Spring Is Annual Assessment Time at the NRC
David McIntyre
Public Affairs Officerhttp://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov/2014/03/24/spring-is-annual-assessment-time-at-the-nrc/

Spring
is here at last, and with it the season of NRC’s annual assessments of
nuclear power plant performance during the previous calendar year. The
Office of Public Affairs is issuing press releases faster than trees
drop pollen announcing public meetings in the vicinity of each plant to
update residents on how their local plants performed.
These meetings are routine, in that we hold them every year. Yet they
are important, because they represent a report card of sorts on plant
safety and because they give the agency a chance to reach out to its
most important stakeholders — the people who live near the plants and
have the highest stake in their safe operation.
The annual assessment letters were
issued to the plants earlier
this month. And the grades were mostly good. As of the end of December,
89 of 100 operating commercial nuclear reactors were in the two highest
performance categories. Of those, 80 were in the highest level, with
nine others requiring some additional oversight to correct issues of low
safety significance. Another nine were in the third category, requiring
even more oversight to correct what we call “degraded” performance.
More good news though – between December 31 and the time the
assessments were issued, four of these 18 reactors in the lower second
and third column had resolved their issues and moved back into the top
category.
One reactor, Browns Ferry 1 in Alabama, is in the fourth performance
category. It requires increased oversight because of a safety finding of
high significance – including additional inspections to confirm the
plant’s performance issues are being addressed.
Finally, Fort Calhoun plant in Nebraska is currently under a special
NRC oversight program distinct from the normal performance levels
because of an extended shutdown with significant performance issues. The
plant remains under special oversight even though the NRC approved its
restart last December.
You can find the report card for your local plant on the NRC website’s
Reactor Oversight Process page.
Just click on the plant’s name in the left-hand column, then look for
the 4Q/2013 assessment report on the plant’s individual page. Here you
will also find each plant’s current placement in the NRC action matrix,
along with performance indicators and inspection findings. Press
releases about when your local plant’s assessment meeting will be held
can be found
here.