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No: II-97-70 September 23, 1997
DISCUSS APPARENT VIOLATIONS AT McGUIRE NUCLEAR PLANT
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold a predecisional enforcement conference with Duke Power Company on Wednesday, October 1, to discuss apparent violations of NRC regulations involving ice condenser doors at the McGuire nuclear power plant near Huntersville, North Carolina.
The apparent violations involve the company's failure to ensure that ice condenser inlet doors on Unit 2 would be able to open if needed and a failure to perform adequate corrective actions based on industry experience and operational events at McGuire.
The ice condenser is a passive accident mitigation system containing about two and one-half million pounds of borated ice. If an accident were to occur, the ice condenser system would condense steam and lower pressure in the plant's containment structure. The ice is located behind a number of doors designed to open when the pressure in containment reaches a certain level above the pressure inside in the ice condenser area.
In July, McGuire plant employees determined that 10 of the 48 ice condenser inlet doors in lower containment were incapable of opening with less force than specified in the plant's technical specifications and may not have opened in an accident situation.
The meeting will be held in the NRC Atlanta office, located at 61 Forsyth Street, Room 24T20, at 10:00 a. m. It will be open to observation by the public.
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.
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