The licensee identified a potential common mode failure of the
auxiliary feedwater pumps due to operator actions specified in plant procedures. The team identified that procedural guidance provided to operators was inadequate to prevent such a common mode failure. In addition, the team identified that the licensee had seven opportunities, from 1981 through 1997, to identify the problem and take appropriate corrective actions. The failures to provide adequate procedural guidance and to take appropriate corrective actions are both apparent violations of
10 CFR Part 50, Appendix B, Criteria V and XVI. . This issue has been preliminarily determined to have high safety significance (Red). A common mode failure of the
auxiliary feedwater pumps would result in substantially reduced mitigation capability for safely shutting down the plant in response to certain
transients. The significance was determined to be high largely due to the relatively high initiating event frequencies associated with the involved
transients and the high likelihood of improper operator actions due to the procedural inadequacies.
