IR 05000271/1986005

Discusses Insp Rept 50-271/86-05 on 860209-27 & Forwards Notice of Violation.No Civil Penalty Proposed for Violation Involving Inoperability of Standby Liquid Control Sys,Due to Prompt Notification of NRC

ML20205N181
Person / Time
Site:	Vermont Yankee
Issue date:	04/22/1986
From:	Murley T NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I)
To:	Murphy W VERMONT YANKEE NUCLEAR POWER CORP.
Shared Package
ML20205N186	List: IR 05000271/1986005 ML20205N221
References
EA-86-058, EA-86-58, NUDOCS 8605010526
Download: ML20205N181 (3)

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APR 2 21986 Docket No. 50-271 License No. DPR-28 EA 86-58 Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corporation ATTN: 'Mr. Warren P. Murphy Vice President and Manager of Operations RD 5', Box 169 Brattleboro, Vermont 05301 Gentlemen:

SUBJECT: NOTICE OF VIOLATION (NRC Inspection No. 50-271/86-05)

This refers to a special NRC inspecticn which was conducted on February 9-27, 1986 at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station, Vernon, Vermon The in-spection report was forwarded to you on March 11, 1986. The inspection was conducted to review the circumstances associated with a violation of NRC re-quirements identified by your staff involving the inoperability of the Standby Liquid Control System (SLCS) from July 14, 1984 until October 3, 198 As discussed in the enclosed Notice of Violation, the SLCS was inoperable in that its explosive " squib" valves would not fire, if required, to provide a flow path from the sodium pentaborate storage tank'to the reactor. The violation, ds well as its causes and your corrective actions, were discussed at an enforcement conference on March 19, 198 The " squib" valves would not function, if needed, because the electrical wiring was incorrect in the primer chambers supplied by the manufacturer. This error

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was identified by your staff on February 8, 1986 while testing the chambers at the end of the operating cycle. If the same test had been conducted.for a representative sample prior to installation in the SLCS in 1984, the violation would most likely have been prevented. Although a squib valve from the vendor's same manufacturing lot was " bench" to ted in the maintenance shop prior to installation, the " bench" test was deficient in that it only verified the adequacy of the explosive material, but did not test the electrical wiring. This violation demonstrates the importance of adequately testing vendor supplied parts prior to their use at the facilit In accordance with the " General Statement of Policy and Procedure for NR Enforcement Actions," 10 CFR Part 2, Appendix C, (1985), the violation described in the enclosed Notice has been classified at a Severity Level II Normally a civil penalty is considered for a Severity Level III violatio However, after consultation with the Ofrector, Office of Inspection'and Enforcement, I have decided that a civil penalty will not be proposed in this case because: (1) the violation was identified by your staff when these valves 0FFICIAL RECORD COPY CP PKG VERMONT YANKEE REV 1 -

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e were replaced using a test that was not required by the technical specifica-tions; (2) the violation, once identified, was promptly reported to the NRC; and, (3) your corrective actions were prompt and extensive. Nonetheless, we emphasize that any similar violations in the future may result in additional enforcement actio ,

i You are required to respond to this letter and-should follow the instructions specified in the enclosed Notice when preparing your response. In your response, you,should document the specific actions taken and any additional actions you plan to prevent recurrence. After reviewirig your response to this Notice, including your proposed corrective actipp.s, the NRC will determine whether further enforcement action is necessary*to ensure compliance with regulatory requirement '

In accordance with Section 2.790 of the NRC's " Rules of Practice", Part 2, Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations, a copy 'of this letter and its enclosure will be placed in the NRC Public10ccument Roo The responses directed by this letter and the enclosed Notice are not subject to the clearance procedures of the Office of Nanagement and Budget, as required 4 by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980, PL 96-51 l

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Sincerely, Or iginal ~ signed by Wocas E. Marley, Thomas E. Murley Regional Administrator l

Enclosure: Notice of Violation l cc w/ encl:

R. W. Capstick, Licensing Engineer G. Weigand, President and Chief Executive Officer J. P. Pelletier, Plant Manager i Donald Hunter, Vice President Cort Richardson, Vermont Public Interest Research Group, In <

Public Document Room (POR)

local Public Document Room (LPOR)

Nuclear Safety Information Center,(NSIC)

NRC-Resident Inspector _-

State of New Hampshire State of Vermont t

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Region I Docket Room (with concurrences)

Senior Operations Officer (w/o encls)

Section Chief, DRP SECY CA J. Taylor, IE R. Vollmer, IE J. Axelrad, IE T. Murley, RI J. Lieberman, ELD J. Sniezek, DED/ROGR Enforcement Coordinators RI, RII, RIII, RIV, RV IE/ES File IE/EA File EDO Rdg File 'PDR NSIC RI:ES R RI Holody/gcb RP Ri J inger ane Starostecki Chtierrez 3/$/86 ( 3g}/86 3/g7/86 y///86 3/3l/86 $/L/86 RI:DRA Allan j$JA Murley ELD IE:ES IE:DD IE:D Lieberman Axelrad Vollmer Taylor 3/ /86 / /86 3/ /86 3/ /86 3/ /86 3/ /86 i

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