Washington (Platts)--16Jan2008

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday said it is conducting a
special inspection at the 1,170 MW Wolf Creek nuclear plant near Burlington,
Kansas, in response to problems plant personnel discovered in a safety system
that provides emergency cooling water for the reactor.

The NRC said operators on January 10 discovered pockets of gas in a pipe
that should be filled with water. The pipe is part of the emergency core
cooling system that provides water to the reactor during an emergency. Workers
shut the plant on January 11 to address the problem.

The agency said the problem is believed to have been caused by several
leaky valves, as well as a pocket of gas that remained in a pipe since the
last refueling outage in fall 2006. The licensee has vented the gas from the
piping and is in the process of restarting the reactor, NRC said.

"We want to take a look at the way the licensee has responded to the
problem," said Elmo Collins, NRC Region IV administrator. "It's possible that
the gas pockets may have prevented the emergency core cooling system from
being able to perform its safety function had it been needed."

The agency said two specialists will review the circumstances related
to the problem, the licensee's evaluation of the root cause and the effect it
had on the operability of the safety system.

The inspection is set to begin Wednesday and will take several days to
complete. The team will write a report no more than 45 days after the
inspection has been completed.

Earlier Wednesday, the NRC reported that the unit has begun exiting
its outage and is operating at 1% capacity.

Westar Energy, Kansas City Power & Light and Kansas Electric Power
Cooperative own the plant. Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating is operator.