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June 24, 2003 -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has determined that an emergency planning finding at the Callaway nuclear plant near Fulton, Missouri, should be characterized as "white," meaning that it is of low to moderate importance to safety.
An NRC inspection that ended March 21, determined that between 1998 and 2002, Union Electric Company, which operates the plant, had not provided tone alert radios to 98 residences located within the plant's emergency planning zone, but outside the range of emergency sirens.
NRC's inspection followed Union Electric's identification of the problem in November 2002. NRC emergency planning regulations require that nuclear power plant licensees be able to notify everyone living within about a 10- mile radius of a nuclear plant in the event of an emergency.
"Offsite emergency planning is an important part of the NRC's defense-in-depth approach to protecting public health and safety," NRC's Region IV Acting Administrator Thomas Pat Gwynn said. "We take this violation very seriously, and were pleased to see that the company took prompt corrective action when the oversight was identified, so the finding does not represent a current safety issue."
Under its safety significance determination process, NRC officials classify certain conditions at nuclear power plants as being one of four colors which delineate increasing levels of safety significance, beginning with green and progressing to white, yellow or red.
The NRC informed Union Electric in a letter dated June 20 that the agency's final significance determination was that the failure in emergency planning requirements constituted a white finding and issued the company a Notice of Violation. Union Electric Company officials did not contest the characterization of the violation. This finding may result in increased NRC inspection at the Callaway plant.
Additional details on the white finding and on the Notice of Violation are available from the NRC's Region IV Office of Public Affairs at the above address or online in the NRC's electronic reading room in the agency's ADAMS document system, accessible at:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Help in using ADAMS is available by contacting the NRC Public Document Room at 301- 415-4737 or 1-800-397-4209.
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