NRC TO HOLD OPEN HOUSE ON MARCH 27th IN HAMPTON, N.H.,

TO DISCUSS SEABROOK NUCLEAR POWER PLANT ANNUAL ASSESSMENT

 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a public open house on Wednesday, 

March 27, to discuss the agency’s annual review of safety performance at the Seabrook nuclear 

power plant. Also, a subsequent NRC public meeting regarding Seabrook is expected to take 

place in the upcoming few months to discuss concrete degradation issues and other timely 

matters.

During the open house, which is scheduled for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Best Western Inn 

at Hampton, at 815 W. Lafayette Road in Hampton, N.H., attendees will have an opportunity to 

hold one-on-one discussions with NRC staff members about the plant’s 2012 performance and 

the agency’s oversight of the facility. NRC staff on hand will include the inspectors assigned to 

the plant on a full-time basis.

While the focus of the open house will be the plant’s 2012 performance and not concrete 

degradation experienced at Seabrook, NRC technical specialists from the agency’s headquarters 

and Region I Office will be available to answer questions related to that topic. A public meeting 

for the discussion of the issue was held on Dec. 11, 2012, and another will follow in upcoming 

few months to discuss this and other timely matters.

Overall, the Seabrook plant — a pressurized-water reactor located in Seabrook, N.H., and 

owned by NextEra Energy Seabrook, LLC — operated safely during 2012. At the conclusion of 

last year, as assessed by the NRC’s Reactor Oversight Process, there were no performance 

indicators for the facility that were other than green (very low risk). The plant did have an open 

white (low to moderate safety significance) inspection finding related to emergency 

preparedness. That finding was finalized in August 2012, causing Seabrook to receive increased 

oversight from the NRC. However, that finding was closed out on March 15, 2013, after the 

agency concluded that NextEra’s completed and planned corrective actions had addressed the 

performance issues. Consequently, the plant is expected to return to the normal level of oversight 

as of the end of the first quarter of 2013.

Plants that are meeting criteria set out by the NRC will receive the normal level of 

oversight, which consists of a detailed regime involving thousands of hours of inspection. In 

NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs, Region I 

2100 Renaissance Blvd., King of Prussia, Pa. 19406-2713

E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov 

Site: www.nrc.gov

Blog: http://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov

No. I-13-010

Contact: Diane Screnci, (610) 337-5330

 Neil Sheehan, (610) 337-5331

March 26, 2013

Email: opa1.resource@nrc.gov
2012, the agency devoted approximately 8,900 hours of inspection to the Seabrook plant. This 

included inspections devoted to concrete degradation identified at the facility.

In the meantime, the NRC is continuing to devote additional inspection resources to 

Seabrook to independently verify and assess work being done to address concrete degradation 

identified at the plant. The NRC’s Reactor Oversight Process does not prescribe increased 

oversight based on the company’s performance in this area, but the agency staff determined that 

additional inspections and assessments are needed to support the review of company 

commitments and planned large-scale concrete specimen testing, the development of staff 

technical guidance, and stakeholder communications and outreach activities. The allocation of 

those resources was approved by a “Deviation Memorandum” signed by the agency’s Executive 

Director for Operations in September.

“When the time comes to evaluate a plant’s performance for the previous year, we take a 

fresh look at any and all issues that might be of concern. We then adjust our plans for assessing 

the facility accordingly,” NRC Region I Administrator Bill Dean said. “As we map out our 

inspection plans for the remainder of 2013, we remain focused on ensuring that safety is the 

foremost objective for all plant operators.”

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

indicators to assess plant performance. The colors begin with green and then increase to white, 

yellow or red, commensurate with the risk significance of the issues involved. The agency issues 

reports on performance at each plant twice a year: during the mid-cycle, or mid-point, of the 

year, and at the conclusion of the 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 

reports every March, the NRC meets with the public in the vicinity of each plant to discuss the 

results. The sessions are in keeping with the agency’s commitment to transparency with respect 

to its activities.

The Annual Assessment Letter for the Seabrook plant is available on the NRC web site. 

The notice for the open house is available in the NRC’s Agencywide Documents Access and 

Management System (ADAMS) under accession number ML13073A186. 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.Resource@NRC.GOV .

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 to be inspected this year at Seabrook by NRC specialists are 

activities associated with radiological safety, the dry cask storage of spent nuclear fuel and 

emergency preparedness.

Current performance information for Seabrook is available on the NRC web site.

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