No. I-10-020 

Contact: Diane Screnci, 610/337-5330 

 Neil Sheehan, 610/337-5331 

April 14, 2010 

E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov

NRC TO HOLD MEETING APRIL 22 IN CORTLANDT MANOR, N.Y. TO DISCUSS 

ANNUAL ASSESSMENT OF INDIAN POINT NUCLEAR POWER PLANT 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold a public meeting on Thursday, April 22 

regarding the agency’s annual assessment of safety performance for the Indian Point nuclear 

power plant during 2009. 

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the Colonial Terrace, at 119 Oregon Road 

in Cortlandt Manor, N.Y. (Directions to the facility are available at: 

http://colonialterracecaterers.com/directions.htm.) Prior to the meeting’s adjournment, there will 

be an opportunity for members of the public to ask questions of the NRC staff regarding the 

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

 The NRC staff will also conduct an informational poster-board session for interested 

members of the public in conjunction with the meeting. That session will run from 6 to 7 p.m. in 

a room adjacent to the main meeting room at the same location. 

Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., owns and operates Indian Point, which is the site of 

two operating pressurized-water reactors and is located in Buchanan (Westchester County), N.Y. 

The NRC utilizes a combination of color-coded inspection findings and performance 

indicators to gauge plant performance. The colors start with “green,” representing very low 

safety significance, to “white,” “yellow” or “red,” commensurate with the significance of the 

issues involved. 

Overall, Indian Point Units 2 and 3 operated safely during 2009. At the conclusion of last 

year, there were no performance indicators for Indian Point Unit 2 that were other than “green” 

and no inspection findings that were “greater than green.” Therefore, for the remainder of 2010, 

Indian Point Unit 2 will continue to receive the normal, very detailed inspection regime used by 

the NRC for plants that are operating well. 

NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs, Region I 

475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 

Site: http://www.nrc.gov
Indian Point Unit 3 had one “white” (low to moderate safety significance) performance 

indicator as of the end of 2009. The affected performance indicator has to do with Unplanned 

Scrams per 7,000 Critical Hours. Specifically, if a plant has more than three unplanned reactor 

shutdowns during the previous 7,000 hours of operation, the performance indicator would 

change from “green” to “white” and the facility would receive additional scrutiny from the NRC. 

Indian Point Unit 3 crossed that threshold in the third quarter of last year. 

In response to the performance indicator change, the NRC plans to conduct a 

supplemental inspection at Indian Point Unit 3 beginning on April 19. The purpose of the 

inspection will be to ensure Entergy fully understands the root cause, or causes, for the 

performance issues; has identified other safety systems that might be similarly affected by these 

issues; and has implemented sufficient corrective actions to prevent a recurrence. 

Indian Point continued to receive augmented NRC oversight with respect to groundwater 

contamination issues last year. In August and September, a team of NRC inspectors reviewed 

Entergy activities associated with the characterization and mitigation of groundwater 

contamination at the site. Based on those results and other oversight activities, including the 

agency’s independent testing of groundwater samples, the NRC has concluded that Indian Point 

has satisfied the closure requirements for a Deviation Memorandum dedicating additional 

inspection resources to this area. (Normally, a plant in the "Licensee Response Column" of the 

NRC's Action Matrix, at 

http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/actionmatrix_summary.html, receives the 

NRC’s baseline, or routine, level of oversight. However, when conditions warrant, the NRC’s 

Executive Director for Operations can sign out a Deviation Memorandum allowing additional 

resources to applied to plants in that column.) The NRC will continue to assess the plant’s 

groundwater monitoring program via normal inspections. 

In 2009, the NRC devoted approximately 11,500 hours to inspection and related activities 

to the facility, including six major team inspections. 

“Each year, the NRC steps back and assesses the performance of nuclear power plants in 

a systematic and detailed manner. We take these reviews very seriously and they help guide our 

oversight in the year ahead,” NRC Region I Administrator Samuel J. Collins said. “In line with 

our Reactor Oversight Process, Indian Point Unit 3 will receive additional NRC attention until 

we are satisfied the issues that led to the ‘white’ performance indicator it received last year have 

been adequately addressed.” 

The agency issues reviews of performance at specific plants twice a year. Inspection 

findings and performance indicators are also updated on the NRC’s web site, www.nrc.gov, each 

quarter. Following the release of the annual assessment letters every March, the NRC meets with 

the public in the vicinity of each plant to discuss the results. The meetings are in keeping with 

the agency’s commitment to transparency with regard to its activities. 

The annual assessment letter for the Indian Point plant is available on the NRC web site 

at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/inpt_2009q4.pdf. The notice for 

the annual assessment meeting for the plant is available in the NRC’s Agencywide Documents 
Access and Management System (ADAMS) under accession number ML100810303. ADAMS is 

available at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Help in using ADAMS can be obtained 

via the NRC’s Public Document Room at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at 

PDR.Resources@NRC.GOV. 

Routine inspections are carried out by four 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 at Indian Point to be inspected this year by NRC specialists are the plant’s new siren 

system; dry cask storage of spent nuclear fuel; fire protection; radiation safety; emergency 

preparedness; and the facility’s problem identification and resolution program. 

Current performance information for Indian Point Unit 2 is available on the NRC web 

site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/IP2/ip2_chart.html. Current 

performance information for Indian Point Unit 3 is available at: 

http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/IP3/ip3_chart.html. 

 

 

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