NRC TO DISCUSS PRELIMINARY "WHITE" FINDING ON TMI 1 CORRECTIVE ACTIONS

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with management of the Three Mile Island 1 nuclear power plant on Monday, June 25, to discuss an area of performance at the Middletown, Pa., facility. Specifically, the discussion will center on a preliminary NRC finding regarding an apparent failure by plant operators to promptly identify and resolve problems affecting a safety-related pump. The plant is owned and operated by AmerGen Energy Company.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in the Public Meeting Room at the NRC Region I office in King of Prussia, Pa. It will be open to the public for observation. NRC officials will remain afterward to answer questions.

Under the NRC Reactor Oversight Program launched in April 2000, the agency uses several tools to assess plant performance. Among those tools are performance indicators, which utilize different colors to depict increasing safety significance. The colors range from "green," which means performance within an expected range, rising to "white," which is considered performance outside the expected range, to "yellow" and finally "red."

In the case of Three Mile Island 1, it has received a preliminary "white" finding in the area of "mitigating systems." During an inspection on Feb. 12, NRC inspectors determined that the bearing oiler on one of the plant's three emergency feedwater pumps was empty. Subsequent reviews by plant staff revealed that loose bolts on the pump bearing housing had resulted in an oil leak and vibrations on the pump shaft bearing that, in turn, had caused the pump to become inoperable for 39 days. The NRC's assessment of the utility's performance during the events leading up to the discovery identified a number of deficiencies in the identification and resolution of equipment performance issues. As a result of the preliminary "white" finding, AmerGen has requested the meeting with the NRC to discuss the issue.

Further information on the plant's performance indicators and inspection findings is available on the NRC's web site at: www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS

NRC news releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC Home Page at www.nrc.gov also offers a Subscribe to News link in the News & Information menu. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web Site.

Privacy Policy | Site Disclaimer
Friday, December 05, 2008