Home > Electronic Reading Room > Document Collections > News Releases > 2000 > I-00-016

NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406

NRC Sends Augmented Inspection Team to Indian Point 2

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is dispatching an augmented inspection team to follow up on the steam generator tube leak at the Indian Point 2 nuclear power plant that led to an "Alert" declaration Tuesday night.

Consolidated Edison Company of New York workers manually shut down the reactor in Buchanan, N.Y., at 7:29 p.m. Tuesday following indications of a steam generator tube leak in one of the plant's four steam generators. The steam generators are components that transfer heat from the reactor systems to the power-generating portion of a nuclear power plant. Plant safety systems performed as designed during the shutdown.

The NRC's multi-disciplinary team will focus principally on Consolidated Edison's response to the steam generator tube leak. In addition, it will gather information regarding the utility's actions to meet steam generator inspection and maintenance commitments. Once the team has completed its review, its findings will be reported at an exit meeting which will be open to the public.

The cause and nature of the steam generator tube failure will be the subject of a separate NRC review.

NRC closely monitored the event from Tuesday night through the exit from the Alert declaration at 6:50 p.m. on Wednesday. The agency's inspectors at the site followed events, and safety specialists monitored conditions from incident response centers in the Philadelphia-area Region I Office and NRC Headquarters in Rockville, Md., throughout the Alert period.

#