NRC: News Release - Region IV - 2003-045 - NRC to Conduct Special Inspection at South Texas Project

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U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs, Region IV
611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400, Arlington TX 76011
www.nrc.gov

No. IV-03-045		December 15, 2003
CONTACT:	Victor Dricks Phone: 817-860-8128	E-mail: OPA4.Resource@nrc.gov
NRC TO CONDUCT SPECIAL INSPECTION AT SOUTH TEXAS PROJECT Printable Version
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has begun a special inspection to evaluate the recent failure of an emergency diesel generator at the South Texas Project nuclear plant near Bay City, Texas. During monthly testing December 9, one of three emergency diesel generators suffered a mechanical failure. The same diesel generator experienced a failure in 1989. The diesel generators are used to supply power to safety-related plant systems in the event of a loss of off-site power. The cause of the failures may or may not be similar, but the agency has decided to conduct a special inspection. The bases for this decision include the potential generic implications of the event; the potential that the failures may be repetitive; and the significance of a diesel failure along with the potential that the cause of the diesel failure could affect other diesels at the same plant. The team is led by a senior reactor inspector and includes the resident inspector from the South Texas Project. The team will review the adequacy of the licensee’s response to the event, its root cause determinations and corrective actions. An inspection report will be issued about four weeks after the inspection. It will be available on the NRC’’s web site: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html and through the Agencywide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS). Help in using ADAMS is available through the NRC Public Document Room at 1-800-397-4209.
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