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-06-047 August 21, 2006

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

Neil Sheehan, 610/337-5331

NRC ISSUES SAFETY EVALUATION REPORT WITH OPEN ITEMS

FOR OYSTER CREEK LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has issued its Safety Evaluation Report with Open

Items for the proposed renewal of the operating license for the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant. In

the report, the staff concludes there are no safety concerns that would preclude renewal of the license,

provided the open items are resolved.

AmerGen Energy Co., LLC, submitted an application to the NRC in July 2005 to extend the

Oyster Creek license by 20 years. The plant, which is located in Lacey Township (Ocean County),

N.J., is operated by AmerGen. Its current 40-year operating license is scheduled to expire on April 19,

2009.

Publication of the Safety Evaluation Report with Open Items is another milestone in the NRC’s

review of the application. In a letter dated Aug. 18, Frank P. Gillespie, Director of the Office of

Nuclear Reactor Regulation’s Division of License Renewal, provided AmerGen with the report and

requested responses to the Open Items identified in the document by Oct. 20.

All of the Open Items deal with corrosion issues involving the plant’s drywell. The drywell is a

steel shell shaped like an inverted lightbulb that surrounds the reactor vessel. It is designed to confine

steam that would be released during a severe accident and direct it downwards to a suppression pool,

where it would be cooled and condensed into water. In some cases, the NRC staff is seeking additional

information regarding the company’s efforts to mitigate corrosion on the drywell. In others, it is asking

that specific steps be taken to confirm the thickness and integrity of the component.

A complete and revised Safety Evaluation Report will be issued by Dec. 1.

The report and the license renewal application have also been provided to the NRC’s Advisory

Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS), an independent body of experts that advises the NRC on

reactor safety matters. An ACRS subcommittee is expected to discuss the Safety Evaluation Report

with Open Items during a meeting in October. The meeting, which will take place at NRC

Headquarters in Rockville, Md., will be open to the public and will be announced on the agency’s web

site at http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/index.cfm . The full ACRS will later issue a

report discussing the results of its review.
A copy of the Safety Evaluation Report with Open Items is available in the NRC’s Agencywide

Documents Access and Management Systems (ADAMS) under accession number ML062300330. 

ADAMS is accessible via the agency’s web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html . Help

in using ADAMS is available by contacting the NRC’s Public Document Room at 1-800-397-4209 or

301-415-4737, or by e-mail at PDR@NRC.GOV .

Additional information concerning license renewal in general and the Oyster Creek application

in particular can be found at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal.html .

###