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 or nas@nrc.gov

I-97-77 July 3, 1997

Contact: Diane Screnci FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Neil A. Sheehan

NRC RATES INDIAN POINT 3 AS “SUPERIOR” IN ONE PERFORMANCE AREA,

“GOOD” IN TWO OTHERS AND “ACCEPTABLE” IN FOURTH IN REPORT

The Indian Point 3 nuclear power plant has received

performance ratings of “superior” for plant support, “good” for

maintenance and operations, and “acceptable” for engineering in

the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff’s latest Systematic

Assessment of Licensee Performance (SALP) report for the

facility. The plant is located in Buchanan, New York, and is

operated by the New York Power Authority.

The assessment covers the period from March 2, 1996,

through May 17 of this year.

NRC staff and New York Power Authority officials will

discuss the evaluation during a meeting set for 10 a.m. on

Friday, July 18, at the Indian Point 3 site.

The meeting will be open to public observation. NRC

officials will be available afterwards to speak with reporters,

state and local officials, and members of the public.

NRC SALP reports rate nuclear power plant performance in

four functional areas: plant operations, maintenance, engineering

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

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

issued roughly once every 18 months for each plant, though they

are typically issued more frequently for plants on the NRC’s

“watch” list of troubled plants. Indian Point 3 was recently

removed from the list.

In the areas of maintenance and plant support, the plant

continued to be rated Category 2 and Category 1, respectively.

Performance in the operations area improved to Category 2. While

engineering continued to be rated as Category 3, improvement was

noted late in the SALP period. Overall, the NRC found,

management involvement in plant activities -- coupled with

improved oversight by onsite and offsite safety review committees

-- was effective in improving plant performance and material

condition.
“Performance in operations was measurably better this

SALP period than last,” NRC Region 1 Administration Hubert J.

Miller wrote in a letter to the utility. “Improvements were

noted regarding operator procedure adherence and communications.

Operator performance also improved as indicated by their more

frequent use of a questioning attitude and in formality and

conduct of control room activities.”

Mr. Miller continued, “Some deficiencies in work control

led to a number of plant configuration problems, but the steps

taken to address these work controls resulted in improvement as

demonstrated by good control of plant evolutions and field

activities during two outages this year. Continued management

attention to maintaining configuration control is needed,

particularly as it relates to non-licensed operator activities.”

The plant maintenance staff was well trained and field

activities were performed well. Despite improvement in work

control and planning, additional attention is needed in this

area, the NRC told the utility.

Performance in the plant support area remained excellent,

with radiological controls, security, emergency preparedness and

fire protection programs effectively backing up safe plant

operation.

However, the engineering organization was found to be

reactive for most of the period. “Steps taken during the period

by management to strengthen the system engineering and operations

support functions, to better prioritize the backlog and to

provide additional resources began to show positive results,” Mr.

Miller wrote. “Continued management efforts are needed to

sustain these improvement efforts.”

SALP reports may be viewed on the NRC’s internet web site

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

obtained by e-mail, as issued. Send an e-mail to

listproc@nrc.gov with no subject and the following message:

subscribe SALP yourfirstname yourlastname.

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