Press Release-IV-16-022, NRC Begins Special Inspection at Grand Gulf Nuclear Station

Press Release-IV-16-022: NRC Begins Special Inspection at Grand Gulf Nuclear Station

ML16305A118
Person / Time
Site:	Grand Gulf
Issue date:	10/31/2016
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region IV
To:
Category:Press Release
References
Press Release-IV-16-022
Download: ML16305A118 (1)

Text

No: IV-16-022 October 31, 2016 CONTACT: Victor Dricks, 817-200-1128 NRC Begins Special Inspection at Grand Gulf Nuclear Station The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has begun a special inspection at the Grand Gulf Nuclear Station to review circumstances surrounding several recent operational events. The plant, operated by Entergy Operations, Inc. and located in Port Gibson, Miss., has been shut down since Sept. 8.

The purpose of this special inspection is to better understand the circumstances surrounding several recent operational events to determine if operator response was appropriate, NRC Region IV Administrator Kriss Kennedy said. We will also review the licensees corrective actions to ensure that their causes, including associated equipment problems and any contributing operator actions, have been effectively addressed.

On Sept. 23, following maintenance on the residual heat removal system, workers discovered that a misalignment of valves had rendered the plants alternate decay heat removal system unavailable.

Technical specifications require that the alternate system be available when one of the plants two residual heat removal systems is out of service. The system is used to remove decay heat from the reactor following shutdown. The following day, when preparing to restart the reactor, control room operators caused an unexpected increase in reactor vessel water level due to a misalignment of valves.

On Sept. 27, Entergy decided that the facility would remain shut down until they were satisfied with corrective actions to improve operations.

Three NRC inspectors will spend about a week on site evaluating the licensees root cause analysis and the adequacy of corrective actions to address performance issues. An inspection report documenting the teams findings will be publicly available within 45 days of the end of the inspection.