Press Release-I-06-056, NRC, Firstenergy to Discuss Apparent Violation at Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Plant

Press Release-I-06-056: NRC, Firstenergy to Discuss Apparent Violation at Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Plant

ML062900348
Person / Time
Site:	Beaver Valley
Issue date:	10/17/2006
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region I
To:
Category:Press Release
References
Press Release-I-06-056
Download: ML062900348 (2)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa.www.nrc.gov No. I-06-056 October 17, 2006Contact:Diane Screnci, 610/337-5330 E-mail: opa1@nrc.govNeil Sheehan, 610/337-5331NRC, FIRSTENERGY TO DISCUSS APPARENT VIOLATIONAT BEAVER VALLEY NUCLEAR POWER PLANTNuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with representatives of FirstEnergy NuclearOperating Co. on Tuesday, Oct. 24, to discuss an apparent violation identified during an emergency preparedness exercise conducted earlier this year at the Beaver Valley nuclear power plant. The apparent violation involves ineffective corrective actions for an exercise weakness identified in 2004 regarding the performance of the plant's dose assessment team.The regulatory conference is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. at the NRC's Region I Office, 475Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. (Directions to the office are available at:

http://www.nrc.gov/who-we-are/locations/region1.html .) Members of the public can attend themeeting and will have an opportunity to ask questions of the NRC staff prior to adjournment.FirstEnergy operates the two-reactor plant, which is located in Shippingport (Beaver County),Pa. NRC inspectors determined that during an emergency preparedness exercise at Beaver Valley on June 27, the company team assigned the task of calculating the amount of radioactivity that would be released during the hypothetical accident scenario did not develop the best dose projection estimate achievable at the time. This finding was similar to an NRC-identified weakness exhibited by company personnel during a May 2004 emergency exercise at the facility."The finding appears to have low to moderate safety significance because not adequatelycorrecting the [plant's] process for dose projection may adversely impact the timeliness and adequacy of Protective Action Recommendations made in the event of a radiological release" from the plant, the NRC inspection report on the exercise stated.The inspection report is available in the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access andManagement System (ADAMS), under accession number ML062620341. ADAMS is accessible via the agency's web site at: www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html . Help in using ADAMS is available bycontacting the NRC's Public Document Room at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at PDR@NRC.GOV .

At the regulatory conference, FirstEnergy will be able to present additional informationregarding the apparent violation and discuss any corrective actions.No decision will be made during the meeting. Rather, the NRC will consider the informationpresented and render a decision sometime following the conference.

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