IR 05000282/2011007
| ML12065A039 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Prairie Island  |
| Issue date: | 03/05/2012 |
| From: | Stephanie West Division Reactor Projects III |
| To: | Schimmel M Northern States Power Co |
| References | |
| IR-11-007 | |
| Download: ML12065A039 (7) | |
Text
March 5, 2012
SUBJECT:
ANNUAL ASSESSMENT LETTER FOR PRAIRIE ISLAND NUCLEAR GENERATING PLANT, UNITS 1 AND 2 (REPORT 05000282/2011007 AND 05000306/2011007)
Dear Mr. Schimmel:
On February 15, 2012, the NRC completed its end-of-cycle performance review of Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, Units 1 and 2. The NRC reviewed the most recent quarterly performance indicators (PIs) in addition to inspection results and enforcement actions from January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011. This letter informs you of the NRCs assessment of your facility 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 NRCs assessment of your performance in the Security Cornerstone and its security-related inspection plan.
The NRC determined that overall, Unit 2 operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety and met all cornerstone objectives. The NRC determined the performance at Unit 2 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 PIs indicated that your performance was within the nominal, expected range (i.e., green). Therefore, the NRC plans to conduct ROP baseline inspections at Unit 2.
The NRC determined the performance at Unit 1 during the most recent quarter was within the Regulatory Response Column of the NRC's ROP Action Matrix because of one inspection finding in the Mitigating Systems Cornerstone being classified as having low-to-moderate significance (White) involving potential common cause failure of the safety-related battery chargers. Therefore, the NRC plans to conduct ROP baseline inspections at Unit 1, in addition to a supplemental inspection as discussed below. On January 17, 2012, your staff notified the NRC of your readiness for it to conduct the supplemental inspection to review the actions taken to address the performance issues associated with the potential common cause failure of the safety-related battery chargers.
This inspection will be conducted in accordance with Inspection Procedure 95001, Supplemental Inspection for One or Two White Inputs in a Strategic Performance Area, beginning on March 5, 2012. The purpose of this inspection is to provide assurance that the root causes and contributing causes of the risk-significant performance issues are understood; that the extent of condition and extent of cause of risk-significant performance issues are identified; and that the corrective actions for risk-significant performance issues are sufficient to address the root and contributing causes and prevent recurrence.
The enclosed inspection plan lists the inspections scheduled through June 30, 2013.
Routine inspections performed by resident inspectors are not included in the inspection plan.
The inspections listed during the last 9 months of the inspection plan are tentative and may be revised at the mid-cycle performance review. 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 any changes.
From January 1 to December 31, 2011, the NRC issued four traditional enforcement violations.
Two of the violations were associated with inaccurate information provided to the NRC during the approval of new emergency action levels associated with radiation monitors. The remaining two violations were associated with reporting issues. The NRC plans to follow up on these violations during the Biennial Problem Identification and Resolution Inspection scheduled to begin on July 23, 2012.
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://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room). If circumstances arise which cause us to change the inspection plan, we will contact you to discuss the change as soon as possible. Please contact Kenneth Riemer at 630-829-9628 with any questions you may have regarding this letter or the inspection plan.
Sincerely,
/RA/ By Gary L. Shear Acting For/
Steven West, Director Division of Reactor Projects
Docket Nos. 50-282, 50-306 and 72-010 License Nos. DPR-42, DPR-60 and SNM-2506
Enclosure:
Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant Inspection/Activity Plan
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