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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 SENDS SPECIAL INSPECTION TEAM TO SUMMER NUCLEAR PLANT

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has dispatched a special inspection team to review a crack in a pipe at the South Carolina Electric and Gas Summer nuclear power plant near Jenkinsville, South Carolina. That crack was discovered after the plant was shut down in early October for a scheduled refueling outage, and is located in a weld where a large pipe attaches to the reactor vessel.

NRC resident inspectors initially responded, but the NRC decided to send an inspection team that includes two regional inspectors from the NRC office in Atlanta, one from NRC headquarters in Rockville, Maryland and another contract inspector from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

The special inspection will review the circumstances surrounding the crack, determine potential generic issues for other pipes at the Summer plant and other nuclear plants, and determine the implication to the plant's inservice inspection program.

When the inspection is completed, the inspectors will meet with the company to discuss their preliminary findings. That meeting will be open to public observation, and the time and location will be announced later.

The NRC team will also issue a written report, which will be available to the public, several weeks after the completion of the inspection.

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