Neil Sheehan
Public Affairs Officer
Region I
This likely won’t come as a surprise to those who closely follow the
Pilgrim nuclear power plant, but the NRC will be bumping up its level of oversight for the Plymouth, Mass., reactor.
At
the conclusion of every quarter, U.S. nuclear power plant owners
voluntarily provide the agency with data that determines if there will
be any changes to the Performance Indicators for each facility. The
indicators cover areas such as the number of unplanned shutdowns,
emergency siren functionality and the effectiveness of radiological
controls.
Based on the update of indicator data following the third quarter of 2013, Pilgrim saw its
Performance Indicator for
Unplanned Scrams (shutdowns) with Complications shift from “green” to
“white.” This indicator tracks unplanned scrams that require additional
operator actions and that are more risk-significant than uncomplicated
shutdowns.
This
adjustment resulted in the NRC notifying Entergy, the plant’s owner,
that additional scrutiny would be applied to the site. More
specifically, the facility moved from Licensee Response Column of the
NRC’s
Action Matrix – connoting normal oversight – to the Regulatory Response Column – signaling additional inspections by the agency.
Now,
with the finalization of 2013 fourth-quarter data, another indicator
for Pilgrim has also gone from “green” to “white.” In this case, the
Performance Indicator for
Unplanned Scrams per 7,000 Hours of Operation is affected. This
indicator makes that transition if a plant experiences more than three
unplanned shutdowns during that period of time.
This
will lead to Pilgrim moving to the Degraded Cornerstone Column of the
Action Matrix and result in still more inspections by the NRC. There
will also be greater interaction between NRC senior managers and plant
management to reach a better understanding of actions taken or planned
to address the problems.
Two
Performance Indicators related to an increased number of unplanned
plant shutdowns over the past year crossed the green/white threshold and
shows the company needs to focus greater attention on understanding why
this trend is occurring. For the NRC’s part, we need to apply more
resources to assess Entergy’s efforts to determine the root causes and
to implement corrective actions. The NRC will also conduct its own
independent evaluation of the root causes.
In
March, the NRC will issue its Annual Assessment Letters for each plant.
That letter for Pilgrim will reflect its current status and list
inspections the agency will be carrying out in response to the indicator
revisions. The
letters will be available on the NRC web site.
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