NRC Issues Annual Assessments for Nation’s Nuclear Plants

Nuclear Regulatory Commission - News Release
No: 21-013 March 5, 2021
CONTACT: Scott Burnell, 301-415-8200

NRC Issues Annual Assessments for Nation’s Nuclear Plants

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued annual letters to the nation’s 94 operating commercial nuclear reactors, regarding their performance in 2020.

“Ninety reactors reached the highest performance category and fully met our safety and security performance objectives,” said Acting Director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Andrea Veil. “Those 90 units will receive thousands of hours of inspection under our ‘baseline’ inspection program.”

Three reactors were in the second performance category, needing to resolve one or two items of low safety significance. For this performance level, regulatory oversight includes additional inspection and follow-up of corrective actions. Plants in this category are Callaway (Missouri); Clinton (Illinois); and Surry 2 (Virginia).

The Grand Gulf reactor in Mississippi was in the third performance category with a degraded, and still acceptably safe, level of performance. For this category, regulatory oversight includes more NRC inspections, senior management attention, and oversight focused on the cause(s) of the degraded performance.

There were no reactors in the fourth performance category.

Later this spring and summer, the NRC will host a public meeting or other event for each plant to discuss the details of the annual assessment results. These meetings are expected to be held via webcast to meet local restrictions due to the public health emergency. A separate announcement will be issued for each public assessment meeting. It is likely that several meetings will be consolidated into one virtual event. In addition to the annual assessment letters, plants also will receive an NRC inspection plan for the coming year.

The NRC’s website outlines oversight of commercial nuclear power on the Reactor Oversight Process page. The NRC routinely updates each plant’s current performance and posts the latest information as it becomes available to the action matrix summary. Assessment letters are posted on our website (click on “2020q4” for each plant). Annual construction oversight assessments for new reactors at the Vogtle units 3 and 4 sites will also be on the NRC website.

21-013.pdf