Press Release-II-09-025, NRC Schedules Open House to Answer Questions on 2008 Performance of St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant

Press Release-II-09-025: NRC Schedules Open House to Answer Questions on 2008 Performance of St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant

ML091120579
Person / Time
Site:	Saint Lucie
Issue date:	04/22/2009
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region II
To:
Category:Press Release
References
Press Release-II-09-025
Download: ML091120579 (2)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region II 61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta GA 30303 Web Site: www.nrc.gov No. II-09-025 April 22, 2009 CONTACT: Roger Hannah (404) 562-4417 E-mail: OPA2@nrc.gov Joey Ledford (404) 562-4416 NRC SCHEDULES OPEN HOUSE TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ON 2008 PERFORMANCE OF ST. LUCIE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has scheduled an open house for Wednesday, April 29, and will be available to discuss and answer questions about the agencys assessment of safety performance during 2008 at the St. Lucie nuclear power plant. The plant, operated by FPL, is located in Jensen Beach, Fla. east of Port St. Lucie.

The open house is informal and scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in the FPL Energy Encounter Building, 6501 S. A1A in Jensen Beach.

NRC staff will be available to answer questions on the safety performance of the St.

Lucie plant, as well as the NRC role in ensuring safe plant operation.

Throughout the year, we inspect and review the performance of the St. Lucie plant and all commercial nuclear plants, NRC Region II Administrator Luis Reyes said. We issue several inspection reports during the year and an overall annual assessment. This open house allows us to discuss that assessment with local officials and people near the plant, and answer any questions they may have.

A letter sent from the NRC Region II office to plant officials addresses the performance of the plant during 2008 and will serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. It is available on the NRC web site at: www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/stl_2008q4.pdf.

The NRC found that the St. Lucie plant met all NRC safety objectives during 2008, and performance at both units was at a level that resulted in no additional NRC oversight.

This year, the NRC plans to continue to conduct the very detailed inspections required at those plants operating well. Those inspections are by NRC resident inspectors assigned to the site supplemented by more specific inspections completed by region-based NRC inspectors. In addition to the detailed routine inspections, the agency will complete some generic inspections ranging from operator licensing examinations to spent fuel storage to ground water protection at St. Lucie in 2009.

Current performance information for St. Lucie Unit 1 is available on the NRC web site at:

www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/STL1/stl1_chart.html. Current performance information for Unit 2 is at: www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/STL2/stl2_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.