IR 05000271/2010001

Annual Assessment Letter for Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station (Report 05000271/2010001)

ML110620518
Person / Time
Site:	Vermont Yankee File:NorthStar Vermont Yankee icon.png
Issue date:	03/04/2011
From:	Bill Dean Region 1 Administrator
To:	Michael Colomb Entergy Nuclear Operations
Jackson, D E RI/DRP/PB5/610-337-5306
References
IR-10-001
Download: ML110620518 (4)

Text

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION REGION I 4T5ALLENDALE ROAD

SUBJECT:

ANNUAL ASSESSMENT LETTER FOR VERMONT YANKEE NUCLEAR POWER STATTON (REPORT 0500027 1 t201 000 1 )

Dear Mr. Colomb:

On February 10, 2011, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) completed its end-of-cycle performance review of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station. The NRC reviewed the most recent quarterly performance indicators (Pls) in addition to inspection results and enforcement actions from January 1,2010, through December 31,2010. This letter informs you of the NRC's assessment of your facitity during this period and its plans for future inspections at your facility.

This performance review and enclosed inspection plan do not include security information. A separate letter will include the NRC's assessment of your performance in the Security Cornerstone and its security-related inspection plan.

The NRC determined that overall, Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety and met all cornerstone objectives. The NRC determined that the performance at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station during the most recent quarter was within the Licensee Response Column of the NRC's Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) Action Matrix because all inspection findings had very low (i.e., green) safety significance, and all Pls indicated that your performance was within the nominal, expected range (i.e., green). Therefore, the NRC plans to conduct ROP baseline inspections at your facility.

On April 5,2010, the NRC Executive Director for Operations approved a deviation from the ROP (ML100960321) to provide for additional inspection resources associated with onsite groundwater contamination, and inspection of your response to a Demand for Information that was issued by the NRC on March 1 , 2010 (M1100570237). On June 1 I , 2010, the NRC completed inspection and assessment activities associated with your response to the Demand for lnformation and communicated to you that your actions were acceptable (Mt101670271).

On January 7,2011, the NRC issued an inspection report (ML110070085) concerning the inspection of your actions to resolve on-site groundwater contamination at Vermont Yankee.

The NRC has determined that further inspection is required to ascertain if your station procedures and groundwater movement model are sufficient to monitor remediation of the existing groundwater contamination plume. lt was determined that this further inspection can be conducted within the planned baseline inspection activities. However, the NRC has decided to sustain the April 5,2010, deviation from the ROP until all criteria have been met as delineated in the memorandum.

I The enclosed inspection plan lists the inspections scheduled through June 30, 2012. In addition to the baseline inspections, an inspection related to the operation of the independent spent fuel storage facility is scheduled. This routine inspection is conducted to determine whether Vermont Yankee is operating the independent spent fuel storage facility in conformance with NRC commitments and requirements. Routine inspections performed by resident inspectors are not included in the inspection plan. The inspections listed during the last nine months of the inspection plan are tentative and may be revised at the mid-cycle performance review.

lnspections scheduled beyond March 2012 are also contingent upon the outcome of various review activities associated with Vermont Yankee's license renewal application. The NRC provides the inspection plan to allow for the resolution of any scheduling conflicts and personnel availability issues. The NRC will contact you as soon as possible to discuss changes to the inspection plan should circumstances warrant.

ln addition to the inspection activities detailed in the enclosed plan, we have scheduled a review of your proposed commitments made during the license renewal application process. This activity will take place the week of October 17 ,2011, during the next refueling outage, and will include an inspector review of Aging Management Program (AMP) implementation. This review will be conducted using Temporary lnstruction 2516/001, "Review of License Renewal Activities," which is currently under development. The overall purpose of the review is to assess progress of your voluntary actions associated with monitoring passive components within the scope of license renewal and as tentatively accepted by the staff's safety evaluation report. The Temporary Instruction will be available on the NRC Web site at the following address once it is finalized: http://www.nrc.oov/readinq-rm/doc-collections/insp-manual/temp-instructions/.

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter will be 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://wr,vw.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room).

Please contact Donald Jackson of my staff at 610-337-5306 with any questions you have regarding this letter.

Regional Administrator Region I Docket Nos. 50-271 License No. DPR-28 Enclosure: VermontYankee Inspection/ActivityPlan cc w/encl: Distribution via ListServ