IR 05000255/2004001

IR 05000255-04-001, Palisades Nuclear Power Plant, Mid-cycle Performance Review and Inspection Plan

ML032400248
Person / Time
Site:	Palisades
Issue date:	08/27/2003
From:	Grant G Division Reactor Projects III
To:	Cooper D Nuclear Management Co
References
IR-04-001
Download: ML032400248 (7)

Text

ust 27, 2003

SUBJECT:

MID-CYCLE PERFORMANCE REVIEW AND INSPECTION PLAN PALISADES NUCLEAR POWER PLANT (REPORT 50-255/04-01)

Dear Mr. Cooper:

On July 30, 2003, the NRC staff completed its mid-cycle plant performance assessment of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant. The mid-cycle review for Palisades involved the participation of all technical divisions in evaluating performance indicators (PIs) for the most recent quarter and inspection results for the first half of the current assessment cycle, January 1 -

December 31, 2003. The purpose of this letter is to inform you of our assessment of your safety performance during this period and our plans for future inspections at your facility so that you will have an opportunity to prepare for these inspections and to inform us of any planned inspections that may conflict with your plant activities.

Plant performance for the most recent quarter was within the Licensee Response column of the NRCs Action Matrix based on all inspection findings being classified as having very low safety significance (Green) and all PIs indicating performance at a level requiring no additional oversight (Green). However, the significance of a failure to take effective corrective actions to address a series of events involving digging and excavating between the protected area and the switchyard which resulted in a loss of offsite power and an Alert emergency declaration is still under review as part of the Significance Determination Process. Therefore, at this point, we plan to conduct only baseline inspections at your facility through September 30, 2004.

In our Annual Assessment Letter dated March 4, 2003, we discussed a substantive cross-cutting issue in the area of Problem Identification and Resolution. During the first two quarters of the 2003 assessment period, there continued to be examples where your corrective action program failed to promptly identify and correct conditions adverse to quality. Therefore, during the course of routine baseline inspection activities, the inspectors will closely monitor problem identification and resolution to more thoroughly assess this area at the 2003 end-of-cycle assessment.

The enclosed inspection plan details the inspections scheduled through September 30, 2004.

The inspection plan is provided to minimize the resource impact on your staff and to allow for scheduling conflicts and personnel availability to be resolved in advance of inspector arrival onsite. Routine resident inspections are not listed due to their ongoing and continuous nature. The inspections in the last 6 months of the inspection plan are tentative and may be revised at the end-of-cycle review meeting.

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.790 of the NRCs 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 Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of NRC's document system (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room).

If circumstances arise which cause us to change this inspection plan, we will contact you to discuss the change as soon as possible. Please contact Eric Duncan at (630) 829-9628 with any questions you may have regarding this letter or the inspection plan.

Sincerely,

/RA by Steve A. Reynolds acting for/

Geoffrey E. Grant, Director Division of Reactor Projects Docket No. 50-255 License No. DPR-20 Enclosure: Palisades Inspection/Activity Plan See Attached Distribution