An NRC-identified Green non-cited violation (
NCV) of the McGuire Nuclear Station Unit 1 and Unit 2 Renewed Facility Operating License Condition 2.C.4,
Fire Protection Program (
FPP), was identified for failure to perform annual maintenance on fire extinguishers located in contaminated radiation control zones (RCZs). The licensee took immediate corrective action to replace the past due fire extinguishers and entered the issue into their corrective action program as action request (
AR) 02009794. The performance deficiency (
PD) was more than minor because if left uncorrected the
PD could have the potential to
lead to a more significant safety concern, in that, fire extinguishers located in any contaminated RCZs may not be functional for firefighting purposes due to lack of maintenance. Every fire extinguisher, five total, located in a contaminated RCZ, did not have its annual maintenance up-to-date. The longest duration without annual maintenance was six years for two of the five extinguishers. The finding was determined to be of very low safety significance (Green) within the mitigating system cornerstone because it would not affect the ability to reach and maintain a
safe shutdown condition, in that, for each of the fire areas where the out-of-date extinguishers were present, there were also properly maintained fire extinguishers and hose stations outside of the RCZ. The out-of-date extinguishers were weighed and it was determined that they would have performed their function, if needed. The cause of the
PD was directly related to the cross-cutting aspect of field presence in the cross-cutting area of human performance because the licensee failed to correct deviations from the
FPP and ensure proper oversight of the vendor contracted to perform fire extinguisher maintenance.
