United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs, Region I

475 Allendale Road King of Prussia, PA 19406

Fax: 610/337-5241

Internet: dps@nrc.gov or nas@nrc.gov

I-98-101 August 31, 1998

Contact: Diane Screnci (610/337-5330) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Neil A. Sheehan (610/337-5331)

NRC ASSESSES PERFORMANCE OF VERMONT YANKEE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT;

OVERALL RATING IS ‘GOOD,’ WITH DECLINE NOTED IN PLANT SUPPORT

The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant has received

ratings of “good” in all four categories evaluated in the Nuclear

Regulatory Commission’s latest assessment of the facility’s

performance. Located in Vernon, Vt., the boiling-water reactor

is owned and operated by the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power

Corporation.

Covered by the latest Systematic Assessment of Licensee

Performance, or SALP, report for Vermont Yankee is the period

from January 19, 1997, through July 18.

NRC staff and Vermont Yankee officials will discuss the

evaluation during a meeting scheduled for 1 p.m. on Wednesday,

September 16, at the plant. It will be open to the public for

observation, and agency staff will remain afterwards to answer

questions from members of the press and public.

The agency’s SALP reports rate four functional areas of

nuclear power plant performance: plant operations, maintenance,

engineering and plant support. Ratings of Category 1

(“superior”), Category 2 (“good”) and Category 3 (“acceptable”)

are assigned. The reports are issued roughly once every 18

months for each plant.

While the areas of plant operations, maintenance and

engineering retained “good” ratings since Vermont Yankee’s last

SALP report in March 1997, the rating for the plant support area

declined from “superior” to “good.”

Overall, the NRC found performance at Vermont Yankee to

be good during the period. “Senior management was involved in

plant activities at a level that resulted in several improvements

to plant performance,” NRC Region I Administrator Hubert J.

Miller wrote to plant officials regarding the report.

“Management established a lowered threshold for problem

reporting, improving problem identification.”
Still, several weaknesses were identified, specifically

in the areas of procedure quality, event reporting and contractor

oversight, Mr. Miller noted.

In the area of operations, improvements were seen in

operator communication and performance. However, errors by

operators continued to contribute to unplanned plant events, and

weaknesses were identified in the procedures used to control

operations.

The maintenance area saw good performance in equipment

testing and in on-line preventive and corrective maintenance

activities. Also, the plant’s material condition was very good.

On the negative side, there were examples of weak oversight and

control of work during the most recent refueling outage, and

several deficiencies were observed in testing procedures.

Engineering was effective when it came to identifying

numerous design and licensing basis issues, but root cause

evaluations and corrective actions for some issues were

determined to be neither comprehensive nor timely. Management of

the engineering issues backlog continued to pose a challenge.

Performance in the area of plant support declined, with

weak initial radiological controls in effect during significant

outage work involving modifications to the torus, the doughnutshaped coolant storage structure at the base of the facility.

While the security program was found to be satisfactory, problems

were noted in the perimeter alarm system and in personnel

searches.

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NOTE TO EDITORS: Copies of NRC SALP reports are available on the

agency’s Internet site at www.nrc.gov.