IR 05000311/1997008
| ML18102B562 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Salem  |
| Issue date: | 08/11/1997 |
| From: | Anderson C NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML18102B561 | List: |
| References | |
| 50-311-97-80, NUDOCS 9709040202 | |
| Download: ML18102B562 (88) | |
Text
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Report:
License:
Licensee:
Facility:
Location:
Inspection Period:
T earn Leader:
Asst. Team Leader:
Inspectors:
Reviewed by:
Approved by:
REGION I
50-311 /97-80 DPR-75 Public Service Electric and Gas Company Salem Nuclear Generating Station, Unit 2 P.O. Box 236 Hancocks Bridge, New Jersey 08038 June 9-23 and July 9-11, 1997 C. Anderson, Region I L. Miller, AEOD J. Arildsen, Sr. Operations Engineer, DRCH, NRR V. Barnes, Contractor R. Croteau, NRR, Project Manager - Turkey Point, NRR R. Freudenberger, Sr. Resident Inspector, Catawba W. Hansen, Contractor G. Johnston, Sr. Project Engineer, Region IV, WCFO P. Kaufman, Emergency Response Coordinator, DRS C. Lyon, Resident Inspector, Beaver Valley L. Miller, Technical Programs Specialist, AEOD C. Osterholtz, Resident Inspector, Ginna J. Shedlosky, Sr. Reactor Analyst, DRS B. ?i.g, Re~d7 l~ach Bottom f h }?
Clifford %deAon, Team Leader Date f. Reactor Projects
'i? /,1 lcn Date Areas Inspected: Management Programs, Independent Oversight, Operations, Maintenance and Surveillance, Engineerin Results: Inspection results are summarized in the attached executive summary.
9709040202 970819 PDR ADOCK 05000311 G
BACKGROUND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Readiness Assessment Team Inspection Salem Unit 2 Nuclear Power Plant NRC Inspection Report No. 50-311/97-80 Salem Units 1 & 2 were removed from service by Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) on May 16, 1995 and June 7, 1995, respectively. The plants were shutdown as a result of specific plant conditions and events. As a result of continued performance deficiencies, weak management oversight, and ineffective communications, coupled with the Technical Specifications (TS) required shutdown of both units, the licensee voluntarily agreed to extend the duration of the outages for Salem Units 1 & 2. In response to this voluntary action, NRC Region I issued a Confirmatory Action Letter (CAL) on June 9, 1995. This CAL delineated licensee commitments that must be satisfied prior to the restart of either unit. The Readiness Assessment Team Inspection (RATI) was conducted to verify that PSE&G made sufficient progress in addressing the issues leading to the shutdown and to verify that plant equipment and staff were ready to safely restart and operate Salem Unit MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS AND INDEPENDENT OVERSIGHT The Team concluded that effective management programs were in place to support safe plant restart and subsequent power operation Management had formally established goals and expectations which communicated a strong safety ethic. The high standards regarding safety were commonly understood and demonstrated by management and staff in the areas of procedural adherence, problem identification, personal accountability and conservative decision-making. Recent reorganization and program developments throughout the Nuclear Business Unit provided ari organizational framework for the management oversight function, and appropriate mechanisms for identification of needs and proper allocation of resources. Management's active involvement in the planning and direction of plant activities was evidenced in detailed discussions in meetings and management observation in the fiel An intrusive, independent Quality Assurance (QA)
organization performed detailed, critical assessments which provided meaningful finding The root cause analysis and corrective actions generated from the QA findings were well received and appropriately fed into the Corrective Action Program (CAP) for prioritization and resolution. The Station Operations Review Committee (SORC) and Nuclear Review Board (NRB) met technical specification requirements and provided quality oversight of important plant activities, processes and programs. A recently revitalized, low-threshold CAP was effective in identifying, prioritizing, analyzing, tracking and resolving safety issues in a timely manner. The licensee had established a comprehensive startup plan containing adequate controls and oversight measures to ensure plant safety during plant startup. Self-Assessment programs were appropriately implemented to enable the accomplishment of effective self-assessment A strong Employee Concerns Program and supporting policies provided an environment conducive to problem identification and employee concern resolution.
ii
Executive Summary OPERATIONS The Team concluded that operations programs, processes, and staff were in place and adequate to support a safe and controlled restart. During the period that the Team was on site, the operators operated the plant safely. Supervisory personnel exercised appropriate command and control. Operators exhibited enthusiasm. and demonstrated a questioning attitude. Log keeping, shift turnover, and communication practices were good. Operators were cognizant of plant conditions and responded adequately to control room annunciators, but demonstrated some lapses in knowledge of administrative procedure requirements. Operations management was actively involved in operations activities, and communication of management expectations was effective. Resources to meet minimum shift staffing requirements were adequate. Equipment operators were properly performing their rounds, but were not always identifying potential plant deficiencies. Significant progress was made in addressing previous problems with operator work-arounds. The *
existing operator work-arounds, control room deficiencies, and temporary modifications did not impact safe operation of the facility. Some weaknesses in the operator work around program had been previously identified by the licensee and were considered acceptable by the Team based on the current status of few outstanding operator work-arounds. The safety tagging, technical specification action tracking, configuration control, and procedure change processes were adequate to support a safe plant restart. Operations procedures were generally technically accurate, and operators complied with their procedures; however, two discrepancies in the application of emergency, abnormal, and annunciator response procedure rules of usage were identified to the licensee for resolution. Also, in two instances, the combination of annunciator response procedures and abnormal operating procedur~s were not optimal in providing appropriate direction for off-normal
- plant conditions. Training and qualification of the. operations staff was sufficient to provide for a safe plant startu MAINTENANCE AND SURVEILLANCE The Team concluded that the Maintenance and Surveillance programs were adequate to support restart. The overall conduct of maintenance was good. The Team noted good procedure adherence by the maintenance staff. Technicians were knowledgeable of assigned maintenance tasks and had received appropriate training. Technicians were also aware of maintenance standards and expectations. The Team concluded that the planning and scheduling functions were adequate to track and address plant equipment deficiencie The planning process was satisfactorily implemented, although son:ie work was delayed by minor discrepancies in the work order packages. Several improvements had recently been initiated in the scheduling organization to assist in the ordetly transition from an outage schedule to an on-line work week management process. However, the scope of the changes posed a challenge to accomplishing plans by the maintenance department to reduce the corrective maintenance backlo The Team determined that the overall plant and system material conditions were acceptable to support plant startup. The Team found no significant material deficiencies during numerous system walkdowns. However, some minor deficiencies indicated continued management attention is warranted to ensure that lower level plant material problems are identifie The corrective maintenance backlog iii
Executive Summary was analyzed and found to be high, but manageable. The licensee has plans in place to reduce the backlog once the plant has restarted. The Team concluded that an adequate surveillance test program had been established. The Team identified a concern associated with preconditioning of the emergency diesel generators by rolling the engine with the air start system prior to surveillance tests. The licensee revised the surveillance procedure to restrict this practice. The control of surveillance test scheduling and the in-service testing*
program were found to be* acceptabl ENGINEERING The Team concluded that the overall support provided to the plant by Engineering was effective. Communications between engineering groups and with Operations and Maintenance staffs were good. The Team concluded that self-assessments done as part of the System Readiness Review Program were effective. Failure to implement a department-wide self-assessment plan over the past two years was mitigated by the self-assessments done as part of the Restart Action Plan. The Team noted several examples of
. administrative procedures and processes that had not been fully implemented, had apparently been abandoned, or were out-of-date. The licensee planned to perform an expedited procedure review to address the issue. Engineering* staffing and training were adequate to support restart. An acceptable program was implemented to control and document operability determinations. The engineering backlog was properly prioritized and controlled. Practices *for operating events review, root cause analyses, and assessment were appropriate and identified items necessary for plant restart had been properly resolved. Plant modifications necessary for plant restart were technically adequate and had been completed. Drawing controls and the statu.s of operations critical drawings were acceptable to support plant restart. Industry operating experience items were adequately reviewed and dispositioned to support plant restart. The vendor document control program was adequate to support restart; however, a number of elements of the program were weak and warrant additional management attentio OVERALL CONCLUSION The Team concluded that significant progress had been made in enhancing overall station performance. In particular, the Team observed: strong management involvement in directing plant activities; an intrusive and independent Quality Assurance organization; a revitalized and effective corrective actions program; an effective self assessment process; a strong Employee Concerns Program; and high standards regarding safety that were commonly understood and demonstrated by-management and staff in the areas of procedural adherence, problem identification, personal accountability and conservative decision-makin Based on the observations documented in the attached inspection report, the Team has *
concluded that the plant equipment, staff, management, programs and processes are in place to support a safe restart and continued operation of Salem Unit 2 Nuclear Power Plant.
iv
- -*
Executive Summary While no issues were identified by the Team that required resolution before restart, several issues warrant continued management attention to assure that they are properly controlle These issues include:
A number of elements in the vendor manual control program were wea Significant deficiencies were observed in the vendor recontact program and in the management of the backlog of vendor manual da.cument *
A number of examples were noted of engineering administrative procedures and processes that had not been fully implemented, had apparently been aba_ndoned, or were out-of-dat *
The corrective maintenance backlog is large but manageable. A number of changes have been made in the area of maintenance scheduling to assist in the orderly transition from an outage schedule to an on-line work week management proces The scope of the changes pose a challenge to reduce the corrective maintenance backlo The Team discussed with licensee management their plans to address specific deficiencies identified during this inspection. Licensee management stated that following issuance of this report they would send a letter to the NRC with commitments regarding their proposed corrective actions. The issues to be addressed in their letter include the following:
Review open Business Process items to determine their appropriate significance level and classificatio Clarify reporting options for individuals uncomfortable using the Employee Concerns Progra Review surveillance procedures to determine if systems or components are being preconditione Resolve concerns with implementation and maintenance of administrative procedures and concerns regarding contractor training record Describe efforts to address weaknesses in the vendor manual control program including: vendor recontact; vendor manual document backlog management; performance indicators and goals; long term plans for the program; shelf life issues for short shelf life safety related equipment; and engineering evaluation of pre 1987 vendor notice v
SUMMARY
Licensee has Strong Safety Ethi *
Appropriate Management Programs and Oversigh *
Operators Professional & Knowledgeabl *
Staff Qualifie *
Material Condition of Plant Read *
Programs & Processes are in Plac *
CONCLUSION NRC Readiness Assessment Team concludes that Salem Unit 2 is Ready for Restart upon completion of required testin *
ill'