Press Release-III-06-034, NRC to Meet with Exelon Dec. 19 to Discuss Safety Issue at Clinton Nuclear Plant

Press Release-III-06-034: NRC to Meet with Exelon Dec. 19 to Discuss Safety Issue at Clinton Nuclear Plant

ML063490334
Person / Time
Site:	Clinton
Issue date:	12/15/2006
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region II
To:
Category:Press Release
References
EA-06-291 Press Release-III-06-034
Download: ML063490334 (2)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2443 Warrenville Road Lisle IL 60532 Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov No. III-06-034 December 15, 2006 CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663 Viktoria Mitlyng (630) 829-9662 NRC TO MEET WITH EXELON DEC. 19 TO DISCUSS SAFETY ISSUE AT CLINTON NUCLEAR PLANT The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet Tuesday, Dec. 19, in Lisle, Ill., with representatives of Exelon Generation Co. to discuss a problem at the Clinton Nuclear Power Station that might have affected the operation of an emergency cooling system pump. The plant, operated by AmerGen Energy Co., an Exelon subsidiary, is located near Clinton, Ill.

The meeting, called a Regulatory Conference, will be at 1:30 p.m. CST in the NRCs Region III Office, Suite 210, 2443 Warrenville Rd., Lisle. The meeting is open to public observation. NRC officials will be available after the business portion of the meeting to answer questions from interested observers.

The meeting will cover the safety significance of an issue identified by NRC inspectors. In a report issued Nov. 29, the inspectors determined that a high pressure core spray pump, part of the emergency reactor core cooling system, had the potential to be damaged under certain circumstances because air might enter the piping supplying water from a large storage tank.

In no instance did the damage occur, and no emergency conditions required the high pressure pump to operate. After inspectors identified the potential problem, plant operators promptly changed the pumps water source to a different storage system to avoid possible pump damage. Subsequently, the systems water source was permanently modified to eliminate the problem.

The meetings discussion will focus on the safety significance of the problem. The NRC assesses the safety significance of issues with a color codes, ranging from green for an issue of very low safety significance, through white and yellow to red, indicating high safety significance.

The NRCs initial evaluation has determined that the pump problem represents an issue that is preliminary assessed as greater than green (i.e. more than very low safety significance) and requires further review, including additional information from the utility.

The final determination of the safety significance will determine the level of NRCs response to the issue, which could include additional NRC inspections, further meetings with the utility, and other regulatory actions. A decision will be issued several weeks after the meeting and will be available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/regulatory/enforcement/current.html.