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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 |
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Angela Greenman (630) 829-9662/e-mail: opa3@nrc.gov |
NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: RIII-96-61 October 2, 1996
CONTACT: Jan Strasma 630/829-9663
Angela Dauginas 630/829-9662
E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov
BYRON NUCLEAR PLANT RATED "SUPERIOR" IN TWO AREAS, "GOOD"
IN TWO AREAS IN NRC PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
The Byron Nuclear Power Station, operated by Commonwealth
Edison Co., has received performance ratings of "superior" in
maintenance and engineering and "good" in operations and plant
support in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff's latest
Systematic Assessment of Licensee Performance (SALP) report for
the facility.
The assessment covers the period August 21, 1994, through
August 17 of this year.
The NRC staff and Commonwealth Edison officials will discuss
the evaluation during a meeting set for 10 a.m. on October 8 at
the Training Building at the Byron plant site. The meeting will
be open for public observation. NRC officials will be available
afterwards to speak with reporters, state and local officials,
and members of the public.
NRC SALP reports rate utilities in four functional areas --
plant operations, maintenance, engineering, and plant support --
and assign ratings of Category 1, 2, or 3 depending on whether
their performance in those areas was superior, good or
acceptable. The report on Byron gives the plant a "Category 1"
rating in maintenance and engineering, indicating superior
performance. It assigns a rating of "Category 2" to operations
and plant support, indicating good performance.
NRC Regional Administrator A. Bill Beach, in a letter to the
utility, said: "Conduct of nuclear activities at Byron, while
excellent overall, declined in operations and plant support when
compared to the last SALP period."
He continued, "The decline was due to the continuation of
operator errors, examples of a less conservative safety focus and
evaluation of risk considerations in planned activities, and
significant weaknesses in the chemistry program."
"Byron's overall performance was characterized by excellent
communications and by active teamwork to solve plant problems,"
Mr. Beach said. "Material condition was, with few exceptions,
excellent; equipment was reliable and available; work planning
was thorough, systematic, and effective. Engineering provided
excellent support for extensive steam generator inspections and
aggressive followup on generic issues."
The ratings for each functional area of this report and the
previous report were:
| Functional Area |
Current Period |
Previous Period |
| Operations |
2 |
1 |
| Maintenance |
1 |
1 |
| Engineering |
1 |
1 |
| Plant Support |
2 |
1 |
# # # #
The full SALP report is available on the NRC's internet web site
at: http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/organization/opafuncdesc.html.
SALP reports for all nuclear plants are also available as they are
issued through an electronic mailing list. To receive these reports
send an e-mail message to listproc@nrc.gov with no subject and with the
following message: subscribe salp yourfirstname yourlastname.
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