U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Region III Office of Public Affairs

801 Warrenville Road, Lisle, IL 60532-4351

RIII-96-73 December 6, 1996

CONTACT: Jan Strasma 630/829-9663

Angela Dauginas 630/829-9662

E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov

QUAD CITIES NUCLEAR PLANT RATED "GOOD" IN TWO AREAS, "ACCEPTABLE"

IN TWO AREAS IN NRC PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT

The Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station, operated by Commonwealth Edison

Co., has received performance ratings of "good" in operations and plant

support and "acceptable" in maintenance and engineering in the Nuclear

Regulatory Commission staff's latest Systematic Assessment of Licensee

Performance (SALP) report for the facility.

The assessment covers the period July 23, 1995, through October 26 of

this year.

The NRC staff and Commonwealth Edison officials will discuss the

evaluation during a meeting set for 10 a.m. on December 18 at the Training

Center at the Quad Cities plant site. The meeting will be open for public

observation. NRC officials will be available afterwards to speak with

reporters, state and local officials, and members of the public.

NRC SALP reports rate utilities in four functional areas -- plant

operations, maintenance, engineering, and plant support -- and assign ratings

of Category 1, 2, or 3 depending on whether their performance in those areas

was superior, good or acceptable. The report on Quad Cities gives the plant a

"Category 2" rating in operations and plant support, indicating good

performance. It assigns a rating of "Category 3" to maintenance and

engineering, indicating acceptable performance.

NRC Regional Administrator A. Bill Beach, in a letter to the utility,

said: "Of particular importance this assessment period was your ability to

sustain the momentum started last assessment period to improve performance in

the area of plant operations."

Mr. Beach said NRC also has seen sustained improvements in the radiation

protection area, particularly in plant water chemistry programs and in work to

keep radiation exposures as low as reasonably achievable. In addition, he

said, progress was made toward improving the plant's material condition

through modification and repair of selected systems.

"The decision to keep Unit 1 shut down for an additional 90 days and

Unit 2 shut down for 75 days this past summer while restoring safety margins

and resolving design related problems was conservative and clearly focused on

safety," Mr. Beach wrote. "While overall performance improved in some areas,

persistent weaknesses in the work control process, material condition,

engineering evaluations, and corrective actions limited your progress."
The ratings for each functional area of this report and the previous

report were:

Functional Area Current Period Previous Period

Operations 2 2

Maintenance 3 3

Engineering 3 2

Plant Support 2 2

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The full SALP report is available on the NRC's internet web site at:

<http://www.nrc.gov/OPA>. SALP reports for all nuclear plants are also

available as they are issued through an electronic mailing list. To receive

these reports send an e-mail message to listproc@nrc.gov with no subject and

with the following message: subscribe salp yourfirstname yourlastname.