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As part of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s response to the blackout
of Aug. 14, 2003, the NRC has issued a regulatory issue summary to remind
nuclear power plant licensees of how the availability of offsite power can
affect nuclear power plant operations and safety. In addition, the agency
plans to conduct focused inspections of all licensed plants to assess their
compliance with these requirements.
Some of the regulations discussed in the summary deal with assessing the
impact that maintenance activities could have on plant operations if offsite
power becomes unavailable. The summary suggests licensees evaluate grid reliability
when contemplating upcoming maintenance. The summary also suggests utilities
should consider rescheduling, when possible, maintenance during periods when
offsite power is determined to be unavailable. The summary recommends reliable
communications between plants and their transmission system operators, in
order to increase awareness of overall grid conditions.
NRC staff intend to complete their inspections by the end of this spring.
A temporary instruction for these inspections, based on the regulations outlined
in the summary, will be issued in advance.
The regulatory issue summary is available electronically through the NRC’s
Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) on the NRC web site
at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html,
by entering accession number ML040990550. Help in using ADAMS is available
from the NRC’s Public Document Room at 800/397-4209 or 301/415-4737.
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