The inspectors identified an unresolved item (
URI) associated with the control of specimen capsules inside the reactor vessel. During this refueling outage, the licensee noted that two specimen capsules had become dislodged from their location on the core barrel. This particular outage required a 10 year
ISI inspection and the core barrel was removed as part of the outage plan. The two capsules were noted to have been moved during the last refueling outage. A formal root cause evaluation was performed. The root cause team included industry experts independent of the licensee organization. The root cause team noted several procedural violations during the previous capsule move. The team concluded that these significant errors led to the improper seating of the capsules in the specimen baskets and ultimately allowed the capsules to dislodge from the core barrel. A significant foreign object retrieval evolution was completed during the outage and the core barrel, lower internals, and lower vessel head were inspected by the licensee and the NRC. The specimen parts were collected and placed in storage containers and transferred to the spent fuel pool. The unit was restarted on May 15 without a full accountability of the specimen parts. The inspectors determined that more inspection of this issue is required in order to understand all aspects of the incident. This issue will be tracked as
URI 05000327/2015002-02, Spilled Specimen Capsule.
