The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said staff will meet with officials from the Wolf Creek Operating Company to discuss a violation given a designation of a white or low to moderate level concern, an incident involving a backup diesel generator that failed to work properly during a test.
One emergency diesel generator started as required, but failed three hours into a 24-hour run because of a faulty electrical component, the NRC said.
The issue did not pose an immediate safety concern or threaten personnel or the environment because other means existed to supply emergency power to vital plant equipment had a real emergency been involved. Repairs have also been made to the emergency diesel generator and a preventative maintenance strategy has been developed.
The NRC evaluates regulatory performance at commercial nuclear plants with a color-coded process that classifies inspections findings as green, white, yellow or red, designating increasing levels of concern. The regulator has given the incident at Wolf Creek a preliminary designation of white, which may trigger additional inspections at the plant and additional regulatory oversight.
The NRC said no change in the designated level of safety will be made at the conference, which is scheduled for Sept. 21. A change in the designation could be announce later, however.
Wolf Creek Generating Station is a single-unit pressurized water reactor located 3.5 miles northeast of Burlington, Kansas. The operating license for the plant was issued in June 1985 with a renewal issued in November 2008. That license is set to expire in March 2045.