IR 05000352/2011001

Annual Assessment Letter for Limerick Generating Station (Report 05000352-11-001 and 05000353-11-001)

ML12060A142
Person / Time
Site:	Limerick
Issue date:	03/05/2012
From:	Paul Krohn Reactor Projects Region 1 Branch 4
To:	Pacilio M Exelon Nuclear
KROHN, PG
Shared Package
ML12055A180	List: IR 05000272/2011001 IR 05000352/2011001 ML12080A028 ML12115A140
References
Download: ML12060A142 (7)

Text

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION rch 5, 2012

SUBJECT:

ANNUAL ASSESSMENT LETTER FOR LIMERICK GENERATING STATION (REPORT 05000352/2011001 and 05000353/2011001)

Dear Mr. Pacilio:

On February 13, 2012, the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) completed its end-of-cycle performance review of the Limerick Generating station 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 the performance at Limerick Unit 1 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 1.

The NRC determined the performance at Limerick Unit 2 during the most recent quarter was within the Regulatory Response Column of the NRC=s ROP Action Matrix because of a self-revealing finding of low to moderate safety significance (White) involving a failure by Exelon to ensure sufficient technical guidance was contained in operating procedures to: (1) ensure that a feedwater (FW) motor-operated valve (MOV) could close against expected system differential pressures; and (2) prevent operators from attempting to close FW MOVs out of sequence resulting in differential pressures for which they are not designed. As a result, two FW valves failed to fully shut resulting in a primary containment isolation valve and the reactor core isolation cooling system being inoperable for greater than their Technical Specification allowed outage time (ML113410132).

On February 14, 2012, your staff notified the NRC of your readiness for a supplemental inspection to be conducted during the week of June 11, 2012, to review the actions taken to address the performance issues associated with the White finding. Therefore, in addition to ROP baseline inspections at Unit 2, the NRC plans to conduct a supplemental inspection in accordance with Inspection Procedure (IP) 95001, Inspection for One or Two White Inputs in a Strategic Performance Area, to provide assurance that the root cause and contributing causes of the performance issues are understood, the extent of condition is identified, and the corrective actions are sufficient to 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 nine 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. ln addition to the baseline inspection program, we plan to conduct IP 71002, Licensee Renewal Inspection, and Temporary Instruction (TI) TI-182, Review of the Implementation of the Industry Initiative to Control Degradation of Underground Piping and Tanks. From January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2011, the NRC issued one severity level IV (SLIV) traditional enforcement violation associated with impeding the regulatory process related to a change in the Emergency Action Level basis (ML112550468). The NRC has already conducted an IP 92702, Follow-up on Corrective Actions for Violations and Deviations, inspection to follow-up on this violation as documented in inspection report 50-352&353/2011005 (ML12020A071). The NRC will contact you as soon as possible to discuss changes to the inspection plan should circumstances warrant any changes.

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC=s ARules 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).

Please contact Mr. Paul Krohn at (610) 337-5120 with any questions you have regarding this letter.

Sincerely,

/RA/

John R. Tappert, Acting Director Division of Reactor Projects Docket Nos. 50-352, 50-353 License Nos. NPF-39, NPF-85 Enclosure:

Inspection Plan cc w/encl: Distribution via ListServ Distribution w/encl: (via e-mail)

W. Dean, RA D. Lew, DRA J. Tappert, DRP J. Clifford, DRP C. Miller, DRS P. Wilson, DRS DRS Branch Chiefs L. Chang, RI, OEDO P. Krohn, DRP A. Rosebrook, DRP S. Ibarrola, DRP E. Miller, DRP E. DiPaolo, DRP, SRI J. Hawkins, DRP, RI N. Esch, DRP, OA N. McNamara, RI, SLO D. Tifft, RI, SLO D. Screnci, RI, PAO N. Sheehan, RI, PAO RidsNrrPMSusquehanna Resource RidsNrrDorlLpl1-1 Resource ROPReports Resource RidsNrrDirslpab Resource ROPassessment Resource