NRC public meeting May 23 in Brattleboro to discuss Vermont Yankee's annual safety assessment

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will conduct a public meeting and open house on Wednesday, May 23, regarding the agencyâ s annual assessment of safety performance for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
The public meeting and open house will take place from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room at Brattleboro Union High School, at 131 Fairground Road in Brattleboro.
During the open house, which begins at 5:30 p.m., members of the public will have an opportunity to talk on a one-on-one basis with NRC inspectors assigned to the plant and NRC managers about plant-related topics. Starting at 7 p.m., the NRC will conduct a public meeting at which agency staff members will take questions from attendees.
Vermont Yankee is the site of a single boiling-water reactor. It is located in Vernon, Vt., and is operated by Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.
Overall, Vermont Yankee operated safely during 2011. At the conclusion of last year, as assessed by the NRCâ s Reactor Oversight Process, there were no performance indicators for Vermont Yankee that were other than â Green’(very low risk) and no inspection findings that were â Greater than Green’(all findings were of very low safety significance). Therefore, for the rest of 2012, Vermont Yankee will receive the very detailed inspection regime used by the NRC for plants that are operating well. In 2011, the NRC devoted approximately 6,325 hours of inspection to the Vermont Yankee facility.
â Throughout 2011, our inspectors kept close watch on safety performance at all 104 commercial power reactors operating in the United States. Vermont Yankee was among those that met our clearly defined performance criteria last year,’NRC Region I Administrator Bill Dean said. â In addition, our inspectors spent time in 2011 verifying that there were no immediate safety concerns at Vermont Yankee, as well as all other U.S. nuclear power plants,
following the March events at the Fukushima Daiichi facility in Japan. Those reviews indicated the plants remained safe for continued operation.â
The NRC utilizes a combination of color-coded inspection findings and performance indicators to measure plant performance. The colors start with â Green’and then increase to â White,’â Yellow’or â 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. Inspection findings and performance indicators are also updated on the NRCâ s web site, www.nrc.gov, each quarter. Following the release of an annual assessment report every March, the NRC meets with the public in the vicinity of each plant to discuss the results. The meetings are in keeping with the agencyâ s commitment to transparency with regard to its activities.
The annual assessment for the Vermont Yankee plant is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/vy_2011q4.pdf . The notice for the open house is available in the NRCâ s Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) under accession number ML12121A628. ADAMS is available at:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html. Help in using ADAMS can be obtained via the NRCâ s Public Document Room at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at [email protected].
Routine inspections are carried out by NRC Resident Inspectors assigned to the plant and by inspection specialists from the agencyâ s Region I Office in King of Prussia, Pa.
Among the areas of performance at Vermont Yankee to be inspected this year by NRC specialists are activities associated with permanent plant modifications, radiological safety, emergency preparedness and the implementation of a voluntary industry initiative to address potential degradation of underground piping.
Current performance information for Vermont Yankee is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/VY/vy_chart.html .