Contact: Edward Conaway
361-972-7643
ecconaway@stpegs.com
www.stpegs.com

Wadsworth, Texas -- June 5, 2001 -- A sitewide South Texas Project team has won the nuclear industry's Best of the Best Trophy and a Top Industry Practice (TIP) Award. The honors were presented at the Nuclear Energy Assembly, the industry's annual executive conference, in Washington, D.C. following Vice President Dick Cheney's address to the meeting's nearly 400 delegates.

The Boraflex Removal Project, an effort that spanned three years and involved nearly every major organizational unit at STP, was honored for its an innovation and cost-effectiveness. The project team developed a solution to a spent fuel management problem that saved $16 million initially and will produce an estimated additional $22.7 million in benefits over the currently licensed life of the plant.

The team devised a way that deteriorating Boraflex could be removed from the 40-foot-deep pools where spent fuel is stored, without having to install new racks to hold the fuel. The team also developed a way that the work could be done remotely, rather than by divers, as well as special yet simple tools for the effort and new hardware that eliminated underwater welding.

Project Manager John LeValley led the initiative. The key members of his team were Lead Engineer Rob Engen, Chemistry Representative Milton Rejcek, Reactor Engineering Liaison Jay Eichenlaub and Dave Hoppes, who performed crucial fuel analyses. Edward Conaway was named an honorary member for writing the detailed award nomination.

The project encompassed STP's Chemistry, Engineering, Health Physics, Licensing, Maintenance, Operations, Plant Modifications and Project Implementation, Plant Projects, and Work Control units. The work was supported by contractors Bartlett, Raytheon, Stolt-Comex-Seaway, Sun Technical, U.S. Tool and Die (under contract to Holtec International), and Westinghouse.

The annual TIP Awards are sponsored by the Nuclear Energy Institute and judged by representatives of NEI, the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations, and industry vendors Westinghouse, Westinghouse CE Nuclear, GE Nuclear Energy and Framatome Technologies. The Boraflex Removal Project was selected as the Top Industry Practice - Westinghouse Vendor Award winner, and then was chosen from this year's nine TIP honorees as the Best of the Best Trophy winner.

STP is owned by AEP Central Power and Light Company, Austin Energy, City Public Service of San Antonio, and Reliant Energy HL&P. The plant is operated by
STP Nuclear Operating Company and produces 2,500 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve more than one million homes.