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	NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION II 61 Forsyth Street, Suite 23T85, Atlanta, GA 30303
	CONTACT:	Ken Clark (Phone: 404-562-4416, E-mail: kmc2@nrc.gov )
		Roger Hannah (Phone 404-562-4417, E-mail: rdh1@nrc.gov )

No. II-97-45

June 10, 1997

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold a predecisional enforcement conference with the Tennessee Valley Authority on Friday, June 27, to discuss the events surrounding an inadvertent draining of some of the water in the reactor coolant system on Unit 1 at the Sequoyah nuclear plant. The events occurred on March 24 of this year while Unit 1 was shut down for a refueling outage.

The meeting will be held in the NRC Atlanta office, located at 61 Forsyth Street, Room 24T20, at 10:30 a.m. It will be open to observation by the public.

The NRC staff is considering two apparent violations as a result of the March event. The failure to take adequate corrective actions after a similar event in 1993 is considered to be an apparent violation, and the failure of operators to maintain control room oversight, stabilize plant conditions and accurately log the plant's status is also considered an apparent violation.

NRC officials said the decision to hold a predecisional enforcement conference does not mean that a determination has been made that a violation has occurred or that enforcement action will be taken. The purpose is to discuss apparent violations, their causes, and safety significance; to provide the licensee with an opportunity to point out any errors that may have been made in NRC inspection reports; and to enable the company to outline its proposed corrective actions.

No decision on the apparent violations or any contemplated enforcement action, such as a civil penalty, will be made at the conference. Those decisions will be made by NRC officials at a later time.