NRC NEWS

 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

 Office of Public Affairs, Region I

 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa.

www.nrc.gov

 

No. I-07-032 May 30, 2007

Contact: Diane Screnci, 610/337-5330 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov

Neil Sheehan, 610/337-5331

NRC TO DISCUSS 2006 ASSESSMENT FOR JAMES A. FITZPATRICK NUCLEAR PLANT

AT PUBLIC MEETING SCHEDULED FOR JUNE 5

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual assessment of safety performance at the James

A. FitzPatrick nuclear power plant, in Scriba (Oswego County), N.Y., will be the subject of a public

meeting on Tuesday, June 5.

NRC staff will meet with representatives of plant owner Entergy Nuclear Northeast at 12:30

p.m. to discuss the assessment, which covers the period from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2006, and was

documented in a March 2nd letter to the company. The session will take place at the plant’s Joint News

Center, located at the Oswego County Airport, on County Route 176 in Fulton, N.Y.

Before the meeting is adjourned, NRC staff will be available to answer questions from the

public on the performance of the FitzPatrick plant, as well as the role of the NRC in providing

oversight of plant safety.

“Each year we size up plant performance during the previous calendar year, with the

overarching goal of ensuring that facilities are achieving the levels of safety that are essential to

protecting the public and the environment,” said NRC Region I Administrator Samuel J. Collins, who

noted the agency also conducts mid-year assessments of performance. “At the meeting on June 5th,

members of the public will receive information about how we go about that review process for

FitzPatrick and other nuclear power plants across the nation. The NRC staff will also be prepared to

answer questions from attendees.”

Overall, the FitzPatrick plant operated safely during 2006. The NRC utilizes color-coded

inspection findings and performance indicators to assess nuclear power plant performance. The colors

start with “green” and then increase to “white,” “yellow” or “red,” commensurate with the safety

significance of the issues involved. At the conclusion of last year, all of the performance indicators for

FitzPatrick were determined to be “green.” Because all of the performance indicators for the plant

were determined to be “green” and there were no inspection findings greater than “green” at the end of

2006, the facility will receive the baseline, or routine, level of inspections in 2007.

Routine inspections are performed by two NRC Resident Inspectors assigned to the plant and
by inspection specialists from the Region I Office in King of Prussia, Pa. Among the areas of

performance at FitzPatrick to be inspected this year by NRC specialists are activities associated with

radiological safety, emergency preparedness and component design bases.

Current performance information for the FitzPatrick plant is available on the NRC web site at:

http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/FITZ/fitz_chart.html .

The annual assessment letter for FitzPatrick is available on the NRC web site at:

http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/fitz_2006q4.pdf . The notice for the

meeting, with agenda attached, is available in the NRC’s Agencywide Documents Access and

Management System (ADAMS) under accession number ML071350127. ADAMS is accessible at:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html . Help in using ADAMS is available via the NRC’s Public

Document Room at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at PDR@NRC.GOV .

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