Press Release-I-10-030, NRC to Hold Public Meeting on June 22 to Discuss Annual Assessment for Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant

Press Release-I-10-030: NRC to Hold Public Meeting on June 22 to Discuss Annual Assessment for Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant

ML101660515
Person / Time
Site:	Vermont Yankee
Issue date:	06/15/2010
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region I
To:
Category:Press Release
References
Press Release-I-10-030
Download: ML101660515 (3)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov Site: http://www.nrc.gov No. I-10-030 June 15, 2010

Contact:

Diane Screnci 610/337-5330 Email: OPA1.RESOURCE@nrc.gov Neil Sheehan 610/337-5331 NRC TO HOLD PUBLIC MEETING ON JUNE 22 TO DISCUSS ANNUAL ASSESSMENT FOR VERMONT YANKEE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold a public meeting on Tuesday, June 22, regarding the agencys annual assessment of safety performance for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant during 2009. At the meeting, in addition to reviewing the results of the plants performance, the NRC staff will discuss work being done by the agencys Groundwater Contamination Task Force and inspections associated with a Demand for Information (DFI) issued in March to Entergy regarding Vermont Yankee.

Vermont Yankee is the site of a single boiling-water reactor. It is located in Vernon, Vt.,

and is operated by Entergy Nuclear.

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the auditorium at Brattleboro Union High School, at 131 Fairground Road in Brattleboro, Vt. There will be brief presentations on the 2009 annual assessment of performance, the work of the groundwater task force and the DFI, followed by an opportunity for attendees to ask questions regarding these topics. Attendees will also be able to ask questions of the NRC staff about the plants performance and the agencys oversight of the facility prior to the sessions adjournment.

In conjunction with the meeting, NRC staff will conduct an informational open house for interested members of the public. That session, which will run from 4 to 6 p.m. in the foyer at the same location, will allow those in attendance to discuss plant-related topics on a one-on-one basis with NRC staff, as well as receive information on agency activities via poster boards.

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

Overall, Vermont Yankee operated safely during 2009. At the conclusion of last year, there were no performance indicators for Vermont Yankee that were other than green and no inspection findings that were greater than green, which would normally result in a plant continuing to receive the NRCs baseline, or routine, level of oversight.

However, the NRC announced on April 7 that it planned to conduct additional inspections at the plant to oversee Entergys efforts to address groundwater contamination at the site, and to review and assess the companys response to the DFI. To provide additional oversight, the NRC can, when warranted, deviate from the normal Reactor Oversight Process, with those plans spelled out in a Deviation Memo, which must be approved by the agencys Executive Director for Operations. Such a memo was issued for Vermont Yankee in early April.

In January, Entergy notified the NRC that it had received positive sample results for tritium from a groundwater well at Vermont Yankee. The NRCs Resident Inspectors at the plant and regional specialists have continued to provide oversight of the companys actions in response to that development through direct observations and independent assessments. The tritium contamination does not pose any health or safety concerns for members of the public or plant workers.

On March 1, the NRC issued a DFI requiring confirmation by Entergy that information provided to the NRC which is material to NRC decisions is accurate and that the impact of personnel changes is assessed in terms of regulatory performance and safety culture. The DFI stemmed from an Entergy decision to take action against certain employees at Vermont Yankee as a result of the companys independent internal investigation into alleged contradictory or misleading information provided to the State of Vermont and then not corrected.

In 2009, the NRC devoted 6,176 hours0.00204 days <br />0.0489 hours <br />2.910053e-4 weeks <br />6.6968e-5 months <br /> to inspection of Vermont Yankee, including four inspections conducted by specialists from the agencys regional office. A typical one-unit site received 5,793 hours0.00918 days <br />0.22 hours <br />0.00131 weeks <br />3.017365e-4 months <br /> of inspection last year.

In light of groundwater contamination issues and our reviews associated with the Demand for Information, the NRC will devote additional resources to Vermont Yankee to ensure these areas receive the scrutiny they deserve, NRC Region I Administrator Samuel J. Collins said. We expect Entergy to continue to take all reasonable steps to prevent the recurrence of any radioactive leakage from the plant.

In addition to issuing inspection reports, the agency issues its review of performance at specific plants twice a 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 performance reviews every March, the NRC meets with the public in the vicinity of each facility to discuss the results. The meetings are in keeping with the agencys commitment to transparency with regard to its activities.

The annual assessment letter for the Vermont Yankee plant is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/vy_2009q4.pdf. The notice for the open house is available in the NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) under accession number ML101540331. ADAMS is available at:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.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.Resources@NRC.GOV.

Routine inspections are carried out by 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 Vermont Yankee to be inspected this year by NRC specialists are radiation protection, emergency preparedness, fire protection and the dry cask storage of spent nuclear fuel. In addition, there will be further inspection conducted related to the groundwater contamination issue.

Current performance information for Vermont Yankee is available on the NRC web site at:

http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/VY/vy_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.