The following is a press release from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission:
Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will conduct a public meeting and open house on Thursday, May 17, regarding the agency’s annual assessment of safety performance for the Indian Point nuclear power plant.
The public meeting and open house will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel, at 455 South Broadway in Tarrytown, N.Y.
During the open house, which begins at 6 p.m., members of the public will have an opportunity to talk on a one-on-one basis with NRC inspectors assigned to the plant and NRC managers about plant-related topics. Starting at 7 p.m., at the same location, the NRC will conduct a public meeting at which agency staff members will take questions from audience members.
Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., owns and operates , which is the site of two operating pressurized-water reactors and is located in Buchanan (Westchester County), N.Y.
Overall, Indian Point operated safely during 2011. At the conclusion of last year, as assessed by the NRC’s Reactor Oversight Process, there were no performance indicators for Indian Point Units 2 and 3 that were other than “Green” (very low risk) and no inspection findings that were “Greater than Green” (all findings were of very low safety significance). Therefore, for the rest of 2012, Indian Point Units 2 and 3 will receive the very detailed inspection regime used by the NRC for plants that are operating well. In 2011, the NRC devoted approximately 11,000 hours of inspection to the Indian Point facility.
“Throughout 2011, our inspectors kept close watch on safety performance at all 104 commercial power reactors operating in the United States. Indian Point Units 2 and 3 wereamong those that met our clearly defined performance criteria last year,” NRC Region I Administrator Bill Dean said. “In addition, our inspectors spent time in 2011 verifying that there were no immediate safety concerns at U.S. nuclear power plants following the March events at the Fukushima Daiichi facility in Japan. Those reviews indicated the plants remained safe for continued operation.”
The NRC utilizes a combination of color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators to measure plant performance. The colors start with “Green” and then increase to “White,” “Yellow” or “Red,” commensurate with the safety significance of the issues involved. The agency issues reports on performance at specific plants twice a year: during the mid-cycle, or mid-point, of the year, and at the conclusion of the year. Inspection findings and performance indicators are also updated on the NRC’s web site, www.nrc.gov, each quarter. Following the release of an annual assessment report every March, the NRC meets with the public in the vicinity of each plant to discuss the results. The meetings are in keeping with the agency’s commitment to transparency with regard to its activities.
The annual assessment for the Indian Point plant is available on the NRC web site here. The notice for the open house is available in the NRC’s Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) under accession number ML12108A042. ADAMS is available here. Help in using ADAMS can be obtained via the NRC’s Public Document Room at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at PDR.Resource@NRC.GOV.
Routine inspections are carried out by NRC Resident Inspectors assigned to the plant and by inspection specialists from the agency’s Region I Office in King of Prussia, Pa. Among the areas of performance at Indian Point to be inspected this year by NRC specialists are activities associated with proposed license renewal commitments for Indian Point Unit 2, the dry cask storage of spent nuclear fuel, emergency preparedness, radiological safety and activities associated with maintaining systems and components to ensure they are ready to perform their safety function.
Current performance information for Indian Point Unit 2 is available on the NRC web site here. Current performance information for Indian Point Unit 3 is available on the NRC web site here.
