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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-97-45

May 7, 1997

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet May 15 with representatives of Illinois Power Co. for a predecisional enforcement conference on apparent violations of NRC requirements at the Clinton Nuclear Power Station. The plant is near Clinton, Illinois.

The meeting will be at 1 p.m. in the Third Floor Conference Room of the NRC Region III Office, 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle, Illinois. It will be open to public observation.

The enforcement conference will cover apparent violations of NRC requirements in the utility's failure to take prompt and appropriate corrective action to address recurring examples of degraded lubricants on several types of circuit breakers. The lubrication problem resulted in the binding of various breaker components and the failures of safety-related and critical non-safety-related circuit breakers during testing and during operation.

The degraded lubrication problem resulted from inadequate breaker preventive maintenance and the use of unapproved lubricants.

The decision to hold an enforcement conference does not mean the NRC has determined that a violation has occurred or that enforcement action will be taken. Rather, the purpose is to discuss apparent violations, their causes and safety significance; to provide the utility an opportunity to point out any errors that may have been made in the NRC inspection report; and to enable the company to outline its proposed corrective actions.

No decisions on apparent violations or any contemplated enforcement action, such as a fine, will be made at this conference. Those decisions will be made by senior NRC officials at a later date.