 2 in Middletown, Pa., to Discuss Annual Assessment of Three Mile Island 1 Nuclear Plant

ML090890429
Person / Time
Site:	Three Mile Island
Issue date:	03/30/2009
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region I
To:
Category:Press Release
References
Press Release-I-09-017
Download: ML090890429 (2)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 Site: http://www.nrc.gov No. I-09-017 March 30, 2009

Contact:

Diane Screnci, 610/337-5330 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov Neil Sheehan, 610/337-5331 NRC TO HOLD MEETING ON APRIL 2 IN MIDDLETOWN, PA., TO DISCUSS ANNUAL ASSESSMENT OF THREE MILE ISLAND 1 NUCLEAR PLANT Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will conduct a public meeting on Thursday, April 2, regarding the agencys annual assessment of safety performance for the Three Mile Island 1 nuclear power plant.

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at Londonderry Town Hall in Middletown, Pa. The building is located at 738 S. Geyers Church Road. Prior to its conclusion, NRC staff will be available to answer questions from the public on the plants performance, as well as the agencys oversight of the facility.

Three Mile Island 1 is a pressurized-water reactor located in Middletown (Dauphin County). It is owned and operated by Exelon Nuclear.

Overall, Three Mile Island 1 operated safely during 2008. At the conclusion of last year, as assessed by the NRC Reactor Oversight Process, there were no performance indicators for the plant that were other than green and no inspection findings that were greater than green.

Therefore, for the rest of 2009, Three Mile Island 1 will receive the very detailed inspection regime used by the NRC for plants that are operating well. In 2008, the NRC devoted approximately 5,900 hours0.0104 days <br />0.25 hours <br />0.00149 weeks <br />3.4245e-4 months <br /> of inspection to the facility, including three major team inspections.

In 2008, all but one of the 26 commercial power reactors in Region I, which covers the Northeastern United States, fully met our clearly defined performance criteria. Three Mile Island 1 was among those plants achieving those objectives. That means those plants will receive the normal level of NRC oversight this year if they continue to meet the high safety benchmarks set out for each site, said NRC Region I Administrator Samuel J. Collins. That said, our inspectors will remain on the lookout for any problems or adverse trends that might indicate a change in performance. As always, we will not hesitate to act should we identify any safety concerns.

The NRC utilizes a combination of color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators to measure plant performance. The colors start with green and then increase to white, yellow or red, commensurate with the safety significance of the issues involved.

The agency issues reports on performance at specific plants twice a year: During the mid-cycle, or mid-point, of the year, and at the conclusion of the year. Inspection findings and performance indicators are also updated on the NRCs web site, www.nrc.gov, each quarter. Following the release of the annual reports every March, the NRC meets with the public in the vicinity of each plant to discuss the results. The meetings are in keeping with the agencys commitment to transparency with regard to its activities.

The annual assessment for the Three Mile Island 1 plant is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/tmi_2008q4.pdf. The notice for the annual assessment meeting is available in the NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) under accession number ML090780385. ADAMS is available at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html. Help in using ADAMS can be obtained via the NRCs Public Document Room at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at PDR.Resource@NRC.GOV.

Routine inspections are carried out by the two NRC Resident Inspectors assigned to the plant and by inspection specialists from the agencys Region I Office in King of Prussia, Pa.

Among the areas at Three Mile Island 1 to be inspected this year by NRC specialists are steam generator replacement activities, operator licensing, radiological safety, emergency preparedness and the plants radiological environmental monitoring program.

Current performance information for Three Mile Island 1 is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/TMI1/tmi1_chart.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.