Press Release-III-10-028, NRC Schedules Regulatory Conference to Discuss Prairie Island Nuclear Plant Inspection Finding

Press Release-III-10-028: NRC Schedules Regulatory Conference to Discuss Prairie Island Nuclear Plant Inspection Finding

ML101870493
Person / Time
Site:	Prairie Island
Issue date:	07/06/2010
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region II
To:
Category:Press Release
References
Press Release-III-10-028
Download: ML101870493 (2)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Region III 2443 Warrenville Road Lisle IL 60532 No. III-10-028 July, 6 2010 Contacts: E-Mail: opa3@nrc.gov Viktoria Mitlyng 630-829-9662 Web site: www.nrc.gov Prema Chandrathil 630-829-9663 NRC SCHEDULES REGULATORY CONFERENCE TO DISCUSS PRAIRIE ISLAND NUCLEAR PLANT INSPECTION FINDING The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has scheduled a regulatory conference with Northern States Power Company, Minnesota on July 13 to discuss an inspection finding at the Prairie Island nuclear power plant, located in Welch, Minn., 46 miles southeast of Minneapolis.

NRC and utility officials will discuss the significance of a finding related to the apparent failure to protect safety equipment, such as the emergency diesel generators, the auxiliary feedwater system, and the safety related batteries if certain pipes were to break and cause flooding.

The plant immediately corrected the issue. There were no events in which safety equipment was impacted.

The NRC evaluates regulatory performance at commercial nuclear power plants with a color-coded system which classifies findings as green, white, yellow or red, in increasing order of safety significance. The NRCs preliminary evaluation determined that the finding at Prairie Island was greater than green, meaning it has more than a very low safety significance, but more information is required before a decision is made.

The regulatory conference is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. CDT in the NRCs Region III office, 2443 Warrenville Rd. Suite 210 in Lisle, Ill. The public is invited to observe and will have an opportunity to talk with NRC officials after the business portion of the meeting. Persons wishing to participate in this meeting by toll-free audio teleconference should contact the Region III Public Affairs Officer.

This conference is being held to obtain information to assist the NRC in making an enforcement decision. No decisions on the final safety significance, any apparent violations or possible enforcement action will be made at the regulatory conference. That decision will be made by NRC officials at a later time.

After the regulatory conference, the NRC will review the information received during the meeting and make a final determination on the safety significance of this issue.

The NRC inspection report detailing the finding is publically available online at:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html. The number to access the report is ML101470607.

NRC news releases are available through a free list serve 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.