Platts - Wednesday, April 16, 2003 http://www.platts.com ------------ Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--15April2003 Fenoc reports improving safety culture at Davis-Besse FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. (Fenoc) reported generally positive results from a recent safety-culture survey at Davis-Besse. Fenoc released the results today as the company met in Port Clinton, Ohio with the special NRC panel overseeing the Davis-Besse restart effort. According to Fenoc, 90% of the respondents in the survey, which was conducted in late March, said first-line supervisors address concerns brought to their attention. In a survey last August, 61% said they thought so. In the recent survey, 76% said constructive criticism was encouraged, compared with 53% last year. But Fenoc said some survey respondents also raised questions about the commitment of plant management to the creation of a work environment that encourages employees to raise safety concerns. ------------ Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)--15April2003 NRC commissioners want critique of "Alvarez report" The NRC staff should develop a "brief critique" of the "Alvarez report" on spent fuel pool fires, the NRC commissioners directed in a staff requirements memorandum issued April 11. The commission said the staff should then make its views publicly known, particularly on how the report differs from the agency's research. The report referenced was a collaboration among eight academics, consultants, and think tank analysts in the U.S. and abroad, including Robert Alvarez, a DOE senior adviser during the Clinton administration. A draft copy of the report, which maintains that NRC should do more to reduce risks of the potential for spent fuel pool fires, was released Jan. 31 and was to be published in the spring issue of Princeton University's journal Science & Global Security. The commission also instructed the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research "to complete expeditiously its realistic engineering assessments of the potential vulnerability of nuclear power plants and spent fuel pools to terrorist attacks. ------------