NRC Notes Safe But Mixed Performance at Calvert Cliffs Plant

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NRC Notes Safe But Mixed Performance at Calvert Cliffs Plant
 
 BALTIMORE, May 28 /PRNewswire/ -- The Baltimore Gas and Electric Company
(BGE) (NYSE: BGE) concurs with the findings of the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) in its most recent Systematic Assessment of Licensee
Performance (SALP) report and continues to address radiological worker safety
issues at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant.
 
 "We acknowledge and share the NRC's concerns about worker safety at our
plant, and we are taking extensive corrective actions to improve the level of
radiological worker safety at Calvert Cliffs," said BGE Vice President of
Nuclear Energy Charles H. Cruse.  The concerns focus on work areas inside the
plant, not areas accessible to the general public.
 
 "We have targeted several areas for improvement," Mr. Cruse said. "Actions
range from sensitizing workers to the importance of properly using their
radiation monitoring equipment to significantly expanding supervisory
involvement from pre-job briefings through personal observation of the hands-
on work."  Extensive training also is being provided to all individuals who
have access to plant radiologically controlled areas.
 
 "We will do what it takes to bring our plant worker radiation safety program
performance up to the level of excellence we have achieved in industrial
safety," said Charles H. Cruse, BGE's Vice President, Nuclear Energy Division.
Calvert Cliffs remains in the best 10 percent of the nuclear industry for
industrial safety, and plant personnel currently have worked more than 3
million consecutive hours without a lost-time injury, Mr. Cruse added. "Safety
always has been and always will be our top priority at Calvert Cliffs."
 
 The NRC's assessment of four functional areas are:  Plant operations,
Category 1 ("superior");  maintenance and engineering, Category 2 ( "good"),
and plant support, Category 3 ("adequate").  The NRC noted that the plant's
superior operational performance was contrasted by the performance declines in
engineering and plant support.
 
 The NRC's SALP report is issued approximately every 18 months and is
considered an important measurement of overall plant performance.  This report
covered a period from Oct. 20, 1996 through April 18, 1998.
 
 SALP information is used by the NRC to assure its staffing levels and other
resources are appropriately allocated among the nation's nuclear energy
plants, and by plant management to measure the effectiveness and accuracy of
their own performance monitoring programs.
 
 The NRC and BGE management will hold a public meeting to discuss the SALP
report at 1 p.m. June 9 at the Calvert Cliffs Education Center, just outside
the plant's main gate.
 
 The two-unit plant, which produces enough electricity to meet the needs of
about 450,000 homes, is located on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It
is owned and operated by BGE.
 
 SOURCE  Baltimore Gas and Electric Company  
 
 CO:  Baltimore Gas and Electric Company; Nuclear Regulatory Commission
 
 ST:  Maryland
 
 IN:  UTI
 
 SU:
 
 05/28/98 14:45 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com