NRC TO DISCUSS 2006 PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
FOR LASALLE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
Printable Version

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with representatives of Exelon Generation Co. on Tuesday, April 10, to discuss the agency’s assessment of safety performance for last year at the LaSalle Nuclear Power Plant. The two-reactor facility is located near Seneca, Illinois.

The meeting, which will be open to the public, is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. at the Brookfield Townhip Hall, 2099 E. 27th Road, Seneca. The NRC staff will present the results of the assessment and be available to respond to questions or comments from the public before the close of the meeting.

The public may also participate in the meeting through a telephone conference call. For instructions on how to participate, interested persons should contact Bruce Burgess at 630/829-9629.

“The NRC continually reviews the performance of the LaSalle plant and the nation’s other commercial nuclear power facilities,” NRC Region III Administrator James Caldwell said. “This meeting will provide an opportunity for a discussion of our annual assessment of safety performance with the company and with local officials and residents who live near the plant. Our goal is to explain the NRC oversight process and make as much information as possible available to the public regarding our regulation of these facilities.”

A letter sent from the NRC Region III Office to plant officials addresses the performance of the plant during the period and will serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. It is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/lasa_2006q4.pdf.

The NRC’s assessment concluded that the LaSalle plant operated safely during the period. The NRC uses color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators to assess nuclear plant performance. The colors start with “green” and then increase to “white,” “yellow” or “red,” commensurate with the safety significance of the issues involved.

All of the inspection findings and performance indicators for LaSalle during 2006 were determined to be “green.” As a result of this performance, the NRC will conduct the normal, baseline level of inspections during the upcoming year.

In addition to the “green” findings, the NRC issued a Notice of Violation to the LaSalle plant in March 2006 for a willful violation of NRC requirements involving three contractor pipefitters entering a high-radiation area without following plant radiation protection procedures during a 2005 outage.

Routine inspections are performed by two NRC Resident Inspectors assigned to the plant and by inspection specialists from the Region III Office in Lisle, Ill., and the agency’s headquarters in Rockville, Md. Among the areas of plant operations to be inspected this year by NRC specialists are emergency planning, equipment inspection, effluent monitoring, component design engineering, corrective action program, and maintenance.

Current performance information for LaSalle is available on the NRC’s web site at: (Unit 1) http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LASA1/lasa1_chart.html and (Unit 2) http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LASA2/lasa2_chart.html.

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.

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