Note to Editors: NRC Staff Member to Answer Questions Regarding Maine Yankee

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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-98-84

July 13, 1998

NOTE TO EDITORS:

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff member will answer questions regarding the agency's inspection program for the permanently shutdown Maine Yankee nuclear power plant at a meeting scheduled for Thursday night at the facility.

Mark Roberts, acting chief of the NRC Region I's Decommissioning Branch, will attend the regularly scheduled meeting of the Citizens Advisory Panel, which was established to serve as a liaison between the plant and the community. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at the Career Center (formerly the Training Center) at the plant in Wiscasset, Maine.

One of the topics to be discussed by Mr. Roberts, who is attending at the request of the panel's chairwoman, state Senator Marge L. Kilkelly (D-Wiscasset), will be the NRC's resident inspector position at Maine Yankee. The agency no longer has a full-time resident inspector at the site. However, the NRC will continue to perform inspections at the plant and will have an inspector on hand whenever a significant decommissioning activity, such as the removal of a major component, takes place.

Maine Yankee, which is owned by the Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company, was permanently shut down in December 1996. The utility hopes to complete the decommissioning of the plant by 2004.