U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Region III Office of Public Affairs

801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532-4351

NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: RIII-96-64 October 18, 1996

CONTACT: Jan Strasma 630/829-9663

Angela Dauginas 630/829-9662

E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov

LASALLE NUCLEAR STATION RATED "ACCEPTABLE" IN THREE AREAS,

"GOOD" IN FOURTH AREA IN LATEST NRC ASSESSMENT REPORT

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has rated the

LaSalle Nuclear Power Station "acceptable" in plant operations,

maintenance, and engineering and "good" in plant support in the

latest Systematic Assessment of Licensee Performance (SALP)

report.

The report was issued October 15 to Commonwealth Edison Co.,

operator of the plant. The LaSalle Station is located near

Seneca, Illinois. The report covers the period November 27,

1994, through August 3 of this year.

NRC officials will meet Tuesday, October 29, with

representatives of the utility to discuss the SALP findings. The

meeting, which is open to public observation, will be at 1 p.m.

at the Marseilles Lions Club, 511 Commercial Street, Marseilles,

IL. NRC staff members will be available after the meeting for

questions and comments from 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 LaSalle gives the plant a "Category 3" rating

in plant operations, maintenance, and engineering, indicating

acceptable performance. It assigns a rating of "Category 2" to

plant support, indicating good performance. Plant support

includes radiation protection, security, emergency preparedness,

and fire protection.

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

utility, said: "It is my view that the conduct of nuclear

activities in connection with the LaSalle facility was adequate,

and the facility was operated conservatively through most of the

assessment period."

The evaluation of LaSalle's performance was significantly

influenced by an incident which led to the shutdown June 28 of

both reactors because of the fouling of the plant equipment

cooling system with a foam sealant material. The sealant
material was injected into the service water intake tunnel by a

contractor seeking to seal cracks in the concrete structure.

Mr. Beach noted: "That event showed that work controls had

broken down, revealed previously unidentified materiel condition

problems, and disclosed significant engineering weaknesses in

support to plant operations. Thus, the actions during the

service water event weighed heavily into NRC's assessment of the

station's performance in the maintenance and engineering areas,

and, particularly in the operations area."

He continued, "While some performance improvement in the

operations area was noted during the assessment period, plant

management and staff focus on operational safety through this

[service water system] event was unsatisfactory, resulting in

considerable NRC intervention to assure proper actions were

implemented."

The ratings for each functional area of this report and the

previous report were:

Functional Area Current Period Previous Period

Operations 3 2

Maintenance 3 3

Engineering 3 2

Plant Support 2 3

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Note: The full text of the SALP report is available on the NRC's internet web

site along with the current SALP reports for all operating nuclear plants.

The report may be accessed at <http://www.nrc.gov/OPA>. SALP reports are also

available as they are issued through an internet e-mail subscription. To

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

the message: subscribe salp yourfirstname yourlastname.