ML20129G522

Press Release III-96-61, Byron Nuclear Plant Rated Superior in Two Areas, Good in Two Areas in NRC Performance Assessment

ML20129G522
Person / Time
Site:	Byron
Issue date:	10/02/1996
From:	NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION III)
To:
References
PR-III-96-061, PR-III-96-61, NUDOCS 9610030076
Download: ML20129G522 (1)

Text

i U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION  ;

Region 111 Office of Public Aff irs l 801 Warrenville Road, Liste IL 60332-4351 NEWS ANNOUf4 CEMENT: Rill-96-61 October 2,1996 l CONTACT: Jan Strasma 630/829-9663 I Angela Dauginas 630/829-9662 E-mail: opa3@nrc. gov BYRON NUCLEAR PLANT RATED " SUPERIOR" IN TWO AREAS," GOOD" IN TWO AREAS IN NRC PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT The Byron Nuclear Power Station, operated by Commonwealth Edison Co., has received performance ratings of

" superior" in maintenance and engineering and " good" in operations and plant support in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staffs latest Systematic Assessment of Licensee Performance (SALP) report for the facility.

l The assessment covers the period August 21,1994, through August 17 of this year. l The NRC staff and Commonwealth Edison officials will discuss the evaluation during a meeting set for 10 a.m. on October 8 at the Training Building at the Byron plant site. The meeting will be open for public observation. NRC officials will be available afterwards to speak with reporters, state and local officials, and members of the public.

NRC SALP reports rate utilities in four functional areas - plant operations, maintenance, engineering, and plant support - and assign ratings of Category 1,2, or 3 depending on whether their performance in those areas was superior, good or acceptable. The report on Byron gives the plant a " Category 1" rating in maintenance and engineering, indicating superior performance. It assigns a rating of " Category 2" to operations and plant support, indicating good performance.

NRC Regional Administrator A. Bill Beach, in a letter to the utility, said: " Conduct of nuclear activities at Byron, while excellent overall, declined in operations and plant support when compared to the last SALP period."

He continued,"The decline was due to the continuation of operator errors, examples of a less conservative safety focus and evaluation of risk considerations in planned activities, and significant weaknesses in the chemistry program."

l

• Byron's overall performance was characterized by excellent communications and by active teamwork tc solve plant problems," Mr. Beach said. Material condition was, with few exceptions, excellent; equipment was reliable and available; work planning was thorough, systematic, and effective. Engineering provided excellent support for extensive steam generator inspections and aggressive followup on generic issues."

The ratings for each functional area of this report and the previous report were:

1 Functional Area Current Period Previous Period i Operations 2 1 Maintenance 1 1 4 Engineering 1 1 Plant Support 2 1 l

The full SALP report is available on the NRC's intemet web site at: <http //www.nrc. gov /OPA>. SALP reports for all nuclear plants are also available as they are issued through an electronic mailing list. To receive these reports send an e-mail message to listproc@nrc. gov with no subject and with the following message: subscribe salp youtfirstname yourlastname.

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