NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION III

801 Warrenville Road

Lisle IL 60532

Web Site: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA

No. III-01-003 January 24, 2001

CONTACT: Jan Strasma (630)829-9663/e-mail: rjs2@nrc.gov

Pam Alloway-Mueller (630)829-9662/e-mail: pla@nrc.gov

NRC STAFF TO MEET WITH NUCLEAR MANAGEMENT CO. JAN. 30

TO DISCUSS INSPECTION FINDINGS AT KEWAUNEE NUCLEAR PLANT

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet January 30 in Lisle, Illinois, with

representatives of the Nuclear Management Company to discuss recent inspection findings at the

Kewaunee Nuclear Power Station, Kewaunee, Wisconsin.

Two sessions, called Regulatory Conferences, are planned with the company, both in the Third

Floor Conference Room of the NRC’s Region III Office, 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle. These meetings

will discuss inspection findings that have been assessed as “white” and “yellow” in safety significance

and apparent violations of NRC requirements associated with the findings. The NRC staff is seeking

the company’s evaluation of the inspection findings.

The meetings are open to public observation. Members of the NRC staff will be available after

each session for questions and comments from members of the public.

The NRC uses a four-category rating system for its inspection findings, from green, through

white and yellow, to red, depicting increasing safety significance. A similar rating system is used for

the quarterly performance indicators, which are statistical measures of the safety performance of

various plant functions.

A white inspection finding is one that has low to moderate safety significance. A yellow

finding has substantial safety significance, and indicates a minimal reduction in the margin of safety.

The color assessments are used to determine the NRC’s response to the findings. White and

yellow findings and planned corrective actions will generally be discussed in public meetings with

company officials. The NRC will also perform followup inspections to review the company’s

response.

The first session of the Kewaunee regulatory conference, at 10 a.m. CST, will cover a potential

white finding associated with the strainers in the auxiliary feedwater system at the plant. The auxiliary

feedwater system is a backup system which pumps water into the steam generators to remove heat

from the reactor if the normal feedwater system is lost.

The strainers were designed to prevent foreign material from entering the system where it might
impede the water flow. The inspectors questioned whether the size of the holes in the strainers would

allow sufficient water to pass through them. Other strainers in the system provide adequate protection,

and the company subsequently removed the strainers in question.

The second session, at 1:30 p.m., will cover two inspection findings in the emergency

preparedness area:

ˇ From January 1999 through July of last year, the plant failed in 16 of 18 monthly drills

to show it could staff all emergency response positions within the required time. The

NRC staff determined, in an August inspection, that the utility had failed to take

effective corrective action to deal with the emergency staffing deficiency. This finding

was preliminarily determined to be white.

ˇ An inspection in September of last year found that Kewaunee had not taken adequate

corrective actions after reporting in January that its emergency siren system had a

reliability of less than 90 percent. The siren system is intended to notify area residents

in the event of an emergency. The inspection found that, while the reliability of the

sirens had improved, the plant had not adequately determined and addressed the causes

of the siren problems. The September inspection followed a earlier inspection in April

to review the company’s corrective actions for the siren problem. The NRC staff

assessed this as a yellow finding.

Further information on these inspection findings, including the text of the inspection reports, is

available on the NRC’s web site at:

<http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/KEWA/kewa_pim.html>

Following the January 30 meetings, the NRC staff will continue its review of the findings and

determine its final assessment of the inspection findings and the resulting actions by the agency. The

outcome of the NRC staff’s review of these findings, which normally takes four to six weeks, will be

on the NRC’s enforcement web page at:

<http://www.nrc.gov/OE/> Select the "enforcement actions” link.

Additional information on the NRC’s reactor inspection and assessment program is on the web

site at:

<http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/index.html>.

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