No. I-08-016 

Contact: Diane Screnci, 610/337-5330 

 Neil Sheehan, 610/337-5331 

March 28, 2008

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

NRC TO DISCUSS ANNUAL ASSESSMENT FOR FITZPATRICK NUCLEAR PLANT 

AT PUBLIC MEETING SCHEDULED FOR APRIL 3 IN FULTON, N.Y. 

The results of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual safety performance 

assessment for the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear power plant will be discussed at a public 

meeting on Thursday, April 3. The session is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. at the plant’s Joint 

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

FitzPatrick is a boiling-water reactor located in Scriba (Oswego County) and operated by 

Entergy Nuclear Northeast. 

Prior to the conclusion of the meeting, NRC staff will be available to answer questions 

from the public on the plant’s performance, as well as the agency’s oversight of the facility. 

“Through a combination of inspection findings and performance indicators, we are able 

to develop a comprehensive picture of how nuclear power plants are performing with regard to 

safety,” said NRC Region I Administrator Samuel J. Collins. “As part of our commitment to 

make the findings of our reviews accessible to the public, we hold meetings near each plant once 

a year to share the details of those assessments. We look forward to the opportunity on April 3rd

to present that information for the FitzPatrick nuclear power plant.” 

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

http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/fitz_2007q4.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 ML080780025. ADAMS is 

accessible at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.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 email at PDR@NRC.GOV . 

Overall, the FitzPatrick plant operated safely during 2007. When considering nuclear 

power plant performance, the NRC uses color-coded performance indicators and inspection 
findings. 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, there were no performance indicators for FitzPatrick that 

were other than “green” and no inspection findings that were “greater than green.” Therefore, 

the plant will receive the baseline, or routine, level of inspections for the remainder of 2008. 

Routine inspections are carried out by the two NRC Resident Inspectors assigned to the 

plant and by inspection specialists from the agency’s 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 the dry cask storage of spent fuel, fire protection, emergency 

preparedness, radiological safety and problem identification and resolution. 

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

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

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