NRC to hold open forum on Arkansas Nuclear One plant

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff will meet with Entergy Operations representatives in Russellville, Arkansas, May 12 to review the agency’s 2014 performance assessment for Arkansas Nuclear One.

The public meeting will be at 6 p.m. at the Lakepoint Conference Center, 61 Lake Point Lane in Russellville. Following a presentation on plant performance, NRC staff will be available to answer questions about safety and its role in the plant’s operational well-being.

"The NRC continually reviews the performance of Arkansas Nuclear One and the nation's other commercial nuclear power facilities to ensure they are being operated safely," NRC Region IV Administrator Marc Dapas said. "This meeting is important because it provides an opportunity for a discussion of Entergy’s actions to address the significant decline in plant performance since the last annual assessment."

Using color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators to assess nuclear plant performance, the NRC addresses safety issues according to significance. Plant and equipment performance are measured for statistical indicators that are translated into an action matrix; the NRC then adjusts the level of supervision according to performance numbers.

Because Arkansas Nuclear One was found to have had two incidents in 2014, the NRC will be assigning it the highest level of oversight and conducting several auxiliary inspections by Region IV resident inspectors from Arlington, Texas, and staff from agency headquarters in Rockville, Maryland.

A letter sent to Entergy in March detailed the substantial safety significance of its findings, based on flood-barrier handling and heavy turbine equipment relocation using hoisting gear in 2013.