Press Release-III-02-063, NRC to Meet with Exelon to Discuss Regulatory Safety Issues at Braidwood

Press Release-III-02-063: NRC to Meet with Exelon to Discuss Regulatory Safety Issues at Braidwood

ML023310506
Person / Time
Site:	Braidwood
Issue date:	11/27/2002
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region II
To:
Category:Press Release
References
Press Release-III-02-063
Download: ML023310506 (2)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 801 Warrenville Road Lisle IL 60532 Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov No.III-02-063 November 27, 2002 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov Viktoria Mitlyng (630) 829-9662 NRC TO MEET WITH EXELON TO DISCUSS REGULATORY SAFETY ISSUES AT BRAIDWOOD The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with representatives of Exelon Generation Company, on Wednesday, December 4, to discuss two safety performance concerns, which resulted in Braidwoods entering what the agency describes as a degraded cornerstone. The two-unit reactor is located near Braidwood, Illinois.

The meeting will be held at 10:30 p.m. CST at the Fossil Ridge Public Library, 386 West John F. Kennedy Road, in Braidwood. The public is invited to observe the meeting and will have an opportunity to make comments and ask questions of the NRC staff before the meeting is adjourned.

The meeting will focus on two white performance issues, of low to moderate safety significance, which resulted in the degradation of the Mitigating Systems cornerstone, and on the utilitys actions to correct these problems. The first issue concerns two component failures in Braidwoods Unit 1 auxiliary feedwater system during the last quarter of 2001.

The other issue involved a failure to take adequate corrective action for valve problems affecting the functioning of a plant safety system which would control reactor pressure under certain accident conditions. (This finding is described in an NRC Press Release dated July 25 and Inspection Report 50456/02-03.)

The NRC uses a performance-based regulatory safety inspection program, which utilizes a color-coded scale of increasing levels of safety significance, beginning with green and progressing to white, yellow or red. The oversight process uses performance indicators submitted by nuclear power plants and findings from NRCs inspections to evaluate each plants safety performance. These findings fall into seven specific areas, or cornerstones, which are key indicators of the safety of plant operations. When the regulatory process identifies two white issues in the same cornerstone, this cornerstone is considered degraded. Having a degraded cornerstone is not an indication that the plant is unsafe, but it does result in heightened regulatory attention.

Documents on Braidwoods performance, including inspection reports and correspondence, are posted to the NRCs web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections. Help in using the web site is available from the NRC Public Document Room staff at 301/415-4737 or 1-800-397-4209.