Home > Electronic Reading Room > Document Collections > News Releases > 2000 > II-00-015

NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION II 61 Forsyth Street, Suite 23T85, Atlanta, GA 30303

NRC Staff to Review Westinghouse Performance at Nuclear Fuel Plant near Columbia, South Carolina on March 31

Meeting At 8:30 A.M. Is Open To Public Observation

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with officials of the Westinghouse commercial nuclear fuel fabrication plant near Columbia at 8:30 a.m. (est) next Friday to discuss the results of a Licensee Performance Review recently completed by the agency to assess the adequacy of the facility's regulatory performance of NRC licensed activities.

The meeting will be between officials of the NRC and Westinghouse, but members of the public are welcome to attend to observe. NRC officials will be available at the meeting's conclusion to answer questions from interested observers.

NRC officials said the review indicates that plant performance in the areas of safety operations, safeguards, radiological controls, facility support and licensing has been adequate to protect public safety, health and the environment, and to secure adequate control and security of licensed radioactive materials. They said performance at the plant generally has improved since the agency's last review.

The report says certain radiological criticality safety controls and controls for the measurement of uranium being processed, mentioned in the plant's 1998 performance review, continue to need improvement, along with adherence to requirements for nuclear material shipping containers.

The Westinghouse facility at Columbia processes and fabricates low enriched uranium into fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.

# #