U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Region III Office of Public Affairs

801 Warrenville Road, Lisle, IL 60532-4351

NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: RIII-98-43 July 14, 1998

CONTACT: Jan Strasma 630/829-9663

Angela Greenman 630/829-9662

E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov

NRC STAFF RATES BYRON NUCLEAR PLANT "SUPERIOR" IN 2 AREAS,

"GOOD" IN TWO OTHERS IN LATEST PERFORMANCE REVIEW

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has rated the Byron

Nuclear Power Station "superior" in maintenance and engineering

and "good" in operations and plant support in the agency's latest

assessment of plant performance. The two-reactor plant, operated

by Commonwealth Edison Co., is near Byron, Illinois.

The review, called the Systematic Assessment of Licensee

Performance (SALP), covers the period from August 1996 through

May of this year.

The SALP report will be discussed in a meeting between the

NRC staff and utility officials at 1 p.m. on July 27. The

meeting will be in the Byron Nuclear Station Training Building,

4450 N. German Church Road in Byron.

The meeting is open to public observation. Members of the

NRC staff will be available after the meeting for comments and

questions from the public and news media.

NRC SALP reports evaluate 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 is superior, good or acceptable.

The report on Byron gives the plant a "Category 1" rating --

indicating superior performance -- in maintenance and engineering

and a "Category 2" rating -- indicating good performance -- in

operations and plant support.

The ratings in the most recent assessment of the Bryon plant

were the same as in the previous report.

"Overall, performance at the Byron station was very good,"

said NRC Acting Regional Administrator Carl J. Paperiello. "A

large number of challenges, such as extensive modifications and

unique tests during the Unit 1 steam generator replacement and

the Unit 2 refueling outages, were effectively addressed."

He told the utility, "Noteworthy was the safety conscious

and conservative decision making by your staff and management."

Routine operations were "well controlled" and infrequently
performed activities, like reactor startup and shutdown, were

"excellent," he said. He did, however, note that errors were

made while taking equipment out of service and that some

ineffective interdepartment communications affected plant

operations.

"Maintenance activities were conducted professionally and

management involvement was strong, contributing to high equipment

availability and reliability, generally excellent material

condition, and effective maintenance rule implementation," Dr.

Paperiello said.

In engineering work, he cited the quality of the engineering

activities for the Unit 1 steam generator replacement project and

the generally excellent material condition of the plant.

"Plant support activities were effective overall with strong

programs and emergency preparedness and security, and improved

chemistry procedure adherence," Dr. Paperiello said. While the

radiation program was effectively implemented, the NRC staff did

note numerous deficiencies in radiation work practices and in the

radiological posting program.

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