IR 05000305/2007009

EA-07-058, Kewaunee Power Station, Final Significance Determination for a Yellow Finding and Notice of Violation (NRC Inspection Report 05000305/2007009)

ML070940146
Person / Time
Site:	Kewaunee
Issue date:	04/03/2007
From:	Caldwell J Region 3 Administrator
To:	Christian D Dominion, Dominion Energy Kewaunee
References
EA-07-058, IR-07-007, IR-07-009 EA-07-058
Download: ML070940146 (6)

Text

ril 3, 2007

SUBJECT:

FINAL SIGNIFICANCE DETERMINATION FOR A YELLOW FINDING AND NOTICE OF VIOLATION (NRC INSPECTION REPORT 05000305/2007009)

KEWAUNEE POWER STATION

Dear Mr. Christian:

The purpose of this letter is to provide you the final results of our significance determination of the preliminary Yellow finding identified in Inspection Report No. 05000305/2007007 issued on March 2, 2007. The inspection finding was assessed using the Significance Determination Process and was preliminarily characterized as Yellow, a finding with substantial importance to safety that will result in additional NRC inspection and potentially other NRC action. This finding involved the failure of plant personnel to follow procedural requirements and enter a fuel leak on the A emergency diesel generator (EDG) into the corrective action program on June 28, 2006, when the leak was first identified. This failure resulted in the leak not being appropriately evaluated and repaired until August 17, 2006. Testing performed on the leaking fuel oil system components indicated that they would have failed completely after four hours of diesel operation during an accident and would have rendered the A EDG inoperable.

In a telephone conversation with Mr. Patrick Louden of the NRC, Region III, on March 14, 2007, Ms. Leslie Hartz of your staff indicated that Dominion Energy Kewaunee, Inc., did not contest the characterization of the risk significance of this finding and that you declined the opportunity to discuss this issue in a Regulatory Conference or to provide a written response.

After considering the information developed during the inspection, the NRC has concluded that the inspection finding is appropriately characterized as Yellow, i.e., an issue with substantial safety significance that will result in additional NRC inspection and potentially other NRC action.

You have 30 calendar days from the date of this letter to appeal the staffs determination of significance for the identified Yellow finding. Such appeals will be considered to have merit only if they meet the criteria in NRC Inspection Manual Chapter 0609, Attachment 2. The NRC has also determined that the failure to enter the EDG fuel oil leak into the stations corrective action program was contrary to station procedures and is a violation of Technical Specification 6.8 as cited in the attached Notice of Violation (Notice). The circumstances surrounding the violation are described in detail in Inspection Report No. 05000305/2007007. In accordance with the NRC Enforcement Policy, the Notice is considered escalated enforcement action because it is associated with a Yellow finding.

You are required to respond to this letter and should follow the instructions in the enclosed Notice when preparing your response.

Because plant performance for this issue has been determined to be in the degraded cornerstone column, we will use the NRC Action Matrix to determine the most appropriate NRC response for this event. We will notify you, by separate correspondence, of that determination.

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter, its enclosure, and your response will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the NRC's document system (ADAMS), accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room).

Sincerely,

/RA/

James L. Caldwell Regional Administrator Docket No. 50-305 License No. DPR-43 Enclosure: Notice of Violation cc w/encl: L. Hartz, Site Vice President C. Funderburk, Director, Nuclear Licensing and Operations Support T. Breene, Manager, Nuclear Licensing L. Cuoco, Esq., Senior Counsel D. Zellner, Chairman, Town of Carlton J. Kitsembel, Public Service Commission of Wisconsin State Liaison Officer, State of Wisconsin