Press Release-IV-07-001, NRC to Hold Regulatory Conference with Arizona Public Service Company on Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station

Press Release-IV-07-001: NRC to Hold Regulatory Conference with Arizona Public Service Company on Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station

ML070090024
Person / Time
Site:	Palo Verde
Issue date:	01/09/2007
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region IV
To:
Category:Press Release
References
Press Release-IV-07-001
Download: ML070090024 (2)

Text

NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Region IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive - Suite 400 Arlington, TX 76011-4005 No. IV-07-001 January 9, 2007

Contact:

Victor Dricks E-Mail: opa4@nrc.gov Phone: 817-860-8128 NRC TO HOLD REGULATORY CONFERENCE WITH ARIZONA PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY ON PALO VERDE NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a regulatory conference with Arizona Public Service Co. officials on January 16 to discuss the results of a special inspection at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station.

Conferees will discuss the significance of inspection findings regarding the plants emergency diesel generators. Palo Verde, which is operated by APS, is located 55 miles west of Phoenix.

The meeting, which will be open to public observation, will begin at noon in NRCs Region IV offices in Arlington, Texas. The public will have an opportunity to observe and ask questions of NRC staff before the meeting is adjourned. Members of the public can listen to the meeting via a special telephone line by calling 1-800-952-9677, and requesting extension 472.

The NRC staff will discuss with APS the inspection finding and two associated apparent violations of NRC requirements involving the failure of an electrical relay that left an emergency diesel generator at Unit 3 in an unreliable condition for approximately 40 days, and non-functional for approximately 18 days during 2006.

The NRC evaluates regulatory performance at commercial nuclear power plants with a color coded process which classifies regulatory findings as either green, white, yellow or red, in increasing order of safety significance. The NRCs preliminary evaluation determined that the safety significance of the two apparent violations was greater than green, meaning they involved more than very low safety significance.

No decision on the final significance, the apparent violations or any contemplated enforcement action will be made during the conference. Those decisions will be made by NRC officials at a later time.

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.