Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will discuss the 2017 safety performance of the Watts Bar nuclear power plant, operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, during an open house on June 7.
The open house will be held at the Spring City Municipal Building, 229 Front St. in Spring City. The two-unit Watts Bar plant is located near Spring City, about 60 miles southwest of Knoxville.
The open house will run from 5-6 p.m., and NRC employees responsible for plant inspections, including the resident inspectors based full-time at the site, will be available to discuss its performance.
The NRC concluded that the Watts Bar plant operated safely during 2017. At the end of the year, all inspection findings and all but one performance indicator on Units 1 and 2 were green or of low safety significance. As a result of one white performance indicator in the fourth quarter of 2017 for excessive unplanned shutdowns on Unit 2, it is being subjected to additional oversight in addition to the NRC’s normal levels, which entail thousands of hours of inspection each year. In addition, the NRC plans a supplemental inspection related to the 2016 finding that a chilled work environment existed at Watts Bar because operators were not free to raise safety concerns.
The NRC Reactor Oversight Process uses color-coded inspection findings and indicators to measure plant performance. The colors start at green and increase to white, yellow or red, commensurate with the safety significance of the issues involved. Inspection findings or performance indicators with more than very low safety significance trigger increased NRC oversight.
Inspections are performed by two NRC resident inspectors and inspection specialists from the NRC Region II office in Atlanta.
The annual assessment letter for the Watts Bar plant, as well as the notice for the open house, are available on the NRC website. Current performance information for Unit 1 and Unit 2 is also available.