IR 05000277/2003001

2003 Annual Assessment Letter - Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station (Report 50-277/03-001, 50-278/03-001)

ML030620608
Person / Time
Site:	Peach Bottom
Issue date:	03/03/2003
From:	Blough A Division Reactor Projects I
To:	Skolds J Exelon Generation Co, Exelon Nuclear
Shared Package
ML030620086	List: IR 05000277/2003001 ML030720114
References
IR-03-001
Download: ML030620608 (6)

Text

rch 3, 2003

SUBJECT:

ANNUAL ASSESSMENT LETTER - PEACH BOTTOM ATOMIC POWER STATION (REPORT 50-277/03-01, 50-278/03-01)

Dear Mr. Skolds:

On February 11, 2003, the NRC staff completed its end-of-cycle plant performance assessment of the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station Units 2 and 3. The end-of-cycle review for Peach Bottom involved the participation of all technical divisions in evaluating performance indicators (PIs) for the most recent quarter and inspection results for the period from January 1 through December 31, 2002. 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.

Overall, both units at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety and fully met all cornerstone objectives. Plant performance for the two most recent quarters was within the Regulatory Response Column of NRCs Action Matrix based on one safety significant inspection finding that affected both units. The finding of low to moderate safety significance (White), in the Emergency Preparedness cornerstone, had been identified in a letter dated July 19, 2002. The finding involved not properly using the emergency classification scheme during an Alert, when carbon dioxide was discharged into an emergency diesel generator room. We plan to conduct a supplemental inspection of this finding using supplemental inspection procedure 95001 as delineated in the enclosed inspection plan.

Performance was also within the Regulatory Response Column, during the first two quarters of the assessment cycle, because of another safety significant inspection finding. This finding of low to moderate safety significance (White), in Emergency Preparedness cornerstone, had been identified in a letter dated August 3, 2001. The inspection finding involved inadequate maintenance of the on-site public address/evacuation alarm system and affected both units. On October 26, 2001, we satisfactorily completed a supplemental inspection of this finding and determined that Exelons actions relative to root cause determination, extent of condition, and corrective action were appropriate. This item was closed at the end of the second quarter of 2002.

Mr. John The enclosed inspection plan details the inspections scheduled through March 31, 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 schedule for the last six months of the inspection plan is tentative and may be revised at the Mid-Cycle Review meeting.

As you are aware, since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the NRC has issued several Orders and threat advisories to enhance security capabilities and improve guard force readiness.

We have conducted inspections to review your implementation of these requirements and have monitored your actions in response to changing threat conditions. For calendar year 2003, we plan to continue these inspections, conduct portions of the security baseline inspection program, as well as perform additional inspections to evaluate your compliance with new requirements that may be ordered. Based on our final determinations in this regard, we will notify you of any inspection plan changes.

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 Dr. Mohamed Shanbaky of my staff at 610-337-5209 with any questions you may have regarding this letter or the inspection plan.

Sincerely,

/RA/

A. Randolph Blough, Director Division of Reactor Projects Docket Nos. 50-277, 50-278 License Nos. DPR-44, DPR-56 Enclosure: Peach Bottom Inspection/Activity Plan

Mr. John