United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs, Region I

475 Allendale Road King of Prussia, PA 19401

Phone: 610/337-5330 Fax: 610/337-5241

Internet: dps@nrc.gov

I-96-61 September 16, 1996

Contact: Diane Screnci FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NRC STAFF RATES TMI 1 "SUPERIOR" IN TWO CATEGORIES AND

"GOOD" IN TWO CATEGORIES IN LATEST SALP

Three Mile Island Unit 1 has received performance ratings of

"superior" in operations and maintenance and "good" in

engineering and plant support in the Nuclear Regulatory

Commission's latest systematic assessment of licensee performance

(SALP) of the facility.

The SALP report was sent September 13 to GPU Nuclear

Corporation, which operates the plant near Middletown,

Pennsylvania. It evaluates the plant's performance from February

19, 1995, through August 3 of this year.

NRC and GPU officials will discuss the report during a

meeting set for 1:00 on September 30 in the Training Center at

the TMI site. The meeting will be open for public observation

and NRC officials will be available afterward to speak with

members of the public.

NRC assessment reports rate licensees in four functional

areas - plant operations, engineering, maintenance and plant

support - and assign Category 1, 2 or 3 depending on whether

their performance in those areas was superior, good or adequate.

In a letter to GPU, NRC Region I Administrator Hubert J.

Miller, said, "Overall, the NRC continued to observe good safety

performance at the Three Mile Island Plant, Unit 1. Performance

continued to be strong in the Maintenance area and improved

performance was noted in the Operations area; however,

performance declined in the areas of Engineering and Plant

Support due in part to poor management oversight of program

implementation in several areas."

Mr. Miller has these comments on Three Mile Island's

performance in the four rated categories:

OPERATIONS

Management oversight of emerging plant operational issues

was excellent and was a significant improvement. Senior plant

management shifted toward a very conservative decision-making

process with the proper emphasis on plant and personnel safety.
Licensed operator performance and training were strengths.

Operations activities conducted during the refueling outage were

very well planned with improvement noted from the previous

outage. The senior reactor operators exhibited mixed performance

related to the evaluation of degraded technical specification

equipment. Human performance evaluation was made a high priority

by senior management.

MAINTENANCE

Maintenance and surveillance activities continued to be well

performed with a well trained staff and appropriate management

involvement. Some personnel errors and weaknesses in the

planning process occurred but improvement was noted toward the

end of the assessment period. Several of these errors may have

been prevented through better self-checking.

ENGINEERING

Engineering communications and planning have remained

strengths. The quality of design change activities and

engineering's response to technical issues declined from the last

SALP in that it varied significantly. Engineering performance in

programmatic activities also declined. Performance in design

basis documentation and updated final safety analysis report

(UFSAR) updating programs was very good; however, performance in

oversight of the motor-operated valve testing program exhibited

significant weaknesses.

PLANT SUPPORT

The radiation protection program was effectively

implemented, including successful performance noted in review of

ALARA program results. However, some radiation worker

performance issues were noted in adhering to high radiation area

controls and contamination monitoring. Security performance

declined as indicated by two occurrences involving problems with

maintaining the integrity of protected area barriers. The

emergency preparedness program performance was good; however,

performance during the last full participation exercise was

mixed.

#

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(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

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