Waterford – Millstone Power Station has been cited by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a safety violation involving a valve for intake water used in Unit 3's steam generators.

The NRC ranked it as a "green" violation, of "very low safety significance," but does consider it serious enough to list in on the NRC website, Neal Sheehan, NRC spokesman, said today. "Green" is the lowest of the four-tiered ranking system.

Ken Holt, spokesman for Millstone, said the problem with the valve was first identified in 2007, but the modifications needed have not yet been done. The valve is used to isolate water flow if a pipe breaks in the feedwater system, he said. The problem stemmed from a flaw in the original design, and figuring out how the modify the system is complex, Holt said.

The modifications needed are now scheduled for the next refueling outage for Unit 3 in October 2014, he said.

"It's in the schedule now, and it's not going to move," Holt said.

In the same NRC inspection report, released Friday, agency inspectors also identified another "green" finding of lesser significance, involving an assessment of maintenance on a turbine-driven auxiliary feedwater pump, and included three other "low safety significance" violations reported by Millstone staff.