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	NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION IV 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011
	CONTACT:	Breck Henderson (817) 860-8128/e-mail: bwh@nrc.gov

RIV: 98-24

June 17, 1998

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has activated its Incident Response Center at Region IV offices in Arlington, Texas, to monitor an unusual event that occurred today at Washington Nuclear Power Unit 2, a nuclear power plant near Richland, Washington. An NRC electrical expert has also been sent to the plant to assist the two resident inspectors in monitoring the event.

The Agency has not activated its emergency response plan and conditions at WNP-2 are stable with the plant in cold shutdown.

At about 1:45 p.m. today a large fire main ruptured at WNP-2 flooding equipment rooms that contained low-pressure safety equipment. The plant was in cold shutdown when the fire main ruptured; however, plant operators properly declared a Notice of Unusual Event, the lowest level event on the NRC's emergency action plan. "Alert," "Site Area Emergency" and "General Emergency" are the succeeding levels in order of seriousness.

WNP-2 operators are currently removing water from affected rooms and developing a plan for repairing equipment. The water is being retained in storage facilities at the plant. NRC experts anticipate continued safe operation of the plant in cold shutdown. There has been no significant release of radioactive materials to the environment.