Officials with the Tennessee Valley Authority say safety and equipment reliability improvements had been made at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, but not enough to begin the final phase of an intense inspection.

The utility held a joint meeting Thursday with the inspectors from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at Calhoun Community College. The meeting gave TVA officials a chance to let the NRC know where Browns Ferry stands in terms of improvements following a red, or severe, finding at the plant in 2010.

The NRC issued the finding following the failure of a coolant valve in the plant’s residual heat removal system. The valve was repaired, but the  NRC placed the Unit 1 reactor at the plant into the multiple degraded cornerstone category.

The agency’s decision was accompanied by a three-part inspection, regarded by both the NRC and TVA as thorough and intrusive. Two parts of the 95003 inspections have been completed, while the third part — often regarded as the most stringent — has not been scheduled.

TVA will indicate to the NRC when Browns Ferry is ready for the third phase to begin.

TVA officials said Thursday the inspections won’t begin until they’re satisfied that plans put in place to address a multitude of issues are working and will lead to greater safety and sustainability at the plant.

“We are seeing positive results from the improvements in some areas,” said Keith Polson, Browns Ferry vice president. “We’re doing a lot of work.”

Len Wert, deputy regional administrator for NRC operations, said once the inspections are complete, NRC inspectors “won’t go away.” He said inspectors would verify completion of corrective actions that aren’t completed and will continue to implement the reactor oversight process.

In the midst of waiting to receive the go-ahead from TVA to complete the 95003 inspections, the NRC issued a preliminary white finding in late June because operators were apparently unaware of new plant shutdown instructions.

Wert said an official determination on the white finding would likely be issued next week.

In preparing for the current inspections, TVA officials identified 15 problem areas initially, including corrective actions, fire-risk reduction, equipment reliability and decision-making. They then added three more, two of which deal with creating a safety-conscious work environment and an employee concern program.

Tied to those 18 areas are 45 metrics that allow plant operators to monitor the plant’s performance. Jerry Doyle, who is directing the 95003-inspection team for TVA, said the metrics will be shared with employees on a monthly or weekly basis.

Preston Swafford, executive vice president of TVA, said Browns Ferry officials used the October 2010 valve failure as a “starting point” for improvements, but previous issues were also examined. He said all 45 metrics don’t have to hit their ideal goal, and added he suspected some may not.

In speaking on the plant’s equipment reliability, he told NRC officials the plant is “two-thirds” there to achieving excellence in reliability.

“We’ve put together a list of improvements and out of that has come a picture of our journey,” he said. “Culture and other things that got us to this point have also got to be fixed, but the bottom line is the equipment has to be reliable. We now have a road map for the next couple of years.”

Polson said one factor that will help the plant improve is access to funds to make the improvements. He said the plant has always had a five-year plan, but things were often pushed back because of funding shortfalls.

“One of the things holding us back before was that we didn’t have enough resources on site to complete the work that needed to be done,” he said. “We’re catching up  with projects we needed to do and they’re not getting deferred anymore.”