Neil Sheehan
Public Affairs Officer
Region I
A significant activity at the
Pilgrim
nuclear power plant gets underway today when a team of inspectors
arrives at the Plymouth, Mass., facility to examine a variety of aspects
of its operation.
Included
on the 20-member team will be inspectors tasked with evaluating the
state of equipment reliability, human performance, plant procedures and
the plant’s corrective action program.
What’s
more, the team will look carefully at the plant’s safety culture. Among
other things, safety culture encompasses the willingness of plant
employees to raise safety concerns without fear of reprisal.
This
inspection is being performed as part of NRC increased oversight of
Pilgrim, which was initiated in September 2015. That occurred after
performance issues triggered a change in where the plant falls on the
agency’s
Action Matrix. The matrix uses inspection findings and performance indicators to guide the level of scrutiny at each plant.
The
“95003” inspection process spells out the steps to be taken by the NRC
staff to ensure a plant’s owner has taken the appropriate actions to
remedy deficiencies. Two earlier team inspections, carried out in
January and April, were also part of this oversight regimen.
The
inspection beginning today will involve three weeks of on-site reviews.
Any findings coming out of the evaluation will be made available in a
report due out within 45 days of the inspection’s conclusion.
More information on the NRC review activities regarding Pilgrim can be found on a
webpage devoted to that subject.
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