The second meeting will be at 7 p.m., NRC staff will present the review results to Connecticut’s Nuclear Energy Advisory Council (NEAC). That meeting will also take place at Waterford Town Hall. Prior to the conclusion of both meetings, NRC staff will be available to answer questions from the public on the plant’s performance, as well as the agency’s oversight of the facility.
Overall, the Millstone units operated safely during 2008. At the end of 2008, as assessed by the NRC Reactor Oversight Process, there were no performance indicators for the plant that were other than green and no inspection findings that were greater than green. Therefore, for the rest of 2009, Millstone will receive the very detailed inspection regime used by the NRC for plants that are operating well. In 2008, the NRC devoted around 6,680 hours of inspection to the facility, including three major team inspections.
“In 2008, all but one of the 26 commercial power reactors in Region I, which covers the Northeastern United States, fully met our clearly defined performance criteria. Millstone was among those plants achieving those objectives. That means those plants will receive the normal level of NRC oversight this year if they continue to meet the high safety benchmarks set out for each site,” said NRC Region I Administrator Samuel J. Collins. “That said, our inspectors will remain on the lookout for any problems or adverse trends that might indicate a change in performance. As always, we will not hesitate to act should we identify any safety concerns.”
The NRC utilizes a combination of color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators to measure plant performance. The colors start with green and then increase to white, yellow or red, commensurate with the safety significance of the issues involved. The agency issues reports on performance at specific plants twice a year: During the mid-cycle, or mid-point, of the year, and at the conclusion of the year.
