NRC Cancels Crystal River Plant Restart Meeting (Nothing to do with Japan crisis)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2011/11-009.ii.pdf

NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs, Region II
61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta GA 30303
Web Site: www.nrc.gov
No. II-11-009 March 17, 2011
E-mail: [e-mail]

NRC CANCELS CRYSTAL RIVER PLANT RESTART MEETING

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has cancelled a meeting to discuss the restart of the Crystal River plant after indications of a new separation or gap in the concrete containment.

The meeting was scheduled to be held at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, March 22 near the plant, which is operated by Progress Energy on the west coast of Florida about 80 miles north of Tampa. A similar meeting will be scheduled by the NRC in the area before the plant restarts.

Progress Energy has reported that there are indications of additional separation or gap resulting from the repair work on the original containment wall. NRC inspectors will closely follow Progress Energy’s analyses as well as any planned repairs.

The Crystal River plant shut down in the fall of 2009 for a planned refueling outage that included replacement of the steam generators. To move the large steam generators into the containment building, workers removed concrete to create the necessary opening. During that work, the plant staff discovered a separation or gap in the concrete containment wall. The Crystal River plant has been shut down since then while Progress Energy investigated the cause of the gap and repaired the concrete containment.

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