IR 05000259/1979010
| ML18024A911 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Browns Ferry  |
| Issue date: | 04/27/1979 |
| From: | Dance H, Sullivan R NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION II) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML18024A906 | List: |
| References | |
| 50-259-79-10, 50-260-79-10, 50-296-79-10, NUDOCS 7907230790 | |
| Download: ML18024A911 (12) | |
Text
~'ll AKQIy Op0 ee dvO oQ
'p +**++
UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
REGION II
101 MARIETTASTREET, N,W.
ATLANTA,GEORGIA 30303 Report Nos.
50-259/79-10, 50-260/79-10 and 50-296/79-10 Licensee:
Tennessee Valley Authority 500A Chestnut Street Tower II Chattanooga, Tennessee 37401 Facility Name:
Browns Ferry Plant Docket Nos.
50-259, 50-260 and 50-296 Inspection at Browns Ferry Site near Athens, Alabama Inspector.
R. F.
ullxva Approved by:
C H.
C. Dance, Section Chief, RONS Branch at Signed 2.
ate
'gned SUMMARY Inspection on March 5-30, 1979
~t This routine inspection involved 99 resident inspector-hours in the areas of plant operation, plant tours, reportable occurrences, new fuel receipt and inspection, Unit 2 refueling plans, plant physical protection, maintenance and radiation area controls.
Results Of the eight areas inspected, no apparent items of noncompliance or deviations were identified in seven areas; one apparent item of noncompliance was found in one area (Infraction -failure to lock doors to high radiation areas (259/79-10-01, 260/79-10-01) - paragraph 9).
C
DETAILS Persons Contacted Licensee Em lo ees J.
G. Dewease, Plant Superintendent H. L. Abercrombie, Assistant Plant Superintendent J.
B. Studdard, Operations Supervisor R. Hunkapillar, Assistant Operations Supervisor J.
A. Teague, Assistant Maintenance Supervisor, Electrical M. A. Haney, Assistant Maintenance Supervisor, Mechanical R.
G. Metke, Results Section Supervisor J. I. Harness, equality Assurance Supervisor J.
R. Pittman, Instrument Engineer G. T. Jones, Outage Director S.
G. Bugg, Health Physics Supervisor W. C. Thomison, Chemical Engineer A. I. Burnett, Shift Engineer J.
D. Glover, Shift Engineer D. Thompson, Electrical Engineer R. Cole, QA Site Representative, Office of Power Other licensee employees contacted included operators, craftsmen, techni-cians, public safety officers, gA personnel and engineering personnel.
Mana ement Interviews Management interviews were conducted on March 9, 15,
and April 2, 1979, with the Plant or Assistant Plant Superintendent and selected members of his staff.
The inspector summarized the scope and findings of his inspection activities.
Licensee management acknowledged on March 15, the item of noncompliance discussed in paragraph 9.
Licensee Action on Previous Ins ection Findin s Not inspected.
Unresolved Items No unresolved items were identified during this inspection.
Plant 0 erations The inspector kept informed on a daily basis of the overall plant status and any significant safety matters related to plant operations.
Daily discussions were held with plant management and various members of the
operations staff.
Selected portions of daily operating journals and operating data sheets were reviewed on at least a weekly basis during the report period.
The inspector made plant tours on the following dates:
March 7, 9, ll, 15, 16, 19, 20, 26, 28 and 30.
Selected areas of the turbine building reactor buildings and outside areas were visited.
The control rooms were visited on a more frequent basis than other areas in the plant.
Observations included witnessing work activities in progress, status of operating and standby safety systems, confirming valve positions, snubber condition, instrument readings and recordings, annunciator alarms, housekeeping, radiation areas control and vital areas control.
Informal discussions were held with operators and other personnel on work activities in progress and status of safety-related equipment or systems.
The inspector's questions were satisfactorily answered.
One of the above visits (March ll) was a special unannounced visit on Sunday which occurred over a shift change where staffing was verified to meet licensee requirements.
The inspector witnessed a startup of the Unit 1 reactor on March 29.
The inspector was present during subcritical rod withdrawal, attainment of criticality with a period of 121 seconds, and heat up to operating pressure and temperature.
No discrepancies were noted.
6.
New Fuel Recei t and Ins ection Shipments of new fuel for the pending Unit 2 refueling outage began February 26, 1979 and were completed during this report period.
Ship-ments were made twice a week for a total of 232 fuel bundles.
Prior to the shipments the inspector verified that approved procedures for the receipt, inspection and storage of new fuel were in effect and current.
On March 13 and 14 the inspector witnessed various areas of new fuel handling including unloading shipping containers, serial number verifi-cation, radiation checks, visual inspection and measurements, channeling and storage.
The inspector verified that each member of the seven person crew had been trained and certified for fuel inspection and handling.
A licensed Senior Reactor Operator was directing the crew on the refueling floor.
Data sheets on fuel handling were being maintained on a current basis.
The following were examined:
Fuel Assembly Transfer Forms Fuel Inspection Check Sheets Fuel Inspectors Certificates
a
~,
Material and Equipment Check List Channel Inspection Checks Sheets Site Fuel Discrepancy Report As a result of the inspection by the TVA team, three fuel bundles fell outside the acceptance criterion and were listed on the discrepancy report.
One fuel rod in each of two bundles had spring spacing outside the normal range and one bundle had some material which resembled paint on one fuel rod
.
A GE fuels engineer came to the site and corrected the spacing on the springs and removed the foreign material from the fuel rod.
The three bundles then passed inspection and were placed in fuel storage pending the refueling outage.
No items of noncompliance or deviations were identified by the inspectors.
Plant Dewaterin S stem Modification work to the plant dewatering system which surrounds the turbine and reactor buildings continued during this report period.
The new well which had been recently completed as discussed in an earlier report (IE Report 50-259/79-8)
has been developed and is operational.
It is currently equipped with a 4600 GPM diesel driven pump.
The auto-matic electrically driven 2500 GPM pump in "B" well satisfactorily carried the full load during this report period.
A contractor is currently drilling another new well just south of the two operable wells.
This well is slightly larger in diameter than the other new well.
Current plans are to install a dual drive (capable of being driven by either diesel or electric power)
pump in one of the new wells and use the other as a backup.
Recent dye checks have confirmed some leakage of nonradioactive condenser cooling water to the dewatering system.
Further investigative efforts are planned to locate the source of this leakage.
There has been no building in-leakage from the dewatering system during this report period.
Unit 1 Feedwater Line Heads A small leak developed in the feedwater line on the discharge side of the "B" feedwater pump of Unit 1.
Since the leak could not be isolated from the balance of the feedwater system, the reactor was shutdown on March 12 to make repairs.
Water from the leak was confined to the pump room and there was no radioactive contamination involved in the repair work.
The leak was from a through wall crack in the 16-inch carbon steel line which appeared to originate in a butt weld which attached a short stantion to a vertical section of the line.
The stantion made contact with a
-4-wall mounted plate when the system was at operating temperature to provide restraint in the horizontal direction.
The cause of the cracking was attributed to excessive loading at operating temperatures.
A modifi-cation was made which increased the "cold" condition clearance from 0.5 inches to 0.7 inches to reduce the loading at operating temperatures.
Repairs were made by grinding out the cracks and filling with weld material.
Dye penetrant inspection was performed during the repair work and final acceptance included a radiographic examination by qualified personnel.
The NRC inspector observed various portions of the final inspection results with test personnel.
The inspectors questions were satisfactorily answered.
When the system was returned to operating temperature after the modification, the restraint still made contact with the wall plate.
Hi h Radiation Area Doors The inspector conducted a followup to an inquiry about the condition of locks on doors to certain High Radiation Areas.
On March 15 the inspector toured all three reactor buildings with emphasis on verifying that High Radiation Areas which are required to be locked were indeed locked.
The inspector determined that the door to the Unit 1, 1B Reactor Cleanup Pump room and the door to the Unit 2, 2B Reactor Cleanup Pump room, could be opened without the use of keys due to defective locks.
Plant management was promptly notified that failure to have these doors locked was in non-compliance with Technical Specification 6.3.D.2 (259/260/79-10-01).
The posting at each door indicated the intensity of radiation at certain locations in each room exceeded 1,000 mrem/hr.
Prompt corrective action was taken.
Personnel were stationed at each door until the locks were repaired.
The inspector verified on March 16 that both doors were properly locked.
Pre arations for Unit 2 Refuelin Outa e
The inspector reviewed the overall plans for the pending refueling outage for Unit 2, Cycle 2, which is currently scheduled to begin April 27, 1979.
The overall plan has been described in Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 2 Cycle 2 Refueling Preoutage Report dated 3/21/79.
The report has been reviewed by the Plant Operations Review Committee and approved by the Plant Superintendent.
The plan provides for a preoutage training program which includes a review of key plant standard practices, mainten-ance instructions and other topics applicable to a refueling outage.
The inspector had no unanswered quesgjon '7
11.
Plant Ph sical Protection The inspector observed on a routine basis personnel badging, searching, escort, alarm response and vehicle search and escort control.
No items of noncompliance or deviations were identified.
12.
Re ortable Occurrence Review The below listed license event reports were reviewed to determine if the information provided met NRC reporting requirements.
The determination included adequacy of event description and corrective action taken or planned, existence of potential generic problems and the relative safety significance of the event.
IZR No.
259/794 259/795 259/796 260/7821 Date 3/16/79 3/16/79 3/22/79 12/20/78 Event December 1978 diesel fuel samples lost Ventilation exhaust monitor, RM-90-250, inoperative Ventilation exhaust monitor, RM-90-250, inoperative 12/29/78 Supplement Hydrogen sensor in the suppression chamber inoperative Corrective action taken or implemented on the above events was determined to be adequate.
No items of noncompliance or deviation were identifie t