No. IV-12-005

Contact: Victor Dricks (817) 200-1128

 Lara Uselding (817) 200-1519

 

 January 25, 2012

 E-Mail: OPA4.Resource@nrc.gov

NRC TO SEND AUGMENTED INSPECTION TEAM 

TO WOLF CREEK NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will send an Augmented Inspection Team (AIT) to 

the Wolf Creek Nuclear Generating Station to review the circumstances surrounding an 

automatic reactor trip and loss of offsite power that occurred there on Jan. 13. The plant is 

located near Burlington, Kan.

Just after 2 p.m. on Jan. 13, officials at the Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Co., declared a 

Notice of Unusual Event after the failure of a main generator electrical breaker, followed by an 

unexplained loss of power to an electrical transformer. This caused the switchyard to become

de-energized, which removed the plant’s connection to the electrical power grid. The emergency 

diesel generators automatically started and powered safety-related equipment. An Unusual 

Event is the lowest of four NRC emergency categories.

At 5:09 p.m. on January 13, Wolf Creek terminated the Unusual Event after off-site 

power was partially restored. Plant personnel are continuing to investigate the cause of the 

failure and determine necessary repairs. There were no radiological releases due to the event. 

NRC resident inspectors responded to the control room to monitor site activities during 

the event and were onsite last weekend to monitor licensee activities and initial recovery actions.

AIT’s are used by the NRC to review more significant events or issues at NRC-licensed 

facilities. The six-member team has assumed responsibility from the resident inspectors for 

gathering information about the shutdown event and will travel to the site in the coming weeks. 

The team will include inspectors from the NRC’s Region IV office, NRC Headquarters in 

Rockville, Md., and resident inspectors from other plants. The team will be led by NRC Region 

IV Branch Chief Mark Haire of the Division of Reactor Safety.

“An AIT is used when the NRC wants to promptly dig deeply into the circumstances 

surrounding an operational event,” said NRC Region IV Administrator Elmo E. Collins. “We 

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want to make sure that all of the circumstances that contributed to this event are well understood 

in order to prevent a recurrence.”

The team will put together a detailed chronology of the event, evaluate the adequacy of 

licensee actions in response to the incident and assess the impact of the prolonged loss of off-site 

power to non-safety related equipment. The team’s report will not contain inspection findings, 

but will identify areas for further inspection follow-up.

The NRC will hold a public exit meeting with the licensee upon completion of the 

inspection to discuss its preliminary findings. The meeting will be open to interested members 

of the public and the news media, and team members will be available to answer questions after 

the results are presented. The AIT will also issue a written report within 30 days of completion 

of the inspection.

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