Press Release-IV-09-002, NRC Conducting Special Inspection at Cooper Nuclear Station

Press Release-IV-09-002: NRC Conducting Special Inspection at Cooper Nuclear Station

ML090540661
Person / Time
Site:	Cooper
Issue date:	02/23/2009
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region IV
To:
Category:Press Release
References
Press Release-IV-09-002
Download: ML090540661 (1)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Region IV 612 E. Lamar Blvd., Suite 400 Arlington, TX 76011-4125 Telephone: (817) 860-8128 No. IV-09-002

Contact:

Victor Dricks February 23, 2009 Phone: (817) 860-8128 E-Mail: opa4@nrc.gov NRC CONDUCTING SPECIAL INSPECTION AT COOPER NUCLEAR STATION The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is conducting a special inspection at the Cooper Nuclear Station in response to the failure of a pipe that supplies lubricating oil to an emergency diesel generator. Nebraska Public Power District operates the plant, located near Brownville, Neb.

On January 27, during a monthly surveillance test of the diesel, the pipe began leaking oil. The licensee believes the leak was caused by a vibration induced failure. The diesel generators are used to supply power to plant safety systems in the event of a loss of off-site power during emergencies A year ago, a leak was found in a similar pipe supplying oil to a second emergency diesel generator. The licensee replaced pipes on both diesel generators.

Based on this most recent leak, and the similarity of the problems, we have questions about the effectiveness of the licensees corrective actions and we want to take a closer look at this matter, said Region IV Administrator Elmo E. Collins.

A four-member team of NRC specialists will review the circumstances related to the event, the licensees root cause evaluation and determine whether appropriate corrective actions were taken. The team includes three reactor inspectors from the NRCs Region IV office in Arlington, Texas, and a member of the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research from NRC Headquarters, in Rockville, Md.

The inspection began today and is expected to take several days. The team will write a report about 30 - 45 days after completion of the inspection. The report will be available on the agencys online document library at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html.

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.