IR 05000255/1979005
| ML18043A756 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Palisades  |
| Issue date: | 04/24/1979 |
| From: | Jorgensen B, Warnick R NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION III) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML18043A753 | List: |
| References | |
| 50-255-79-05, 50-255-79-5, NUDOCS 7906250183 | |
| Download: ML18043A756 (7) | |
Text
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF INSPECTION AND ENFORCEMENT
REGION III
Report No. 50-255/79-05 Docket No. 50-255 Licensee:
Consumers Power Company 212 West Michigan Avenue Jackson, MI 49201 Facility Name:
Palisades Nuclear Generating Plant Inspection At:
Palisades Site, Covert, MI Inspection Conducted:
March 16, 21-23 and 27-29, 1979 RFW f..,,
Inspector:
B. L. Jorgensen RFW~
Approved By:
R. F. Warnick, Chief Reactor Projects Section 2 Inspection Summary License No. DPR-20
'l-Z'l-7'1 Management meeting on March 16, 1979 (Report No. 50-255/79-05)
Areas Discussed:
Annual review meeting for discussion of licensee regu-latory performance, areas of NRG concern, and current topics of interest to the license The management meeting was attended by six NRG personnel and required three hour Inspection on March 21-23 and 27-29, 1979 (Report No. 50-255/79-05)
Areas Inspected:
Routine,.unannounced inspection of operations, report-able events, licensee action on previously identified items, and spent fuel rack modification The inspection involved 38 inspector-hours onsite by one NRG inspecto Results:
No items of noncompliance or deviations were identified in any of the areas inspecte *
DETAILS Persons Contacted Management Meeting, March 16, 1979 (Paragraph 7) J. D. Selby, President, Consumers Power Company R. C. Youngdahl, Executive Vice President C. R. Bilby, Vice President, Production and Transmission R. B. DeWitt, Manager of Nuclear Plant Operations J. G. Lewis, Plant Superintendent, Palisades Nuclear Plant C. J. Hartman, Plant Superintendent, Big Rock Point Nuclear Plant D. P. Hoffman, Assistant Nuclear Licensing Administrator Plant Operations Inspection, March 21-23 and 27-29, 1979 (Paragraphs 2 through 6)
- J. G. Lewis, Plant Superintendent
- H. Keiser, Operations and Maintenance Superintendent
- R. McCaleb, Quality Assurance Superintendent
- C. Gilmore, Maintenance Superintendent
- J. Buechler, Quality Assurance, Plant Engineering and Construction
- G. Petitjean, Technical Engineer M. Wilson, Construction Supervisor, Generating Plant Modification Department R. Vincent, Senior Engineer G. Ford, General Engineer T. Kanicki, Shift Supervisor D. Kaupa, Shift Supervisor S. Ghidotti, Shift Supervisor J. Liddell, Training Supervisor G. Wycliffe, Quality Control, J. A. Jones Construction Company
- Denotes those present at exit interview on March 29, 197 The inspector also held discussions with twelve other indi-viduals who are members of the plant operations, maintenance, technical, or health physics staff.
Licensee Action on Previous Inspection Findings (Closed) Noncompliance Item (50-255/78-23):
Violation of procedural requirements to declare containment spray pumps inoperable in the event test data so indicate The inspector reviewed licensee
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corrective action as stated in his letter dated November 16, 197 A review of licensee mechanisms for recognition of off-normal test data and initiation of required action was also conducted, with the inspector finding the current mechanisms satisfactor (Closed) Noncompliance Item (50-255/78-23):
Failure to complete inservice inspection test data review within required time and to augment the testing schedule as required by ASME Code Section X As noted above, the inspector reviewed licensee mechanisms for recognition of off-normal data and implementation of required actio These were considered adequat The inspector also examined a number of additional inservice inspection data sheets for verification of timely review and evaluation and of schedule augmentation as require No problems were note (Closed) Noncompliance Item (50-255/78-30):
Plant organization other than as stipulated in technical specification As noted in the licensee's letter dated February 15, 1979, the technical speci-fications have been amended (Amendment No. 46, January 19, 1979) to provide increased flexibility in plant organizational structur (Closed) Outstanding Inspection Item (50-255/75-19):
Routine re-evaluation of procedure The inspector reviewed and discussed with licensee personnel the mechanisms for routine re-evaluation of plant Administrative Procedures, Emergency Operating Procedures, and System Operating Procedure Identification of needed revisions, implementation, review, and followup training on revisions were also reviewe No problems were identifie (Closed) Outstanding Inspection Item (50-255/78-13; 78-17; and 78-22):
Effect of temporary setpoint change system on operator and shift supervisor knowledge of plant system statu Revision of the controlling procedure (Administrative Procedure 9.6 -
Setpoint Revision) was examine Controls to assure shift per-sonnel awareness of both permanent and temporary setpoint changes have been provide In addition, the routine operator training classes now cover setpoint change.
Reportable Events The inspector reviewed the licensee's actions concerning the fol-lowing event reports to ascertain the events were properly reviewed, evaluated and reported, corrective actions were taken as appropriate, and plant limits were not exceede Both records and personnel interviews were used in the review.
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- LER 78-42:
Reactor returned critical without required Equip-ment Outage Request (EOR) signof A step has been added to the master startup checklist to assure review of all open EOR's and verification of availability of equipment and com-ponents required for criticalit This specific event was also reviewed in a letter to all shift supervisors and has been entered into the shift training curricul The item is close LER 78-43:
Control rod mis-alignment during exercisin The event has been reviewed with the involved operator and added to the shift training curricul The item is close LER 79-02:
Stearn generator chemistry parameters outside limit The event cause and corrective actions were reviewe The item is close LER 79-03:
Fire pumps placed in "manual" mod This action was taken to isolate and permit repair of a fire header break at the cooling tower The licensee has since iden-tified existing isolation valves installed in the system which would provide this isolation capability without the need to remove the fire pumps from automatic contro The appropriate information is being provided to plant operators in the routine retraining progra The item is close LER 79-06:
Containment integrity requirements not met due to open instrument fitting on personnel hatc Appropriate procedure changes have been made to prevent recurrence and the event has been reviewed with operations staf The item is close LER 79-07:
Primary computer out-of-servic Operability was restored within two hours by reprogramming the compute The item is close No items of noncompliance or deviations were identifie.
Facility Operations The inspector reviewed selected operating logs and activities to verify compliance with requirement Shift Supervisor's Log:
February and March, 197 Caution Tag Log:
February and March, 1979.
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4 - Jumper/Bypass Log:
February.and March, 197 Daily Orders Log:
February and March, 1979 Reactor Log:
February and March, 197 A Shift Supervisor's Log entry dated February 27, 1979, described licensee actions following failure of the primary datalogger, including commencement of unit power reduction after two hour Repairs were completed within three hours and the unit subsequently returned to full powe The applicable technical specification (Section 3.11) is ambiguous, not addressing time limits for commencing power reduction as do other similar technical specification "action statements," but appearing to address arrival at a stipulated power leve This could be interpreted to be either two or four hours after datalogger failur The inspector considered the licensee's actions correct and appropriate, but requested the licensee to seek clarificatio This matter was discussed at the exit intervie A brief plant tour was conducted during this inspection, covering both safeguards bus rooms, the cable spreading area, and both emergency diesel generator room Local caution tags were examined, verifying the accuracy of the Caution Tag Lo In addition, a broken local lube oil pressure gauge (non-vital) was noted on EDG 1-The shift supervisor on duty initiated a repair reques The inspector observed routine control room operations, control room manning, and shift turnove No items of noncompliance or deviations were identifie.
Spent Fuel Rack Modifications This inspection included the initial portions of the review of licensee activities in design, procurement, receipt, installation, testing and utilization of modified spent fuel rack At the time of the inspection, all the new racks were on site and the licensee had installed three racks in the main fuel pit and three in the North tilt pi Venting of the new racks, as a corrective action to prevent rack swelling and fuel element binding, is being carried out just prior to rack installation in the pi (Re Part 21 Report 78-051)
The inspector reviewed and discussed project management, including assignments of responsibility and authorit NUS Corporation was contracted to perform engineering design: provide materials, con-struction and installation specifications; subcontract construction;
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and provide quality assurance coverage on construction activitie The boron carbide neutron absorber plates were manufactured by Carborundum Inc. while the racks themselves were manufactured and the boron carbide plates installed by PX Engineerin Rack instal-lation is being done by J. A. Jones Construction Compan The licensee's Generating Plant Modifications Department (GPMD)
within the Plant Engineering and Construction organization is responsible for overall program management and Quality Assurance program implementatio This inspection included a review of quality assurance activities and discussions with involved licen-see personne Results of several specific and general quality audits were reviewe Tracking and resolution of problem areas identified during the auditing function were examine In addition, documentation packages shipped with fuel racks were reviewed for two rack Construction guidelines prepared by NUS, and their derivative detailed work instructions (procedures) prepared by J. A. Jones Construction, were reviewed for the following work activities: Fuel rack and appurtenances cleaning Fuel rack installation - tilt pit Rack support frame installation Interim pool liner repair Fuel rack installation - spent fuel pit Removal of spent fuel pit wall attachments - dry method Project engineering specifications Venting spent fuel storage racks The inspector observed work in progress in the spent fuel pit involving a diver being used to adjust seismic restraints on installed new rack Work in the tilt pit to locate and isolate a small leakage problem was also observe In both cases, quality overviews were established and the appropriate proce-dures were present and were being adhered t Completed quality documentation packages covering the overall quality program during design and manufacture were not avail-able at the time of this inspectio These items will be reviewed during a future inspectio No items of noncompliance or deviations were identified.
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.._/ Management Exit Interview - Site Inspection A management interview, attended by licensee personnel noted in Paragraph l.b, was conducted at the conclusion of the site inspec-tion on March 29, 197 The inspector summarized the scope and findings of the inspection, and an apparent ambiguity in the technical specifications relating to the primary datalogger was discusse The licensee stated a clarification of the require-ments would be sough.
Annual Corporate Management Meeting A meeting between members of licensee management (as noted in Paragraph l.a) and members of management at the NRC Region III Office of Inspection and Enforcement was conducted on March 16, 1979 at the licensee's corporate offic The following topics were discusse Enforcement -
The licensee representatives were informed of the enforcement findings associated with the Palisades Plant during 197 Comparative statistics were also provided for 1976 and 197 Licensee Event Reports -
The licensee representatives were provided with statistics relating to reported events, both on an historical basis for Palisades and on a comparative basis between Palisades and other operating facilities in NRC Region II Management Controls -
The licensee representatives were informed of areas of NRC Region III concern based on 1978 performanc Specifically discussed were:
apparent lack of improvement in certain areas of enforcement and occurance of reportable events; slow implementation of planned improve-ments in training, procedures, and corrective action programs; and supervisory-worker communications problem IE Program Activities -
The current and expected future IE inspection program as it may impact on licensees was discusse Licensee personnel indicated their objectives for improved plant operations, reduced enforcement, and reduction of personnel related problem