Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued the following announcement on April 20.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will discuss the 2017 safety performance of the St. Lucie nuclear power plant, operated by Florida Power & Light Co., during an open house on May 3 at the plant’s Energy Encounter, 6501 South Ocean Drive, Highway A1A in Jensen Beach, Fla. The two-unit St. Lucie plant is located in Jensen Beach, about 10 miles southeast of Ft. Pierce, Fla.
The open house will run from 5:30-6:30 p.m., and NRC employees responsible for plant inspections, including the resident inspectors based full-time at the site, will be available to discuss its performance.
The NRC concluded that the St. Lucie plant operated safely during 2017. At the end of the year, all inspection findings and performance indicators on Unit 1 and 2 were green or of low safety significance. As a result, both units are under the NRC’s normal level of oversight, which entails thousands of hours of inspection each year. During 2017, however, Unit 1 was subject to additional oversight for a white finding of low to moderate safety significance related to maintenance configuration control, but was returned to normal oversight in October following a supplemental inspection.
The NRC Reactor Oversight Process uses color-coded inspection findings and indicators to measure plant performance. The colors start at green and increase to white, yellow or red, commensurate with the safety significance of the issues involved. Inspection findings or performance indicators with more than very low safety significance trigger increased NRC oversight.
Inspections are performed by two NRC resident inspectors and inspection specialists from the NRC Region II office in Atlanta.
The annual assessment letter for the St. Lucie plant, as well as the notice for the open house, are available on the NRC website. Current performance information for Unit 1 and Unit 2 is also available.
Original source can be found here.
