Press Release-I-17-004, NRC to Hold Regulatory Conference with Exelon Regarding Apparent Violation at Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant

Press Release-I-17-004: NRC to Hold Regulatory Conference with Exelon Regarding Apparent Violation at Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant

ML17060A471
Person / Time
Site:	Oyster Creek
Issue date:	03/01/2017
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region I
To:
Category:Press Release
References
Press Release-I-17-004
Download: ML17060A471 (1)

Text

No: I-17-004 March 1, 2017

Contact:

Neil Sheehan, 610-337-5331 NRC to Hold Regulatory Conference with Exelon Regarding Apparent Violation at Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will conduct a Regulatory Conference with Exelon on Thursday, March 9, to discuss an apparent violation at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, in Lacey Township (Ocean County), N.J. The meeting will be open to the public.

The issue involves one of the plants safety-related reactor pressure relief valves and has been preliminarily classified as white (low to moderate safety significance). If finalized at that level, it would result in additional NRC oversight.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. at the NRCs Region I Office, located at 2100 Renaissance Blvd. in King of Prussia, Pa. Directions to the office are available on the NRCs website.

For those unable to attend in person, a phone bridge line is available: 1-888-391-9420, passcode 5712746 #.

Following the completion of the NRCs discussion with Exelon, the plants owner and operator, members of the public will be able to ask questions of agency staff.

During an NRC inspection completed at the end of 2016, NRC staff identified the finding involving one of the plants five electromatic relief valves, which would be used to depressurize the reactor during a pipe break to allow coolant to be injected into the reactor core. This is necessary to keep the nuclear fuel in the reactor covered and cooled during a post-accident shutdown.

If requested by a plants owner, a Regulatory Conference is held to discuss an inspection finding and its safety significance, as well as to allow the company an opportunity to clarify any issues raised in the inspection report. No decision will be made at the conference regarding the apparent violation or any enforcement action. Those decisions will be made by NRC officials at a later time.