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RIV: 99-40

November 27, 1999

Waterford Nuclear Plant Terminates Alert NRC Deactivates Incident Response Center

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has deactivated its Incident Response Center in Arlington, Texas, at 12:45 p.m. following termination of the "Alert" condition at the Waterford 3 nuclear power plant near Taft, Louisiana.

At 11:06 a.m. operators at Waterford initiated normal shutdown cooling so that the nuclear core is now being cooled by the preferred method, and terminated the "Alert" status of the plant at 12:26 p.m.. Earlier today, at 5:33 a.m., an "Alert" was declared when about 3,000 gallons of primary cooling water drained unexpectedly into a storage pool during the first attempt to bring the shutdown cooling system on line.

The NRC is conducting a special inspection at Waterford 3 to monitor further actions and to review and report on conditions that led to the "Alert" declaration.

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