No. I-08-23 

Contact: Diane Screnci 610/337-5330 

 Neil Sheehan 610/337-5331 

April 9, 2008

NRC TO DISCUSS RESULTS OF SAFETY CONSCIOUS 

WORK ENVIRONMENT INSPECTION AT PEACH BOTTOM 

 Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials will meet with Exelon Generation Co. 

representatives on Tuesday, April 15, to discuss the results of a “safety conscious work 

environment” inspection conducted at Peach Bottom. The plant, operated by Exelon, is located in 

Delta, Pa. 

 Following the discussion of the NRC inspection findings, Exelon will discuss the status 

of the “safety conscious work environment” surveys it plans to conduct at its nine other 

operating reactor sites. The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Peach Bottom Inn, 6085 Delta 

Road, in Delta, Pa. The meeting is open to the public for observation. 

The public will have the opportunity to communicate with the NRC staff after the business 

portion of the meeting. 

 The inspection was conducted by six NRC inspectors during the week of March 24th. 

The NRC requires that NRC license-holders maintain an environment in which safety issues are 

promptly identified and effectively resolved and employees feel free to raise safety concerns. 

 In late September, the NRC sent an Augmented Inspection Team to Peach Bottom to look 

into assertions that security officers were inattentive while on duty at the plant. Through that 

inspection, the NRC confirmed there had been multiple occasions on which some security 

officers were inattentive. A follow-up inspection in November determined that Exelon and 

Wackenhut, which was then the plant’s contract security provider but has since been replaced by 

an in-house security force, missed opportunities to identify such behavior via the behavioral 

observation program. However, due to the defense-in-depth nature of security at the site, the 

NRC determined that the plant’s security program was not significantly degraded as a result. 

 In October, the NRC issued a Confirmatory Action Letter (CAL) to ensure continued 

security plan effectiveness. In the CAL, Exelon committed to take a number of additional steps 

to address the inattentiveness issue and to monitor the transition from a contract to an Exelon 

guard force. Exelon also committed to conduct safety conscious work environment surveys of its 

security guard force at all of its sites. 

NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs, Region I 

475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 

E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov 

Site: http://www.nrc.gov
 Under the NRC's reactor oversight program, a plant's performance determines the level of 

inspection conducted at the site. To provide additional oversight, the agency can decide to 

deviate from the process and conduct further inspections, etc., when warranted by the given 

situation. Any such plans are proposed in a memo, called a “deviation memo.” In this case, on 

Nov. 28, the agency’s Executive Director for Operations, Luis Reyes, approved additional NRC 

oversight to assess Peach Bottom security performance. An inspection of the safety conscious 

work environment at Peach Bottom was among the additional activities the NRC listed in the 

memo because the behavior and interactions within the security organization did not encourage the free 

flow of information related to raising safety issues. 

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