NRC: News Release - Region II - 2005-005 - NRC Schedules Regulatory Conference to Discuss Summer Nuclear Plant Concern


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NRC NEWS
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs, Region II
61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta, GA 30303
www.nrc.gov

No. II-05-005		February 1, 2005
CONTACT:	Ken Clark (404) 562-4416 Roger D. Hannah (404) 562-4417 Joey Ledford (404) 562-4487	E-mail: opa2@nrc.gov
NRC SCHEDULES REGULATORY CONFERENCE TO DISCUSS SUMMER NUCLEAR PLANT CONCERN Printable Version
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a regulatory conference with officials of South Carolina Electric & Gas Company on February 17 in Atlanta to discuss the risk significance of an inspection finding at the company’s Summer nuclear power plant, located near Jenkinsville, S.C. NRC and SCE&G officials will discuss the significance of concerns associated with the company’s corrective actions for a design control issue involving the emergency feedwater system, a system used to provide additional cooling water during an emergency. Specifically, the NRC inspection identified a deficiency in the design of the emergency feedwater system flow control valves, which could have resulted in a failure of the system if debris clogged the valves. This finding only affected the alternate source of water for the system and did not impact normal operation. Other methods of cooling the reactor were also not affected, and there is no immediate safety concern because SCE&G instituted compensatory measures including operator actions to install temporary hoses to bypass the valves if they become clogged. The NRC evaluates regulatory performance at commercial nuclear power plants with a color- coded system which classifies findings as either green, white, yellow or red, in increasing order of safety significance. The NRC’s preliminary evaluation determined that the safety significance of this issue at Summer is white, meaning that it is considered to be of low to moderate safety significance. The meeting is open to public observation and is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. in the NRC’s Region II office, located on the 24th floor of the Atlanta Federal Center at 61 Forsyth Street SW in Atlanta. No decisions on the final safety significance, any apparent violation or any possible enforcement action will be made during the conference. Those decisions will be made by NRC officials at a later time.
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