How Well Is Oyster Creek Performing? Come And Listen To What The NRC Has To Say

by Patricia A. Miller

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission will discuss its annual safety assessment of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant at a public meeting on May 28 at the Holiday Inn in Manahawkin on Route 72.

The meeting is starts at 6 p.m. NRC staff will provide a brief presentation on the plant’s performance and the agency’s oversight activities at the plant in Lacey Township. It will be followed with a question-and-answer session.

Overall, the plant owned by Exelon Generation Co. LLC operated safely in 2014, said NRC spokesman Neil R. Sheehan.

But by the end of last year, Oyster Creek was receiving more NRC scrutiny from the NRC after its performance indicator for unplanned shutdowns - also known as scrams - went from green to white in the third quarter. The white indicator means the plant had more than three unplanned shutdowns during the previous 7,000 hours of operation.

The NRC judges plant performance with color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators, which are statistical measurements of plant performance that can trigger additional oversight if exceeded. The colors range from “green” to “white,” “yellow” and “red,” which is the highest level of significance.

The NRC conducted a supplemental inspection at the plant in December to review the company’s root cause evaluation and corrective actions for shutdown issues. Based on the satisfactory results of that inspection, documented in a report issued on Jan. 20, 2015, the NRC closed out the issues and returned the plant to the normal level of NRC oversight as of March 4, 2015.

The NRC finalized one “yellow” and one “white” inspection finding for the plant on April 27, 2015. A “yellow” classification indicates substantial safety significance while a “white” connotes low to moderate safety significance. The “yellow” finding involves design aspects of electromatic relief valves, or EMRVs, for the plant. The “white” finding pertains to the maintenance of an emergency diesel generator at the facility.

Even though the violation involving the EMRVs has been classified as “yellow,” the NRC determined it was an old design issue.

“The issue stems from an inspection finding involving a past design-related problem and does not reflect a current performance deficiency associated with existing programs, policies or procedures used by the company,” Sheehan said.

That means Oyster Creek will not be moved into the ”Degraded Cornerstone Column” of the NRC’s Action Matrix. but an inspection will be done to review Exelon’s root-cause evaluation and corrective actions for the problem, he said..

But the ”white” inspection finding means Oyster Creek moves into the Regulatory Response Column of the Action Matrix. That means the NRC will step up oversight and do a supplemental team inspection on the emergency diesel generator issue, Sheehan said.

“Once Exelon notifies us of its readiness for these inspections, we will review whether the company has taken the steps necessary to properly address these issues and prevent recurrence,” NRC Region I Administrator Dan Dorman said.

The NRC issues reports on performance at each plant twice a year: during the mid-cycle, or mid-point, of the year, and at the end of the year. Inspection findings and performance indicators are also updated on a quarterly basis on the agency’s website.Once the annual assessment letters are released each March, the NRC meets with the public near each plant to discuss the results.

The NRC’s normal level of oversight at each U.S. nuclear power plant involves thousands of hours of inspection. In 2014, the agency devoted approximately 6,880 hours of review at Oyster Creek.

Normal inspections are performed by two resident inspectors assigned to Oyster Creek. Reviews are also carried out by specialist inspectors assigned to the agency’s Region I Office in King of Prussia, Pa.

The areas to be inspected this year include the dry cask storage of spent nuclear fuel, radiation monitoring, emergency preparedness and control room operator qualifications, the NRC said.

The Annual Assessment letter for Oyster Creek, and the notice for the May 28 meeting,