IR 05000327/1998099
| ML20217P968 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Sequoyah  |
| Issue date: | 04/01/1998 |
| From: | NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION II) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20217P943 | List: |
| References | |
| 50-327-98-99, 50-328-98-99, NUDOCS 9804100249 | |
| Download: ML20217P968 (5) | |
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. SYSTEMATIC ASSESSMENT OF LICENSEE PERFORMANCE REPORT SEQUOYAH NUCLEAR PLANT 50 327/98 99 AND 50 328/98-99
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BACKGROUND The SALP Board convened on March 11, 1998, to. assess the nuclear safety i
performance of the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant for the period July 28, 1996.
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through February 21, 1998. The Board was conducted in accordance with Management Directive 8.6. " Systematic Assessment of Licensee Performance." Board members were J. P. Jaudon (Board Chairperson)
Director. Division of Reactor Safety: C. A. Casto. Deputy Director,
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Division of Reactor Projects: and F. J. Hebdon. Director. Project
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Directorate II-3 Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. This assessment was reviewed and approved by the Regional Administrator.
II.
PLANT OPERATIONS This Functional Area addresses the control and execution of activities -
directly related to operating the facility.
It' includes activities such as startup, power operation, plant shutdown, and response to transients.
It also includes initial and requalification training programs for licensed operators.
Overall performance in the area of plant operations declined midway; through this assessment period to an adequate level: however. management efforts to address performance problems resulted in improvement during the latter portion of the assessment period. The result was sustained good operations during the latter part of the SALP period.. Management involvement in all aspects of plant operations was evident. The Management Review Committee was effectively performing its duties in support of' plant operations.
In particular, senior plant management was effective in emphasizing conservative operational decisions and focusing activities on problem identification, root cause determination. and appropriate corrective actions.
Generally, operators performed well-in response to abnormal conditions and unexpected plant transients. Shift managers provided good. oversight
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of activities and demonstrated a good questioning attitude.
Crews appropriately identified adverse plant conditions.
Operation's performance during outage conditions improved toward the end of the period.
Preparations and procedural controls for reduced inventory conditions were good, although inadequate control of n
pressurizer level recurred during the 1997 Unit 1 outage.
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Enclosure 9804100249 980401 J
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l Operator pe.rformance during routine plant operations was mixed. Control room conduct. turnovers and communications were observed to be good.
However, operators did not consistently maintain proper system alignments. Additionally, operators did>not always maintain a good
awareness of plant conditions or maintain adequately detailed logs.
Instances were noted where operators lacked in their attention to detail.
Late in the assessment period there were a number of examples
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of incorrect application or use of the correct technical specifications.
Some of these performance errors were related to procedural"and/or training weaknesses.
Performance of Assistant Unit Operators (AU0s) was not always good.
AVO watch standing practices, attention to detail, system awareness and identification of problems were noted areas of weakness. Some AVO training program weaknesses were found.
Overall, the o]erator training department provided good support to Operations.
T1e requalification program was effective in maintaining-licensed operator proficiency and knowledge. However, the initial-operator training program had difficulty implementing the pilot program
.for operator licensing.
The Quality Assurance organization provided effective oversight of Operations. They were particularly effective in identifying areas in need of improvement. Self-assessment activities and the corrective action program were effective at identifying issues but needed improvements based on self-assessments were not always achieved.
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Procedural weaknesses continued from the last assessment period. Most of these involved a lack of detailed procedure guidance for areas where operator knowledge deficiencies existed.
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The Plant Operations area is rated Category 2.
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III. ' MAINTENANCE This Functional Area includes all activities. associated with diagnostic.
predictive, preventive and corrective maintenance of plant structures, systems.. and components and maintenance of the physical condition of the plant.
It also i.ncludes the conduct of surveillance testing in-service-inspection and testing instrument calibrations, equipment and system
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operability tests post-maintenance testing, containment leak rate testing, and special tests.
Early 'and through the middle of the period. poor material condition of
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numerous components resulted in equipment failures plant transients.
and challenges to operators.
Based on the decreasing number of reactor trips, significant maintenance backlog reductions. and the high capacity achieved during the latter part of the assessment period, the i
effectiveness of maintenance was viewed as improving.
The plant's
material condition had improved and was good.
It was evident that planning had improved. This positive performance trend was contrasted
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-to multiple. examples of poor work practices and an ongoing weakness with the procedures'and work documents used to control maintenance activities.
Outage management took a significant stride forward with the last Unit 2 i
outage.
However, continued management oversight is required to assure that the momentum indicated by the Cycle 8 Refueling Outage will be i
sustained in the future. The thirty-day outage was partially marred by the fact that an emergent calibration issue, identified in the outage, was not brought to closure during the outage.
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Initial implementation of the Maintenance Rule was sound.
Continued effective im)lementation of the practices required by this regulatory initiative s1ould sustain the operational performance noted above.
Two specific areas in which historic performance at Sequoyah had indicated problems were addressed with success during this assessment.
These two areas were switchyard reliability and radiation monitoring instrument l
performance.
The conduct of surveillance was acceptable. There were instances of missed or late surveillance tests and questions about the adequacy of some calibration procedures. Shifting outage work to online maintenance i
resulted in incomplete surveillances.
Performance in the area of Code requirements was mixed.
In-service inspections were conducted well and were timely, but reviews of in-service testing indicated some problems.
Post-maintenance testing was also an area in which there was a challenge to improve performance.
i Self-assessment was a strength in the maintenance functional area.
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addition to the performance of the Quality Assurance organization, the maintenance organization was credited with self-identifying some issues.
The Maintenance area is rated Category 2.
IV.
ENGINEERING Activities assessed in this area include the design of plant modifications and engineering support for operations maintenance.
surveillance. and licensing.
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Performance in the area of design engineering and plant modifications was generally good. The number of Design Change Notices was reduced and several important plant modifications correcting long-standing deficiencies were made.
Systems engineers were knowledgeable of their assigned systems. Although engineering analyses were well-done for a number of plant issues, root cause "alyses often were not in-depth and prompt enough and corrective actic. programs often did not adequately address the root cause and were not completed in a timely manner.
Exceptions to good design performance were primarily the result of
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l failures to follow established design control processes, vendor guidance. NRC guidance, or TVA procedures.
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Engineering,su) port of Operations was generally good with improvements noted during t1e last six months of the.SALP period..The engineering-
. staff took steps to im) rove plant reliability and reduce the number of alant transients and clallenges to the operators. A.second Plant Reliability Study was performed in 1996 to determine why plant reliability had not improved. Corrective actions resulting from this
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initiative were-in various stages of implementation. The management review committee demonstrated good safety perspective towards conditions adverse.to quality.and assured that the scope of. review of Problem Evaluation Reports was extensive. However, there were instances of incomplete or weak engineering work.
Many operator workarounds were-identified, and most of these have been resolved.
Ecuipment failures.
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especially early in the. assessment period. ch511engec operators.and caused reactor _ trips and forced shutdowns.
Progress was made in
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supporting plant operations. late in the SALP period and several; major plant improvements were completed.
Engineering support of maintenance was mixed during the first ] art of the SALP period but improved during the last six to eight montis. An effective program for diagnostic. testing of motor operated valves was finally completed so that NRC review could be closed.
Problems with i
relief valve and instrument setpoint methodology were found on several occasions.
Sequoyah has maintained a good steam generator inspection i
program and in-service inspection program.
The Maintenance Rule was i
effectively. implemented.
Good engineering support was generally provided 'for license amendment requests and generic. letter responses.
However, in some cases, submittals required followup by conference calls and requests for additional information.
Some difficulties occurred with respect to relocating various quality assurance requirements from the Technical
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Specifications to the Nuclear Quality Assurance Plan.
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The Engineering area is rated Category 2.
V.
PLANT SUPPORT
This functional area assesses activities related to the plant support
function. including radiological controls, radioactive effluents, and waste. chemistry, emergency preparedness security, fire protection and
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housekeeping.
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. There~was superior management support for radiological controls.
Doses
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received by the plant staff as a result of the last refueling outage
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conducted (Unit 2 Cycle 8 RF0) was the lowest in plant history. Gaseous and liquid effluents were also well controlled, and releases outside of
the plant were only a small fraction of the regulatory limits.
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Aggressive action was taken to significantly reduce the contaminated square-feet in the plant. Self-assessments in this area were detailed and probed issues effectively. The control of radiation work was effective and contributed to the reduction in the total dose received.
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Chemistry parameters were monitored aggressively for both primary and secondary sides of the plant. The upgrade of the chlorination system
for the essential raw water cooling water system was an enhancement to the. ability to-deal with biological fouling.
In emergency preparedness the performance during drills and exercises was good.
Effective management involvement was not clways evident. and corrective actions were not 'always adequately completed.
Eq Thereuipment deficiencies were not always addressed expeditiously.
were problems-found in the development of procedures. indicating a need for more effective management oversight in this area.
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The implementation of the physical security program at Sequoyah was a strength.
Excellent management support was evident. When an event of vandalism was found, the licensee quickly developed and raaidly implemented appropriate. plans to ascertain the extent of tie problem.
Equipment performance in the security area was-superior so that there were relatively.few instances when it was necessary to invoke compensatory measures. The access authorization program represented an area in need of increased management involvement. since there were-numerous instances in which contractors were granted site access before
~being properly authorized.
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Significant improvements'were realized in the fire prevention and protection area. The dedicated fire brigade was well organized and
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New fire pumps were installed, and a potable water supply was i
established, improving system readiness while reducing long-term degradation of piping. Testing of the new hardware was superior.
-Self-assessments were generally strong in the plant support area.
especially in the areas of security and radiological-controls.
The Plant Support area is rated Category-1.
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