United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs, Region I

475 Allendale Road King of Prussia, PA 19401

Fax: 610/337-5241

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

I-97-143 November 6, 1997

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

Neil A. Sheehan, (610) 337-5331

NRC RATES PILGRIM AS “GOOD” IN LATEST ASSESSMENT OF PERFORMANCE;

ENGINEERING AREA FOUND TO HAVE DECLINED FROM PREVIOUS PERIOD

The Pilgrim nuclear power plant has received ratings of

“good” in all four performance areas evaluated in the Nuclear

Regulatory Commission staff’s latest periodic assessment of the

facility. Located in Plymouth, Mass., the plant is owned and

operated by Boston Edison Company.

The NRC issues Systematic Assessment of Licensee

Performance, or SALP, reports for the nation’s commercial nuclear

power plants about once every 18 months. The latest SALP for

Pilgrim covers the period from April 7, 1996, through September

13.

A decline in the area of engineering, from “superior” to

“good,” was the only change from the plant’s previous SALP.

NRC staff and Boston Edison officials will discuss the

report during a meeting scheduled for 1 p.m. on Thursday,

November 13, at the Pilgrim site. The meeting will be open to

the public for observation. Afterwards, NRC staff will be

available to speak with reporters, state and local officials, and

members of the public.

Four functional areas of nuclear power plant performance are

rated in SALP reports: plant operations, maintenance, engineering

and plant support. Ratings of Category 1 (“superior”), 2

(“good”) or 3 (“acceptable”) are assigned.

In a letter to Boston Edison accompanying the report, NRC

Region 1 Administrator Hubert J. Miller wrote that while the

plant’s performance was generally good, “continued management

attention is needed to address issues in several areas.”

“The facility operated well with few operational

transients,” Mr Miller said. “The material condition of the
plant improved and safety-related equipment reliability continued

to be very good. Human performance varied with some areas

showing improvement from the previous SALP period. Performance

during the last refueling outage that ended in April 1997

improved over the previous outage with respect to overall control

of work activities. Improvement in the problem-reporting process

generally resulted in the identification of problems at a lower

threshold.”

The regional administrator noted, however, that the NRC has

observed weaknesses in the plant’s corrective action program,

citing persistent problems in the use of procedures and in the

resolution of several potentially significant design issues.

NRC staff found that in the area of operations, there were

improvements in the control of operational activities and in the

performance of newly licensed reactor operator candidates.

Still, the agency determined there was a continued failure to

identify degraded equipment and process issues.

The area of maintenance saw improvements in work control and

in increased management presence in the field. In addition, NRC

staff noted that the plant’s material condition was generally

improved and the reliability of safety-related equipment was very

good.

Regarding engineering, the NRC staff pointed out that

although management oversight and involvement in routine

activities and emergent plant problems remained generally good,

problems were found in the interfaces among the plant departments

involved in replacement/modification work on the emergency core

cooling system strainer.

“Further, significant problems were noted in maintenance of

the licensing and design bases for the plant,” Mr. Miller wrote.

“Those problems reflected some important weaknesses in your selfassessment and corrective action processes.”

Finally, in the area of plant support, the NRC staff

reported that radiation exposures at Pilgrim continue to be high

despite efforts to address the problem. Also, performance by

emergency preparedness, security and fire protection personnel

continued to be good. Housekeeping was good, but access to some

areas in the reactor building was affected by radiological

conditions.

The full SALP report may be viewed on the NRC’s Internet web

site at <http://www.nrc.gov/OPA>. The reports for all plants

also may be obtained by e-mail, as they are issued. Send an email to listproc@nrc.gov with no subject and the following

message: subscribe SALP yourfirstname yourlastname.
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