NRC to Hold Workshop May 17-20 near Philadelphia on New Oversight Processes for Nuclear Power Plants

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	NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
	Office of Public Affairs	Telephone: 301/415-8200
	Washington, DC 20555-001	E-mail: opa@nrc.gov

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No. 99-99
May 13, 1999

NRC TO HOLD WORKSHOP MAY 17-20 NEAR PHILADELPHIA
ON NEW OVERSIGHT PROCESSES FOR NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a public workshop Monday, May 17, through Thursday, May 20, near Philadelphia on the agency's new regulatory oversight program for nuclear power plants.

This workshop is intended to familiarize participants with the processes of performance indicator reporting, inspection, assessment and enforcement the NRC plans to use to monitor power plant licensees.

Participating in the workshop will be NRC staff members, representatives of the nuclear industry, state officials and other interested parties.

Sessions, all of which will be open to the public, will be held at the Philadelphia Airport Ramada Inn. Registration will take place from 10 a.m. to noon the first day. The workshop itself will begin thereafter and will continue until 5 p.m. Sessions will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The program Thursday afternoon will be an overview structured specifically for licensee managers and others who cannot attend the entire workshop.

NRC has revamped its inspection and oversight process to utilize its resources more effectively and efficiently, in part because of improvements in nuclear power plant safety performance over the past 20 years.

The program will be tested, beginning next month, on a pilot basis at nine power plant sites -- Hope Creek and Salem in New Jersey, FitzPatrick in New York, Prairie Island in Minnesota, Quad Cities in Illinois, Shearon Harris in North Carolina, Sequoyah in Tennessee, and Fort Calhoun and Cooper in Nebraska.

The plan is to apply it to all nuclear power plants after the pilot program has been evaluated and any necessary adjustments made.