Washington (Platts)--6Mar2008

Palo Verde-3 remained in column 4 of NRC's action matrix, requiring the
highest level of agency oversight short of a plant shutdown, at the end of
2007. The other two Palo Verde units stayed in Column 3, which indicates
degraded performance in one of seven safety cornerstones. But in an annual
assessment letter sent this week to Arizona Public Service Co., NRC said there
would be increased inspections and attention to the action plans at all three
units because the root causes of the problems were site-wide. One former
Column 3 unit, Progress Energy Carolinas' Brunswick-1, was moved to Column 2,
stepping down the level of NRC inspection effort. Three others that also had
been in Column 3 -- American Electric Power's Cook-1 and -2 and Duke Power's
Oconee-3 -- improved performance and were moved to Column 1, the category for
the highest performing plants requiring only NRC baseline inspections. Three
units, Tennessee Valley Authority's Browns Ferry-1 (which restarted last May
after a 22-year shutdown), Omaha Public Power District's Fort Calhoun and PSEG
Nuclear's Salem-1, had declining performance and were placed in Column 3. All
the designated categories reflect changes in plant performance from third
quarter last year.