IR 05000255/1986020
| ML18052A610 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Palisades  |
| Issue date: | 07/21/1986 |
| From: | Hueter L, Schumacher M NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION III) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML18052A609 | List: |
| References | |
| 50-255-86-20, NUDOCS 8607280138 | |
| Download: ML18052A610 (7) | |
Text
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
REGION III
Report No. 50-255/86020(DRSS)
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: July 1-3, 1986 a.Ji.~~~
Inspector:
L. J.. ~eter r (J.J. ~ (}lrK4._1t..c,. L.
Approved By:
M. C. ~humacher, clfii~f Radiological Effluents and Chemistry Section Inspection Summary License No. DPR-20 1/iil 8~
Date 1/a.,/s Date
. Inspection on Ju*ly 1-3, 1986 :(Report No. 50-255/86020(DRSS))
Areas Insp~cted: Routine unannounced inspectibn of gaseous and liquid radioactive effluents including: effluent releases; records and reports of effluents; effluent control instrumentation; gaseous effluent filtration; audits; and followup of a violation and two open item Results:
No violations or deviations were id~ntifie i\\ I ( 8607280138 860721
- PDR ADOCK 05000255
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DETAILS Persons Contacted
- W. Beckman, Radiological Services Manager
- M. Grogan, Radioactive Material Control Supervisor B. Krantblatt, General Engineer, Mechanical J. Lewis, Technical Director
- D. Malone, Senior Engineer, Licensing
- R. Margol, QA Administrator
_
- M. Moore, Associate Health Physicist
- T. Neal, Radioa~tive Material Control Administrator
- E. Swanson, NRC Senior Resident Inspector
- Denotes those present at the exit meetin.
Litensee Action on Previrius Inspection Findings (Closed) Open Item (255/84001-05):
Quantify releases from heating boiler or terminate release point. A *1eaky valve in the heating boiler system was repaired in May 198 No effluent has been observed from the vent pipe since the repair of the valv Further, analysis of smears of the roof of the heating boiler building where the vent pipe protrudes have shown no detectable activity in 1985 and 198 (Closed) Violation (255/85011-01):
Failure to follow liquid radwaste release procedure Procedure HP 6.4 was modified by substituting the MPC for I-131 (3E-07 µCi/ml) in the release rate equation in place of the less restrictive MPC value of 2E-05 µCi/m This eliminated the potential for calculation of a nonconservative release rate when the person calculating the allowable release rate fails to note the presence of I-131 in the analysis of a sample of the liquid to be release Also, operations personnel were cautioned to assure the release rate setting by the auxiliary operator was not set above that authorized by the Shift Superviso A selective review of records of batch releases for the first and second quarters of 1986 identified no further inst~nces of either the release rate setting or the calculated actual release being above that authorized.
. (Open) Open Item (255/85011-02):
Evaluate feasibility of replacement of 1 i quid ef.fl uent monitor RE 1049 due to high background and decontamination difficultie The licensee compl~ted the evaluation, which was the original putpose of this open item, and concluded that replacement of the monitor with a new monitor was feasibl Further, the licensee decided to replace the monitor with a new full flow monitor having 4 n shielding and a removable spool pi~ce (for decontamination purposes) featuring digital readout in the reactor control roo The monitor has been ordered with arrival expected within a few day The inspector decided to modify this open item to include demonstrated operability of the new monitor in con~ideration of problems (mainly electronic in nature) at other facilities resulting in lengthy delays in operability of new monitor *
3.
Gaseous Radioactive Waste The inspector reviewed the licensee 1s gaseous radwaste management progra The effluent records were selectively reviewed for calendar year 1985 and the first half of 198 The 1985 semiannual effluent reports were selectively reviewe The gaseous effluent release paths, control mechanisms and procedures, as well as effluent quantification methods, dose projections, and dose calculations are basically unchanged from the brief description provided in Inspection Report No. 50-255/8501 Since May 1, 1985, the reactor unit was operational except for the current outage which began May 20, 1986, a three month refueling outage during December through February and five other short outages, three of which were one to two days duration and the other two were 16 and 17 days duratio No fuel cladding problems have been evident during the review perio Noble gas released (3.7E03 curies) was about average for U.S. pressurized water reactors in 1985 while offsite dose rates remained very lo As noted during the last radwaste inspection, a new more sensitive noble gas stack monitor had been installed resulting in the licensee being able to quantify, during periods of reactor operation, 10 to 20 curies per week of noble gas which is not attributable to release from gas decay tank It was not certain whether this was a new small leak or one that previously existed but was not detectable with the old less sensitive monito Licensee efforts to identify the source of the small leak have not been successfu Corrections have been made to a procedural work sheet used to calculate the fraction of MPC for unidentified particulate beta activity in gaseous effluents to correct an exponential error (factor of 100) identified during the last radwaste inspectio Errata were submitted to correct inspector identified errors regarding gaseous effluents in the 1983 and 1984 semiannual effluent report No errors were noted during review of similar data during this inspectio No violations or deviations were identifie.
Liquids and Liquid Radioactive Wastes The inspector selectively reviewed the licensee 1s liquid radwaste management progra The effluent records were selectively reviewed
'for calendar year 1985 and the first half of 198 The 1985 semiannual effluent reports were selectively reviewe The liquid effluent release paths, control mechanisms and procedures, as well as effluent quantification methods, dose projections, and dose calculations are basically unchanged from the description provided in Inspection Report No. 50-255/8501 In 1985, about 5.8E-02 curies (below average for U.S. pressurized water reactors) of gross beta-gamma activity (excluding tritium) were released in liquid effluents. Offsite dose rates remained very low for the liquid pathwa During the last liquid radwaste inspection, an anomaly involving a liquid sample gross beta count rate calculation was identified for which no procedural guidance existe A procedure has since been established to address such anomalie Errata were submitted to correct inspector identified typographical errors regarding liquid effluents in the second half 1984 semiannual effluent report No errors were noted during review of similar data during this inspectio On July 31, 1985, 11A 11 Cooling Tower overflowed, washing out an embankment near the cooling tower and flooding an area of the plant site south of the turbine buildin The south radwaste building (SRB) located between the cooling tower and the turbine building was flooded to a depth of about 1.5 fee An area of approximately 400 square feet inside the SRB was contaminated with levels ranging from 4,000 to 10,000 dpm/100 cm2 before the overflow as determined by floor smear survey These levels were reduced to <1000 to 2,000 dpm/100 cm2 as a result of the overflo The licensee estimated that 350,000 gallons of water overflowed to Lake Michigan via two drain By calculation, based on difference in smear survey results, the licensee estimated that about 15 µCi of activity comprised of about 67% Cs-137 and about 29% Co-60 was washed away by the flood wate This small amount of activity was all assumed to have been released to the lake and was added to the third quarter 1985 effluent totals in the semiannual effluent report for that period. It was also identified as an abnormal release in the semiannual effluent repor However, the licensee conducted an evaluation of a limited number of samples of surface sand, subsurface sand, and water which indicate that at least a portion of the activity may have been deposited in the sand and concentrated in the downstream flow path area adjacent to the SR One of the two liquid samples (one liter each) taken inside of the SRB had identifiable concentrations of Co-60 and Cs-137 (4.lE-06 and 2.7E-06 µCi/ml respectively).
The following summarizes the data from the other samples all of which were taken outside of the SR Of the five liquid samples collected (two of which were adjacent to the SRB) only one had identifiable activity (l.8E-07 µCi/ml Cs-137).
This sample was collected just outside the west doo One of the liquid samples which showed no activity was taken at the west drai A total of 21 surface sand samples were taken at 11 locations (multiple samples at some locations) with identifiable activity on six of the samples ranging from 5.5E-06 to l.lE-05 µCi/gm Co-60 and l.5E-06 to 9.4E-06 µCi/gm Cs-13 Again, the activity was concentrated near the SRB with the highest being outside the west door of the SR The single exception was one sample near the west drain which exhibited a low concentration of Co-6 Three additional surface sand samples were collected at one location 11 upstream 11 of the SRB for control purposes and contained no identifiable activity as expecte Three subsurface (three inches below surface) sand samples at one location (west drain) showed no
- identifiable activity, however the surface sand samples and the liquid sample at this particular location showed no activity eithe No subsurface sand samples were apparently collected at locations where contaminated surface sand samples or contaminated water samples were identifie Also, no subsurface liquid samples were collected other than in the one drai The licensee has not collected the contaminated material for disposal nor, precisely determined the bounds of the contaminated materia Neither has the licensee submitted a request to NRR to dispose of the material by retention onsite and/or in plac This matter is considered an unresolved item which will be reviewed during a future inspection and was discussed at the exi (Unresolved Item 255/86020-01)
No violations or deviations were identifie Calibration and Functional Tests of Gaseous and Liquid Process and Effluent Monitors The inspector reviewed records for four monitors on the liquid system, including the radwaste discharge monitor, and five monitors on the gaseous systems, including the low and mid-range noble gas monitors on the stac The inspector reviewed 18 month calibration records and quarterly surveillance records for the third and fourth quarters of 198 No problems were identifie Setpoints were also selectively reviewed and appear to be conservatively establishe The licensee has established a program to upgrade the whole process monitoring system over a five year perio No violations or deviations were identifie.
HEPA Filter and Charcoal Adsorber Systems 7.
Two ventilation systems have HEPA filters and charcoal adsorbers subject to technical specification surveillance requirement These systems are the control room ventilation and isolation system and the fuel storage area HEPA/charcoal exhaust syste In place testing of HEPA filters and charcoal adsorbers has been performed on a timely basis and records indicate the penetration or bypass leakage of the test aerosol and test gas, respectively, to be less that the 0.05% for both systems which meets technical specification criteri In addition, a laboratory analysis of a representative carbon sample from each train for methyl iodide removal has been performed on a timely basis with records showing the removal efficiency to be greater than 99% for both systems which also meets technical specification criteri No violations or deviations were identifie Audits The inspector reviewed Audit Report No. QT-85-22 of an audit conducted November 12-15, 198 A significant portion of this audit involved the records, reports, procedures, and equipment for the gaseous and liquid
radwaste progra Two findings were identified by the audi One involved failure on two occasions for batch gas releases to identify source check information for a gas monitor as required on a record for The other finding involved failure to analyze some samples for all the nuclides required since the RETS became effectiv The licensee had followed up on both findings and had taken appropriate corrective measures to preclude recurrenc No violations or deviations were identifie.
Training and Qualification Effectiveness Staffing for the liquid and gaseous radwaste programs appeared adequate in number and fairly stable with no changes in supervisory personnel since the last inspectio The staffs also appear adequately trained and supervise The radiation protection group has two ongoing programs to provide review and to keep update Two hour sessions are held twice monthly for selected procedure review Also two hour sessions are hei'd twice monthly to discuss IE Bulletins, Circulars, internal radiation incident reports, and other current items of interes Qualification Sheets are utilized to track individual training qualifications in efforts to attain INPO accreditatio No violations or deviations were identifie.
Unresolved Items An unresolved item is a matter which more information is required in order to ascertain whether it is an acceptable item, an open item, a deviation, or a violatio An unresolved item is identified in Section.
Exit Meeting The inspector met with licensee representatives (denoted in Section 1) at the conclusion of the inspection on July 3, 198 The inspector discussed the likely informati-0nal content of the inspection report with regard to documents or processes reviewed by the inspectors during the inspectio The licensee did not identify such documents/processes as proprietar The inspector summarized the scope and findings of the inspectio In response to certain items discussed by the inspector, the licensee: Acknowledged the inspector 1s favorable comments regarding the evidence of greater attention to detail and/or supervisory review as indicated by the absence of inspector identified errors in semiannual effluent reports and procedures during the current inspectio (Sections 3 and 4)
Acknowledged the unresolved item regarding bounds of residual soil/water contamination associated with cooling tower overflow and flooding of contaminated south radwaste building and final disposition of the contaminated soil/wate The licensee committed to complete an evaluation by October 1, 1986 to be used as the basis for a decision
to either remove and dispose of the material or make a request to NRR pursuant to the provisions of 10 CFR 20.302 for inplace or onsite disposa (Section 4)
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