No. II-08-025 April 24, 2008 

CONTACT: Ken Clark (404)562-4416 E-mail: OPA2@nrc.gov

Roger Hannah (404)562-4417 

NRC SCHEDULES PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS CORRECTIVE ACTIONS 

AND 2007 REGULATORY PERFORMANCE AT BRUNSWICK NUCLEAR PLANT 

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a public meeting with officials of 

Progress Energy on Thursday, May 1, to discuss corrective actions and 2007 regulatory performance at 

the Brunswick nuclear power plant, located near Southport on the southern coast of North Carolina. 

The meeting will begin at 1:00 p.m. (EDT) in the Brunswick Media Center Auditorium, located 

near the plant at 8520 River Road, S. E., Southport, N.C., 28461. 

The NRC will discuss the plant’s 2007 regulatory safety performance with company officials 

and review corrective actions taken regarding a “white” Performance Indicator for emergency AC 

power systems and cooling water systems, along with a “white” inspection finding related to failure of 

an emergency diesel generator in 2006. 

The NRC evaluates regulatory performance at commercial nuclear power plants with a colorcoded system which classifies findings as either green, white, yellow or red, in increasing order of 

safety significance. The NRC determined that both issues at Brunswick were Awhite,@ meaning they 

were of low to moderate safety significance. 

NRC officials said that, overall, the two reactors at Brunswick operated safely during the 

agency’s assessment period which ran from January 1 through December 31, 2007. 

 However, Unit 1 was in the “degraded cornerstone” column of the NRC’s action matrix for the 

first three quarters of 2007 due to a white inspection finding that the Unit’s No. 1 emergency diesel 

generator was out of service for a period of time in excess of what is allowed. In addition, a 

Mitigating Systems Performance Index (MSPI) performance indicator related to the Unit 1 Emergency 

AC Power System crossed the Green to White threshold in the second quarter of 2006 and remained 

White. Then, the MSPI performance indicator for Cooling Water Systems crossed from Green to 

White in the third quarter of 2007 due to issues with the service water and residual heat removal 

service water systems. Some of these issues included identification of foreign material within these 

safety-related systems, which were the subject of an NRC Special Inspection Team inspection 

completed on Feb.1, 2008. 

Unit 2 was in the Regulatory Response column of the NRC Action Matrix for the first three 

quarters of 2007. The Emergency AC Power System MSPI went from green to white in the second 

quarter of 2006 and remained white. 

NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs, Region II 

61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta GA 30303 

Web Site: www.nrc.gov 
Following modifications, white Performance Indicators at both units transitioned to green in the 

fourth quarter of 2007. 

NRC officials said risk-informed plant modifications involving installation of portable diesel 

generators reflects a strong safety focus on the part of Progress Energy but that additional management 

attention to underlying performance issues is warranted. 

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