NRC, TMI to Discuss Emergency Exercise Deficiencies

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	NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406
	CONTACT:	Diane Screnci (610)337-5330/ e-mail: dps@nrc.gov Neil A. Sheehan (610)337-5331/e-mail: nas@nrc.gov

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I-97-46

April 28, 1997

NRC, TMI TO DISCUSS EMERGENCY EXERCISE DEFICIENCIES

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with managers of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant on Wednesday, April 30, to discuss the plant's root cause analysis of weaknesses found during a March 5 emergency preparedness drill at the Middletown, Pa., facility. The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at NRC Region 1 offices in King of Prussia, Pa.

It will be open to the public for observation only.

An NRC team which evaluated the TMI exercise determined there were four areas of weakness: 1.) during the drill, the emergency response organization did not recognize conditions at the facility had degraded to the point that it was necessary to declare a "general emergency"; 2.) initially, the response organization incorrectly evaluated steam generator tube leakage; 3.) the technical analysis of the simulated accident conditions provided to response organization managers by the technical support staff was inadequate; and 4.) the response organization staff did not assess the need for protective action recommendations to off-site officials when dose projections appeared to indicate protective action guidelines would be exceeded beyond the 10-mile emergency planning zone.

The NRC sent a confirmatory action letter to plant operator GPU Nuclear Corporation in March to confirm commitments by the company to deal with the weaknesses, including a root cause analysis. Agency staff also met with plant managers at the site on March 17 to discuss the deficiencies.