Baltimore Gas & Electric's Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant First to Manage Compliance Docket Electronically Using CoreDossier.

FT. WASHINGTON, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 8, 1999--

Software's Ability to Manage Facility-Wide Controlled Documents

Seen as Foundation for the Future of Streamlined

Regulatory Relationships with NRC 

Nuclear utility professionals know the maintenance of their Current Licensing Basis (CLB) is the life-line to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which grants each plant's license to operate.

CLB maintenance demands the dedication of significant staffing resources - as well as their ad hoc time - for the continual updating and filing of thousands of pages in multiple-size, multiple-format, paper controlled documents. Today, through use of a powerful new software tool, one nuclear utility hopes to dramatically streamline this process.

Baltimore Gas & Electric's Nuclear Power Plant at Calvert Cliffs was the first in the U.S. to apply for license renewal with the NRC. Faced with the daunting challenge of assembling and managing their Current Licensing Basis, including their Updated Final Safety Analysis Report (USFAR), Tim Roxey, Senior Engineer, Nuclear Regulatory Matters, has selected ESPS, Inc.'s. compliance software, CoreDossier(R), to - for the first time - manage a CLB electronically.

"The site-wide management of our range of divergent files, engineering drawings and all the other elements that go into a CLB in a controlled fashion has been something we thought was years away," said Roxey, a former member of Vice President Al Gore's RegNet Task Force on improving regulatory processes.

"We've seen that CoreDossier performs this and other compliance-related assembly tasks in other industries with easily navigable, hotlinked data, multi-media output, and retention of the control required by law. All this could make it a very compelling tool for us throughout the plant," said Roxey.

The ability to manage the Current Licensing Basis with advanced tools like CoreDossier may provide the foundation for the future of electronic management of the entire regulatory docket for utilities. With the NRC currently considering the acceptance of electronic files from licensees, electronic management of the CLB will necessarily be the keystone of this relationship.

The electronic standards and ensured fidelity already demonstrated by CoreDossier are consistent with those recommended by NIRMA, the Nuclear Information and Records Management Association, and under consideration by the NRC.

"CoreDossier was initially designed for the management, assembly and publication of new drug applications for the pharmaceutical industry - applications which frequently exceed 500,000 pages, 80 or more native file formats and 120 gigabytes," said Karen Ellingson, Director, Business Development for Utilities at ESPS. "Our electronic assembly and publishing experience in multiple industries translates into a product that can tremendously streamline regulatory and compliance matters throughout the utility enterprise," said Ellingson.

CoreDossier, the flagship product of ESPS, enables utility professionals to cross the line from paper - based regulatory compliance publishing to an electronic solution that is saving customers literally millions of dollars every year.

With its ease of use and effectiveness in handling the vast number of documents involved in achieving and maintaining regulatory compliance, CoreDossier has become the de facto standard in regulatory submission management and publishing within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. In fact, ESPS currently has 35 of the leading 40 pharmaceutical companies on its client roster and is making significant inroads in the chemical industry.

About ESPS

ESPS, Inc. (Electronic Submission Publishing Systems, Inc.) is the global leader in the development and implementation of enterprise software solutions used to manage and publish regulatory compliance and other business-critical document collections.

Founded in 1994 as an Adobe Systems venture company, ESPS is providing economic buyers with clear ROI and benefit through a combination of industry expertise, great technology and a commitment to high quality implementations.

ESPS world headquarters is located in suburban Philadelphia, with additional offices throughout North America and in Europe. More information can be found at www.esps.com, or by reaching the company at 800.515.ESPS (North America) or [phone] (Europe).