United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs, Region I

475 Allendale Road King of Prussia, PA 19406

Fax: 610/337-5241

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

I-98-36 April 1, 1998

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

Neil A. Sheehan (610/337-5331)

NRC REGION 1 ADMINISTRATOR APPROVES RESTART OF SALEM UNIT 1

Following a multifaceted review by Nuclear Regulatory Commission

staff involving numerous inspections and assessments, the agency’s

Region I Administrator has approved the restart of the Salem nuclear

power plant’s Unit 1 reactor. Located in Hancocks Bridge, N.J., the

unit has been out of service for almost three years. Its twin

reactor, Unit 2, was restarted last fall after a lengthy outage.

In a letter sent today to plant operator Public Service Electric

& Gas (PSE&G) Company, NRC Region I Administrator Hubert J. Miller

said his decision was based on improvements in the condition of the

facility’s systems and components, upgraded programs and processes,

and the large number of corrective actions accomplished, such as

creating an environment more conducive to employees raising concerns .

Nevertheless, the administrator pointed out that the agency will

keep a close watch on both units, not only during restart but for some

time afterwards, through its Salem Assessment Panel of Unit 1 and onsite inspection staff. The panel, consisting of managers and other

personnel from the Region I office in King of Prussia, Pa., and NRC

headquarters in Rockville, Md., was formed in July 1995 to coordinate

the agency’s inspection and assessment efforts and to focus on the

progress of performance improvements at Salem Units 1 and 2.

“We intend to maintain the [assessment panel] in an active

oversight role until sustained improved performance has been

demonstrated for both Salem units,” Mr. Miller wrote. “[It] will

continue to monitor performance and adjust NRC resources applied to

Salem activities, as appropriate.”

As part of its oversight of Unit 1's restart, the NRC has

established “hold points” at the 25, 50 and 90-percent power levels,

at which power escalation must pause so that the agency can assess the

plant’s performance. NRC also plans to assess Unit 1's performance

approximately one month after full power operations resume. An NRC

team extensively assessed the unit’s restart readiness in February.

Salem Unit 1 has been off-line since May 16, 1995, when it was

shut down due to inadequate control room ventilation. Unit 2 was shut

down on June 7, 1995, because of problems with a valve that rendered

the unit’s residual heat removal system inoperable. In addition, the

utility was also faced with the need to address multiple programmatic

shortcomings, to repair degraded equipment and to improve its problem

identification and correction processes.
The NRC issued a confirmatory action letter (CAL) on June 9,

1995, summarizing a broad array of changes the company agreed to make

to improve the plant, as well as its agreement to keep both units shut

down until those commitments were met and NRC concurred in restart.

“The NRC has performed many inspections since June 1995 to

evaluate PSE&G’s progress in resolving performance issues,” Mr. Miller

said in his letter. “These activities included augmented resident

inspector staff inspections, specialist review of discrete areas by

regional and headquarters staff, and multidisciplined team

inspections. These efforts included inspection of 45 technical and 24

programmatic restart issues and the independent review of nine Salem

restart plans per the NRC’s Restart Action Plan.

“NRC review of programmatic issues,” he continued, “encompassed

process improvements to be applied to the operation of both Salem

units, and NRC review of technical items included aspects that were

applicable to both units. Items that were exclusive to Salem Unit 1

were reviewed separately. Two major design inspections were completed

and numerous meetings with PSE&G and the public were conducted to

ensure that all safety issues were identified and adequately addressed

prior to restart.”

After a review of all of the findings, Mr. Miller has now decided

-- as he did with Unit 2 -- that Salem Unit 1 can return to power.

Other commitments spelled out in the CAL remain in effect until the

plant has been operated successfully for a period of time.

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