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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

NRC Staff to Meet with Southern Nuclear June 1 to Discuss Apparent Violation at Farley Plant

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold a predecisional enforcement conference with officials of Southern Nuclear Operating Company in Atlanta on Thursday, June 1, at 9:30 a.m. (EDT) to discuss regulatory safety questions the agency has concerning the Unit 2 service water system at the two-unit Farley nuclear power plant, located near Columbia, Alabama.

The meeting will be held in the NRC offices located on the 24^th floor of the Sam Nunn Federal Center, 61 Forsyth Street, SW. It will be open to observation by interested members of the public and news media representatives. NRC officials will be available at its conclusion to answer questions.

NRC officials said the conference is being held to discuss an apparent violation involving a booster pump that provides lubrication and cooling to the Unit 2 service water system. In February, a plant operator noticed that a diesel generator had been taken out of service on one part of the service water system while a booster pump was out of service on a redundant part of the system, meaning that the system may not have been able to perform its intended function if needed during that time. The service water system provides cooling for safety-related pieces of equipment.

NRC officials said the company had previous opportunities to identify and prevent the problem after an NRC inspection in 1993 and again after a senior reactor operator informally brought the issue to the attention of engineering personnel in 1998.

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 errors that may have been made in the NRC inspection report 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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