IR 05000282/2002001

Annual Assessment Letter - Prairie Island Nuclear Plant (Report 50-282/02-01; 50-306/02-01)

ML020700420
Person / Time
Site:	Prairie Island
Issue date:	03/04/2002
From:	Grant G NRC/RGN-II/DRP/RPB3
To:	Nazar M Nuclear Management Co
References
IR-02-001
Download: ML020700420 (5)

Text

rch 4, 2002

SUBJECT:

ANNUAL ASSESSMENT LETTER - PRAIRIE ISLAND NUCLEAR PLANT (Report 50-282/02-01; 50-306/02-01)

Dear Mr. Nazar:

On January 31, 2002, the NRC staff completed its end-of-cycle plant performance assessment of the Prairie Island Nuclear Plant. The end-of-cycle review for Prairie Island involved the participation of all technical divisions in evaluating performance indicators (PIs) for the most recent quarter and inspection results for the period from April 1 through December 31, 2001.

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 which may conflict with your plant activities.

As discussed in our previous annual assessment letter dated May 31, 2001, this inspection and assessment cycle consisted of three quarters (i.e., the second, third, and fourth calendar quarters of calendar year 2001) instead of the usual four quarters. This change was implemented in order to align the inspection and assessment cycle with the calendar year beginning on January 1, 2002.

Overall, Prairie Island operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety and fully met all cornerstone objectives. Plant performance for the most recent quarter, as well as for the first two quarters of the assessment cycle, was within the Regulatory Response Column of the NRCs Action Matrix based on a White inspection finding in the Mitigating Systems Cornerstone identified in the 4th quarter of 2000. The White finding was caused by the simultaneous inoperability of the three safety-related cooling water (service water) pumps. A supplemental inspection was conducted in June 2001 to review your staffs response to this finding, including root cause evaluation, extent of condition review, and corrective actions.

During that inspection, the inspectors identified that your staff had not identified all of the root causes for the White finding and therefore had not developed corrective actions for all the root causes. As a result, the White finding could not be closed. A follow-up supplemental inspection is planned for April 2002, to review your staffs root cause evaluations and corrective actions. The enclosed inspection plan details the inspections scheduled through March 31, 2003.

Inspections may also be conducted to review activities associated with your Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation. These inspections will be coordinated with your staff as the dates approach for the activities. 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 last 6 months of the inspection plan are tentative and may be revised at the Mid-Cycle Review meeting.

In addition to the baseline inspection program, the NRC issued safeguards advisories recommending that nuclear power plant licensees go to the highest level of security immediately following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and all promptly did so. With continued uncertainty about the possibility of additional terrorist activities, the Nation's nuclear power plants, including Prairie Island, remain at a high level of security.

On February 25, 2002, the NRC issued an Order to all nuclear power plant licensees, requiring them to take certain additional interim compensatory measures to address the generalized high-level threat environment. These additional compensatory requirements will provide the NRC with reasonable assurance that public health and safety and the common defense and security continue to be adequately protected in the current generalized high-level threat environment. These requirements will remain in effect pending notification from the Commission that a significant change in the threat environment occurs, or until the Commission determines that other changes are needed following a more comprehensive re-evaluation of current safeguards and security programs. To date, we have monitored Prairie Islands actions in response to the terrorist attacks through a series of audits. With the issuance of the Order, we will evaluate Prairie Islands compliance with these interim requirements.

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/NRC/ADAMS/index.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 Roger Lanksbury of my staff at (630) 829-9631 with any questions you may have regarding this letter or the inspection plan.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Geoffrey E. Grant, Director Division of Reactor Projects, Region 3 Docket Nos. 50-282; 50-306 License Nos. DPR-42; DPR-60 Enclosure: Prairie Island Inspection/Activity Plan See Attached Distribution DOCUMENT NAME: G:\EOC Ltrs\2002\Pra-eoc02.wpd To receive a copy of this document, indicate in the box:"C" = Copy without enclosure "E"= Copy with enclosure"N"= No copy OFFICE RIII RIII RIII NAME MKunowski:co RLanksbury GGrant DATE 03/ /02 02/ /02 02/ /02 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY cc w/encl: Plant Manager, Prairie Island R. Anderson, Executive Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer Site Licensing Manager Nuclear Asset Manager J. Malcolm, Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Health State Liaison Officer, State of Wisconsin Tribal Council, Prairie Island Indian Community J. Silberg, Esquire Shawn, Pittman, Potts, and Trowbridge A. Neblett, Assistant Attorney General Office of the Attorney General S. Bloom, Administrator Goodhue County Courthouse Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Commerce ADAMS Distribution:

WDR DFT H. Nieh, OEDO THB Project Director, NRR Project Manager, NRR RidsNrrDipmlipb J. Caldwell, RIII G. Grant, RIII B. Clayton, RIII SRI Prairie Island DRP III DRSIII PLB1 JRK1 BAH3

Page 1 of 1 Prairie Island 03/08/2002 06:52:59 Inspection / Activity Plan Report 22 03/04/2002 - 03/31/2003 Unit No. of Staff Planned Dates Inspection Number Inspection Activity Title on Site Start End Type IP 95001 - FOLLOWUP INSPECTION FOR A WHITE FINDING 1 1, 2 IP 95001 Supplemental Inspection For One Or Two White Inputs In A Strategic Performance Area 04/08/2002 04/12/2002 Supplemental Program IP 71114 - BIENNIAL EP EXERCISE INSPECTION 3 1, 2 IP 7111401 Exercise Evaluation 05/13/2002 05/17/2002 Baseline Inspections 1, 2 IP 71151 Performance Indicator Verification 05/13/2002 05/17/2002 Baseline Inspections IP 71122 - RAM PROCESSING/SHIPPING INSPECTION 1 1, 2 IP 7112101 Access Control to Radiologically Significant Areas 05/13/2002 05/17/2002 Baseline Inspections 1, 2 IP 7112202 Radioactive Material Processing and Transportation 05/13/2002 05/17/2002 Baseline Inspections MOD50.59 - BIENNIAL PLANT MODS AND 50.59 4 1, 2 IP 7111102 Evaluation of Changes, Tests, or Experiments 06/17/2002 06/21/2002 Baseline Inspections 1, 2 IP 7111117B Permanent Plant Modifications 06/17/2002 06/21/2002 Baseline Inspections FY 2002 - PRAIRIE ISLAND INIT PREP 07/2002 4 1 W90062 OL - INITIAL EXAM - PRAIRIE ISLAND - JUL/AUG 2002 07/15/2002 07/19/2002 Not Applicable FY 2002 - PRAIRIE ISLAND INIT EXAM 08/2002 5 1 W90062 OL - INITIAL EXAM - PRAIRIE ISLAND - JUL/AUG 2002 08/12/2002 08/16/2002 Not Applicable IP 71122 - LIQ/GASEOUS RAD EFFLUENTS INSPECTION 1 1, 2 IP 7112101 Access Control to Radiologically Significant Areas 10/07/2002 10/11/2002 Baseline Inspections 1, 2 IP 7112201 Radioactive Gaseous and Liquid Effluent Treatment and Monitoring Systems 10/07/2002 10/11/2002 Baseline Inspections 1, 2 IP 71151 Performance Indicator Verification 10/07/2002 10/11/2002 Baseline Inspections IP 71121 - OUTAGE ALARA INSPECTION 1 1, 2 IP 7112101 Access Control to Radiologically Significant Areas 11/04/2002 11/08/2002 Baseline Inspections 1, 2 IP 7112102 ALARA Planning and Controls 11/04/2002 11/08/2002 Baseline Inspections ISI - ISI UNIT 1 1 1 IP 2515/145 Circumferential Cracking of Reactor Pressure Vessel Head Penetration Nozzles (NRC Bulletin 2001-01) 11/25/2002 12/06/2002 Safety Issues 1 IP 7111108 Inservice Inspection Activities 11/25/2002 12/06/2002 Baseline Inspections MAIN B - BIENNIAL MAINTENANCE RULE 1 1, 2 IP 7111112B Maintenance Rule Implementation 02/10/2003 02/14/2003 Baseline Inspections IP 71122 - RAD ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING INSPECTION 1 1, 2 IP 7112203 Radiological Environmental Monitoring Program 02/10/2003 02/14/2003 Baseline Inspections SSDI - SAFETY SYSTEM BIENNIAL (DRS) 6 1, 2 IP 7111121 Safety System Design and Performance Capability 03/17/2003 04/04/2003 Baseline Inspections This report does not include INPO and OUTAGE activities.

This report shows only on-site and announced inspection procedures.