IR 05000244/2008502

R. E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant - Notice of Violation, NRC Supplemental Inspection Report No. 05000244/2008502

ML080990280
Person / Time
Site:	Ginna
Issue date:	04/07/2008
From:	Collins S Region 1 Administrator
To:	John Carlin Ginna, Rochester Gas & Electric Corp
References
EA-08-075
Download: ML080990280 (6)

Text

ril 7, 2008

SUBJECT:

R. E. GINNA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT - NOTICE OF VIOLATION NRC Supplemental Inspection Report No. 05000244/2008502

Dear Mr. Carlin:

This letter refers to the supplemental inspection conducted on February 22, 2008, under Inspection Procedure 95002, Inspection for One Degraded Cornerstone or Any Three White Inputs in a Strategic Performance Area, at the R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant (Ginna). The inspection was conducted to review your assessment of the root cause and corrective actions taken as a result of a Yellow performance indicator (PI) related to the Emergency Response Organization Drill (ERO) Participation. The results of the inspection were discussed with your staff at the exit meeting conducted at the conclusion of the inspection on February 22, 2008, and were documented in the report enclosed in our letter dated April 7, 2008.

In a telephone conversation on March 13, 2008, Mr. Glenn Dentel of my staff informed you that as a result of this inspection, the NRC was considering escalated enforcement for an apparent violation involving the failure to obtain Commission approval prior to making changes to your emergency plan that decreased the effectiveness of your plan. This failure was contrary to 10 CFR 50.54(q). Mr. Dentel also informed you that we had sufficient information regarding this apparent violation and your corrective actions to make an enforcement decision without the need for a predecisional enforcement conference (PEC) or a written response from you. You indicated that Ginna did not believe a PEC or written response was needed.

As a result, based on the information developed during the inspection, the NRC has determined that a violation of NRC requirements occurred. This violation is cited in the enclosed Notice of Violation (Notice) and the circumstances surrounding it are described in detail in the subject inspection report. Specifically, during your assessment of the Ginna Emergency Preparedness organization following the Yellow PI for ERO drill participation, you identified a violation of NRC requirements for maintaining the Emergency plan. The violation resulted from Ginnas failure to recognize that changes to the emergency plan that were made between 1996 and 2001, decreased the effectiveness of the plan. The specific changes involved revisions made to the NRC-approved emergency Action Levels (EALs). Six of the changes were determined to have resulted in a decrease in effectiveness of the emergency plan, in that the changes could have caused incorrect event classification, or could have delayed the classification such that required notifications to offsite emergency response organizations may not have been timely. The most significant EAL change involved limiting a specific Site Area Emergency (SAE) EAL to a loss of coolant accident condition, instead of encompassing all events that cause a rapid uncontrolled decrease in containment pressure, which would also include events such as main steam line breaks. The lack of consideration for, and declaration of, a SAE, for all events causing a rapid uncontrolled decrease in containment pressure that could compromise containment integrity, could have prevented proper notification of offsite authorities.

The violation was considered safety significant due to the potential for an incorrect event classification or an untimely notification to offsite authorities during an event such as a SAE, as described above. The revised EALs could have adversely impacted the licensees ability to assess and classify an event. Therefore, this violation is categorized at Severity Level (SL) III in accordance with Section C.2 of Supplement VIII of the NRC Enforcement Policy.

In accordance with the Enforcement Policy, a base civil penalty is considered for a SLIII violation. Because your facility has not been the subject of escalated enforcement actions within the last two years or two inspections, the NRC considered whether credit was warranted for Corrective Action in accordance with the civil penalty assessment process in Section VI of the Policy. Credit is warranted, because Ginnas corrective actions were considered to be prompt and comprehensive. These corrective actions included restoring the EALs to their original configurations and training the operators on the corrected EALs.

Therefore, to encourage prompt and comprehensive correction of violations, after consultation with the Director, Office of Enforcement, I have been authorized not to propose a civil penalty in this case. However, significant violations in the future could result in a civil penalty.

The NRC has concluded that information regarding the reason for the violation, the corrective actions taken to correct the violation and prevent recurrence and the date when full compliance was achieved is already adequately addressed on the docket in Inspection Report No.

05000244/2008502 attached to our April 7, 2008 letter, and in this letter. Therefore, you are not required to respond to this letter unless the description therein does not accurately reflect your corrective actions or your position. In that case, or if you choose to provide additional information, you should follow the instructions specified in the enclosed Notice. In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter and its enclosure will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the NRC=s document system (ADAMS), accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. The NRC also includes significant enforcement actions on its Web site at (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/enforcement/actions).

Sincerely,

/RA/

Samuel J. Collins Regional Administrator Docket No. 50-244 License No. DPR-18 Enclosure: Notice of Violation cc w/encl:

M. J. Wallace, President, Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, LLC J. M. Heffley, Senior Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer P. Eddy, Electric Division, NYS Department of Public Service C. Donaldson, Esquire, Assistant Attorney General, New York Department of Law C. W. Fleming, Esquire, Senior Counsel, Constellation Energy Group, Inc.

B. Weaver, Director, Licensing, Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, LLC P. Tonko, President and CEO, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority J. Spath, Program Director, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority G. Bastedo, Director, Wayne County Emergency Management Office M. Meisenzahl, Administrator, Monroe County, Office of Emergency Preparedness T. Judson, Central New York Citizens Awareness Network S. Kempf, Regional Director, DHS, Region II