NRC: News Release - Region IV - 2002-047 - NRC Staff to Hold Public Meeting to Discuss Special Inspection of Comanche Peak Nuclear Plant Unit 1 Shutdown

				Search Options
Index \| Site Map \| FAQ \| Facility Info \| Reading Rm \| New \| Help \| Glossary \| Contact Us

NRC NEWS
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-02-047		November 27, 2002
CONTACT:	Roger Hannah Phone: 817-860-8128 Cellular: 817-917-1227	E-mail: OPA4.Resource@nrc.gov
NRC STAFF TO HOLD PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS SPECIAL INSPECTION OF COMANCHE PEAK NUCLEAR PLANT UNIT 1 SHUTDOWN Printable Version
Officials of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet with TXU Generation Management Company officials at 1:00 p.m. (CST) Tuesday, December 10, in Training Room 1 of the plant’s Engineering Building. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the results of the NRC’s special inspection of the recent shutdown of Unit 1 at the Comanche Peak nuclear plant due to a leaking steam generator tube. The meeting is between the NRC and TXU but is open to observation by interested members of the public. NRC officials will also be available prior to its conclusion to answer any questions observers may have. In late September, operators at the Comanche Peak initiated a shutdown of Unit 1 after observing indications of a minor leak in a steam generator tube. The company had planned to take Unit 1 out of service for a refueling outage anyway and was not required to shut down, but did so as a precautionary measure. In a pressurized water reactor such as Comanche Peak, steam generators are used to heat water into steam which is then used to turn turbine-generators and make electricity. The steam generators contain thousands of tubes which circulate heated water from the reactor vessel, heating the water surrounding these tubes. The water surrounding the tubes is clean, but the water from the reactor contains some radioactivity. The tubes normally provide a boundary between those two water sources, but a leak or rupture in a tube allows leakage from the reactor, or primary side, to the turbine-generator, or secondary side. The NRC’s special inspection was conducted in mid-October and included a thorough review of the sequence of events and the plant staff’s response, evaluation and corrective actions. The NRC’s final inspection report will be available to the public about 30 days after the meeting.
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.