Press Release-I-15-018, NRC to Conduct Open House on April 23 in Oswego, N.Y., to Discuss 2014 Performance of James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant

Press Release-I-15-018: NRC to Conduct Open House on April 23 in Oswego, N.Y., to Discuss 2014 Performance of James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant

ML15110A451
Person / Time
Site:	FitzPatrick
Issue date:	04/20/2015
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region I
To:
Category:Press Release
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Press Release-I-15-018
Download: ML15110A451 (2)

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No: I-15-018 April 20, 2015 CONTACT: Diane Screnci, 610-337-5330 Neil Sheehan, 610-337-5331 NRC to Conduct Open House on April 23 in Oswego, N.Y.,

to Discuss 2014 Performance of James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a public open house on April 23 in Oswego, N.Y., to discuss the agencys annual review of safety performance at the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear power plant. The single-unit plant is located in Scriba, N.Y., and operated by Entergy Nuclear Northeast.

NRC staff will be on hand from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the Town of Scriba Municipal Building, located at 42 Creamery Road in Oswego, N.Y. Agency employees responsible for inspections of the plant, including the Resident Inspectors assigned at the site on a full-time basis, will be available to discuss the facilitys performance in 2014 and the agencys oversight plans for 2015.

Under the NRCs Reactor Oversight Process, the agency gauges plant performance through the use of color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators, which are statistical measurements of plant performance that can trigger additional oversight if exceeded.

On an overall basis, the plant operated safely in 2014. The FitzPatrick plant, however, was under additional NRC oversight as of the end of 2014 due to a white (low to moderate safety significance) performance indicator for unplanned power changes per 7,000 hours0 days <br />0 hours <br />0 weeks <br />0 months <br /> of operation. The performance indicators crossing of the threshold from to green to white in the fourth quarter of 2012 stemmed from condenser tube leakage. Those tubes were replaced during a refueling and maintenance outage last fall.

The NRC has inspected those modifications and concluded they are sufficient to preclude downpowers caused by such leakage. An inspection report issued on Feb. 6, 2015, documented that evaluation. Nevertheless, the performance indicator has not yet transitioned back to green. Once that occurs, FitzPatrick will return to the normal level of NRC oversight, which would entail moving from the Regulatory Response Column to the Licensee Response Column of the agencys Action Matrix.

As appropriate under our Reactor Oversight Process, the FitzPatrick plant has received additional scrutiny in response to the issues involving its main condenser. Our inspections have confirmed that the replacement of the condenser last year should halt those problems, but the next step will be for the performance indicator to return to green before the normal level of oversight resumes, NRC Region I Administrator Dan Dorman said. More broadly, our annual assessments serve to help us focus our inspection resources on those areas where attention is most needed.

The NRCs normal level of oversight at each U.S. nuclear power plant involves thousands of hours of inspection. In 2014, the agency devoted approximately 5,960 hours0.0111 days <br />0.267 hours <br />0.00159 weeks <br />3.6528e-4 months <br /> at FitzPatrick.

The NRC issues reports on performance at each plant 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 a quarterly basis on the agencys website. Following the release of the annual assessment letters each March, the NRC meets with the public in the vicinity of each plant to discuss the results.

Normal inspections are performed by the two Resident Inspectors assigned to FitzPatrick.

Reviews are also carried out at the sites by specialist inspectors assigned to the agencys Region I Office in King of Prussia, Pa. Among the areas to be inspected this year at FitzPatrick are permanent plant modifications, the plants dry cask storage facility and operator licensing. In addition, the NRC will perform an audit at FitzPatrick with respect to some of the agencys post-Fukushima requirements, namely Mitigation Strategies for Beyond-Design-Basis External Events and enhanced spent fuel pool instrumentation.

The Annual Assessment letter for FitzPatrick, as well as the notice for the April 23rd open house, are available on the NRC website. Current performance information is also available for FitzPatrick.

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