NRC Rates San Onofre Nuclear Plant 'Good' and 'Superior' in SALP Report

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	NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION IV Walnut Creek Field Office 1450 Maria Lane, Walnut Creek, CA, 94596
	CONTACT:	Mark Hammond (Phone: (510) 975-0254, E-mail: mfh2@nrc.gov)

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RIV-97-044

August 1, 1997

NRC RATES SAN ONOFRE NUCLEAR PLANT
'GOOD' AND 'SUPERIOR' IN SALP REPORT

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station has received performance ratings of "good" in plant operations and engineering and "superior" in maintenance and plant support in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's latest Systematic Assessment of Licensee Performance.

The SALP report was issued on July 29 to Southern California Edison Co., which operates the San Onofre plant near San Clemente, California. It evaluates the plant's performance for the period from Dec. 31, 1995, though July 5 of this year.

NRC and SCE officials will discuss the report at a meeting at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 27, at the Training and Education Center at the San Onofre facility. The meeting will be open to the public for observation; NRC officials will be available afterwards for questions.

SALP reports rate nuclear plants in four functional areas -- plant operations, maintenance, engineering and plant support -- and assign ratings of Category 1, 2 or 3, reflecting superior, good or acceptable performance, respectively. The following table illustrates current and previous (January 1996) SALP ratings for San Onofre:

Operations	2 (Current)	2 (Previous)
Maintenance	1 (Current)	2 (Previous)
Engineering	2 (Current)	1 (Previous)
Plant Support	1 (Current)	1 (Previous)

In a letter to SCE, Ellis W. Merschoff, Regional Administrator of NRC Region IV in Arlington, Texas, said, "Safety assessment and quality verification continue to be a strength at San Onofre. You have demonstrated strong self-assessment performance by your line organizations and the Nuclear Oversight organization."

In operations, Mr. Merschoff noted strong performance during plant evolutions and improved performance during outages, However, instances of inconsistent performance related to operator attentiveness, procedure implementation, communications and control of field activities were noted.

In maintenance, safety performance improved to a superior level because of improvement in material condition of the plant, lowering of the problem identification threshold and the conduct of maintenance activities in the field, Mr. Merschoff said.

In engineering, inconsistencies were noted with management oversight and quality of engineering support to certain activities. However, strong performance was found in corrective actions, self-assessments and outage support. Engineering exhibited particularly strong support in June in resolving questions of degradation in "egg crate" steam generator support structures, Mr. Merschoff said.

In plant support, overall performance remained superior with radiological protection during steam generator chemical cleaning noted as a strength.

EDITORS/NEWS DIRECTORS: A copy of the full SALP report is available from this office. It is also available at the NRC Office of Public Affairs Web site.