United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs

Region II

101 Marietta Street, Suite 2900

Atlanta, GA 30323

No.: II-96-106 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts: Ken Clark 404-331-5503 (Monday, December 30, 1996)

Roger Hannah 404-331-7878

WATTS BAR NUCLEAR PLANT RATED "SUPERIOR" IN TWO AREAS,

"GOOD" IN TWO OTHER AREAS OF NRC ASSESSMENT REPORT

The Watts Bar nuclear power plant received performance

ratings of "superior" in two areas and "good" in two areas of the

Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s latest systematic assessment of

licensee performance (SALP) of the facility.

The SALP report was sent December 19 to the Tennessee Valley

Authority, which operates the facility near Spring City,

Tennessee. It evaluates the plant's performance from November

12, 1995 through November 9 of this year.

NRC and TVA officials will discuss the report during a

meeting set for 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, January 7, at the Watts Bar

site. The meeting will be open for public observation. NRC

officials will be available after the meeting to speak with

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

NRC systematic assessment reports rate licensees 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 adequate.

The report on Watts Bar gives the plant a Category 1 rating

in maintenance and engineering indicating "superior" performance,

and a Category 2 rating in operations and plant support,

indicating "good" performance.

This SALP report is the first for the Watts Bar plant since

it received a full-power operating license from the NRC in

February of this year. In the previous SALP report issued in

August 1994, the NRC staff gave the plant five Category 2

ratings, but the functional areas were different since the plant

had not yet received an operating license.

In his cover letter to the report, NRC Regional

Administrator Stewart Ebneter said "operations performance was

characterized by good management involvement" and also said the
plant made an effective transition form construction to

operation. The letter did, however, point to weaknesses in

configuration controls, attention to detail and procedure

inadequacies.

In the maintenance area, Ebneter wrote that maintenance was

"planned and implemented with strong management involvement and

as been characterized by strong safety system performance and

availability, with the exception of the area of calibration and

setpoint control."

In the letter, Ebneter highlighted superior engineering

performance in "aggressively pursuing resolution to design

problems that occurred during the power ascension test program."

In the plant support area, Ebneter noted strong performance

in radiological controls and emergency preparedness, but said

improvements are needed in several areas related to security.

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EDITORS: A copy of the full SALP report is available from this

office. SALP reports are also available on the NRC's

Internet web site (http://www.nrc.gov/OPA) and by

e-mail subscription. To receive SALP reports by e-mail

as they are issued, send an e-mail to listproc@nrc.gov

with the following message: subscribe salp

yourfirstname yourlastname.