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	NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION III 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532
	CONTACT:	Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663/e-mail: rjs2@nrc.gov
		Angela Dauginas (630) 829-9662/e-mail: opa3@nrc.gov

NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: RIII-97-88

Sept. 26, 1997

NRC STAFF ISSUES DEMAND FOR INFORMATION TO ILLINOIS POWER CO.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has issued a Demand for Information to Illinois Power Company, requiring it to submit information on the corrective action program to resolve issues at the utility's Clinton Nuclear Power Station.

The plant, located at Clinton, Illinois, has been shut down since September 5 of last year. It is currently inspecting and refurbishing a number of circuit breakers as a result of a circuit breaker failure which occurred August 5.

The Demand for Information requires the utility to respond at least two weeks before it plans to restart the Clinton plant. No startup date has been announced.

A Demand for Information is issued under Part 50.54(f) of the Commission's Rules and Regulations to obtain information in order for the agency to determine if further action is needed to ensure compliance with NRC requirements.

After the response is submitted, the NRC staff plans to meet with Illinois Power officials before the staff makes a decision on the plant's readiness for restart.

The Demand for Information directs the utility to provide the following information:

1. The corrective actions, both taken and planned, necessary to achieve and sustain improvement in the station's corrective actions programs. This response should include Illinois Power's views on the root cause(s) for the past deficiencies in its corrective action programs, its assessment of the current program's deficiencies, its methods to measure the effectiveness of overall improvements in the corrective action programs, and a schedule for actions not yet complete. For those actions to be completed after restart, justification(s) for deferred item(s) are to be provided; and

2. The basis for the company's confidence, in view of recurring weaknesses with corrective action programs, that the deficiencies that affect the operability of safety-related structures, systems, and components (SSCs) have been sufficiently identified and corrected, so that SSCs will function as designed if called upon.

The Demand for Information is available from the Region III Office of Public Affairs and on the NRC's internet web site at: <http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/reports/clinton.htm>.