Press Release-II-12-008, NRC Schedules Open House to Discuss Annual Assessment of Farley Nuclear Power Plant

Press Release-II-12-008: NRC Schedules Open House to Discuss Annual Assessment of Farley Nuclear Power Plant

ML12107A391
Person / Time
Site:	Farley
Issue date:	04/04/2012
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region II
To:
Category:Press Release
References
Press Release-II-12-008
Download: ML12107A391 (2)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region II 245 Peachtree Center Ave. NE, Suite 1200 Atlanta, GA 30303-1257 Web Site: www.nrc.gov No. II-12-008 April 4, 2012 CONTACT: Roger Hannah (404) 997-4417 E-mail: OPA2@nrc.gov Joey Ledford (404) 997-4416 NRC SCHEDULES OPEN HOUSE TO DISCUSS ANNUAL ASSESSMENT OF FARLEY NUCLEAR POWER PLANT The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has scheduled an open house for Tuesday, April 10, to discuss the agencys assessment of safety performance during 2011 at the Farley nuclear power plant. The plant, operated by Southern Nuclear, is 18 miles southeast of Dothan in south Alabama.

The open house and poster session, which will be open to the public, is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. CDT. It will be held at the Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce, 102 Jamestown Blvd., in Dothan.

NRC staff will be available to answer questions on the safety performance of the Farley plant, as well as the NRC role in ensuring safe plant operations.

Overall, the NRC staff concluded that the Farley plant operated safely in 2011 and will receive normal baseline oversight and inspection efforts. Both units were in the Licensee Response Column during the most recent quarter because all inspection findings had very low safety significance and all performance indicators were within the expected range.

During 2011, our inspectors spent many hours ensuring that the Farley plant met NRC safety requirements and protected both people living near the plant and the environment, NRC Region II Administrator Victor McCree said.

NRC inspectors also looked at whether there were immediate safety concerns at Farley and other U.S. plants after the March 2011 events at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan. Those reviews found that the plants remained safe.

The NRC uses color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators to assess plant performance. The colors start with green, which has very low safety significance, to white, yellow and red, based on increasing significance of the issues. Inspection findings and performance indicators are updated on the NRCs web site (www.nrc.gov) each quarter.

A letter sent from the NRC Region II office to plant officials addresses the performance of the plant during 2011 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/far_2011q4.pdf.

Current performance information for Farley Unit 1 is available on the NRC web site at:

www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/FAR1/far1_chart.html. Current performance information for Unit 2 is at: www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/FAR2/far2_chart.html.

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