EN
We prove an upper bound for the number of primes p ≤ x in an arithmetic progression 1 (mod Q) that are exceptional in the sense that $ℤ*_p$ has no generator in the interval [1,B]. As a consequence we prove that if $Q > exp[c (log p)/(log B) (loglogp)]$ with a sufficiently large absolute constant c, then there exists a prime q dividing Q such that $ν_q(ord_p b) = ν_q(p-1)$ for some positive integer b ≤ B. Moreover we estimate the number of such q's under suitable conditions.