IR 05000397/2005001
| ML050610220 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Columbia  |
| Issue date: | 03/02/2005 |
| From: | William Jones Division Reactor Projects III |
| To: | Parrish J Energy Northwest |
| References | |
| IR-05-001 | |
| Download: ML050610220 (8) | |
Text
March 2, 2005
SUBJECT:
ANNUAL ASSESSMENT LETTER - COLUMBIA GENERATING STATION (REPORT 05000397/2005001)
Dear Mr. Parrish:
On February 1, 2005, the NRC staff completed its end-of-cycle plant performance assessment of Columbia Generating Station. The end-of-cycle review for Columbia Generating Station involved the participation of the reactor technical divisions in evaluating performance indicators (PIs) for the most recent quarter and inspection results for the period from January 1 through December 31, 2004. The purpose of this letter is to inform you of our assessment of your safety performance during this period and our plans for future inspections at your facility so that you will have an opportunity to prepare for these inspections and to inform us of any planned inspections that may conflict with your plant activities.
This performance review and enclosed inspection plan do not include physical protection information. A separate end-of-cycle performance review letter designated and marked as
"Exempt from Public Disclosure in Accordance with 10 CFR 2.390" will include the physical protection review and resultant inspection plan.
Overall, Columbia Generating Station operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety and fully met all cornerstone objectives. Plant performance for the most recent quarter, as well as for the first three quarters of the assessment cycle, was within the Licensee Response Column of the NRCs Action Matrix, based on all inspection findings being classified as having very low safety significance (Green) and all PIs indicating performance at a level requiring no additional NRC oversight (Green). Therefore, we plan to conduct only reactor oversight process (ROP) baseline inspections at your facility through September 30, 2006.
Additionally, the staff has identified a substantive crosscutting issue in the area of human performance. Human performance issues with a common performance characteristic of personnel performance, contributed to a number of Green findings in the initiating events, mitigating systems, barrier integrity, emergency preparedness and occupational radiation safety cornerstones.
The findings principally involved instances of failing to follow procedures or a lack of understanding of the procedural requirements and the impact on plant operations. Findings related to this substantive human performance crosscutting issue have resulted in either plant
Energy Northwest-2-transients or scrams, and have resulted in inadequate responses to plant conditions both from an operational and radiological standpoint. There were two findings that involved inappropriate manipulation and operation of plant equipment that resulted in plant transients. There were five findings related to control board awareness and operation of plant equipment, one of which resulted in a manual scram and another which resulted in a prolonged delay in determining that a valid reactor protection system actuation had occurred. In addition to the personnel errors that impacted plant operations and the assessment of plant conditions, there were two occurrences involving radiological protection personnel not conducting adequate surveys and an instance in which operations did not initiate plant monitoring capabilities in a timely manner to provide the NRC with real time assessment of plant conditions.
Although Energy Northwest has implemented a program to address performance, human performance problems that have challenged the plant continue to occur. The NRC considered the actions Energy Northwest has taken to date with regard to improving human performance at Columbia Generating Station. Energy Northwest implemented an improvement program in November 2003 to address, in part, training in operations, excellence in the different departments, and behavior based programs. Energy Northwest met with the NRC in January 2004 to discuss, in part, its improvement program; however, the program was not fully effective in preventing the human performance personnel errors identified throughout the assessment period. Also, Energy Northwest met with NRC in October 2004 to discuss its response to operational performance issues; however, Energy Northwest has not demonstrated through the implementation of the Operations Department Performance Improvement Plan that the issues involving operator knowledge of systems and the emergency plan have been adequately addressed to ensure the corrective actions are effective.
The NRC will review this substantive crosscutting issue to determine whether operator performance has improved and to determine whether the Operations Department Performance Improvement Plan has been effective. We will focus on these areas through implementation of the baseline inspection program. Our followup efforts will be accomplished as a followup inspection item in accordance with Inspection Procedure 71152, Identification and Resolution of Problems, Section 03.02, Selected Issue Followup Inspection, and through semi-annual reviews conducted during the next midcycle review. In addition, the Problem Identification and Resolution team inspection will be performed in the first half of 2005 and will focus, in part, on Energy Northwests actions to address human performance. Demonstrated improved performance should be reflected, in part, in a reduced number of human performance related inspection findings.
In our end-of-cycle letter dated March 3, 2004, and in our midcycle letter dated August 30, 2004, we advised you of a substantive crosscutting issue in the area of problem identification and resolution. Problem identification and resolution issues contributed to a number of Green findings in the mitigating systems, barrier integrity, and occupational radiation safety cornerstones. The common performance characteristic of these findings primarily involved a lack of rigor with regard to aggressively identifying and correcting problems with plant design information. During this assessment period, there were fewer findings related to this area.
Improvements in this area appear to be a direct result of your improvement initiatives in the engineering area. This issue has been satisfactorily addressed and the NRC plans no further focused inspections for this substantive crosscutting issue.
Energy Northwest-3-The enclosed inspection plan details the inspections, less those related to physical protection, scheduled through September 30, 2006. The inspection plan is provided to minimize the resource impact on you staff and to allow for scheduling conflicts and personnel availability to be resolved in advance of inspector arrival onsite. Routine resident inspections are not listed due to their ongoing and continuous nature. The inspections in the last 9 months of the inspection plan are tentative and may be revised at the midcycle review meeting.
In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRCs Rules of Practice, a copy of this letter and its enclosure will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the Publicly Available Records (PARS) components of NRCs 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 this inspection plan, we will contact you to discuss the change as soon as possible. Please contact me at 817/860-8147 with any questions you may have regarding this letter or the inspection plan.
Sincerely,
/RA/
William B. Jones, Chief Project Branch E Division of Reactor Projects Docket: 50-397 License: NPF-21 Enclosure:
Columbia Generating Station Inspection/Activity Plan cc w/enclosure:
Gary Robertson, Director Division of Radiation Protection Department of Health P.O. Box 47827 Olympia, WA 98504-7827 Frank H. Brock, Chair Board of Franklin County Commissioners 1016 North 4th Street Pasco, WA 99301 Federal Emergency Management Agency Federal Regional Center Mr. John Pennington, Regional Director Region X 130 228th Street, SW Bothell, WA 98021-9796 Lynn Albin, Radiation Physicist Washington State Dept. of Health P.O. Box 47827 Olympia, WA 98504-7827 The Honorable James R. Beaver Mayor of Kennewick
Energy Northwest-4-City Hall 210 West 6th Avenue Kennewick, WA 99336 Gary Crutchfield Pasco City Manager P.O. Box 293 Pasco, WA 99301 John C. Darrington, Manager City of Richland City Hall, 505 Swift Boulevard Richland, WA 99352 Rick Dodson, Environmental Health Benton-Franklin Co. Health District 800 West Canal Drive Kennewick, WA 99336 The Honorable Michael Garrison Mayor of Pasco P.O. Box 293 Pasco, WA 99301-293 Dr. Larry Jecha Benton-Franklin Co. Health District Environmental Health 471 Williams Street Richland, WA 99352 Mike Wilson, Organizational Project Manager Nuclear Waste Programs Department of Ecology P.O. Box 47600 Olympia, WA 98504 The Honorable Jerry Peltier Mayor of West Richland City Hall 3801 West Van Giesen West Richland, WA 99352 The Honorable Rob Welch Mayor, City of Richland City Hall, 505 Swift Boulevard Richland, WA 99352 Jim Mullen, Director WA State Emergency Management Military Department Building 20 (MS TA-20)
Camp Murray, WA 98430-5122 W. Scott Oxenford (Mail Drop PE04)
Vice President, Technical Services Energy Northwest P.O. Box 968 Richland, WA 99352-0968 Albert E. Mouncer (Mail Drop PE01)
Vice President, Corporate Services/
General Counsel/CFO Energy Northwest P.O. Box 968 Richland, WA 99352-0968 Chairman Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council P.O. Box 43172 Olympia, WA 98504-3172 Douglas W. Coleman (Mail Drop PE20)
Manager, Regulatory Programs Energy Northwest P.O. Box 968 Richland, WA 99352-0968 Gregory V. Cullen (Mail Drop PE20)
Supervisor, Licensing Energy Northwest P.O. Box 968 Richland, WA 99352-0968 Chairman Benton County Board of Commissioners P.O. Box 190 Prosser, WA 99350-0190 Dale K. Atkinson (Mail Drop PE08)
Vice President, Nuclear Generation Energy Northwest P.O. Box 968 Richland, WA 99352-0968 William A. Horin, Esq.
Winston & Strawn 1400 L Street, N.W.
Energy Northwest-5-Washington, DC 20005-3502 Matt Steuerwalt Executive Policy Division Office of the Governor P.O. Box 43113 Olympia, WA 98504-3113 Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO)
Records Center 700 Galleria Parkway SE, Suite 100 Atlanta, GA 30339
Energy Northwest-6-Electronic distribution by RIV:
Regional Administrator (BSM1)
DRP Director (ATH)
DRS Director (DDC)
Senior Resident Inspector (ZKD)
Branch Chief, DRP/E (WBJ)
Senior Project Engineer, DRP/E (VGG)
Team Leader, DRP/TSS (RLN1)
RITS Coordinator (KEG)
RidsNrrDipmlipb V. Dricks, PAO (VLD)
W. Maier, RSLO (WAM)
C. Gordon (CJG)
DRS Branch Chiefs (LJS, MPS1, ATG, JAC)
S. Richards, Chief, NRR/DIPM/IIPB (SAR)
M. Case, Deputy Dir. for Inspection and Programs (MJC)
B. Sheron, Associate Dir. for Project Licensing and Technical Analysis (BWS)
B. Wetzel, Acting Chief, ROPMS, OEDO (TAB)
H. Berkow, Director, LPD4, NRR/DLPM (HNB)
R. Gramm, Chief, PDIV-2, NRR/DLPM (RAG)
B. Benney, NRR Project Manager (BJB)
SISP Review Completed: _wbj__
ADAMS: / Yes G No Initials: __wbj_
/ Publicly Available G Non-Publicly Available G Sensitive
/ Non-Sensitive S:\\DRP\\DRPDIR\\EOC 04\\Assessment Letters\\CGS.wpd RIV:DRP/E D:DRS D:DRP For signature WBJones;mjs DDChamberlain ATHowell III WBJones
/RA/
/RA/
/RA/
/RA/
2/23/05 2/24/05 2/25/05 3/1/05 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY T=Telephone E=E-mail F=Fax
Columbia Generating Station Inspection / Activity Plan 03/04/2005 - 09/30/2006 Inspection Type Inspection Activity Planned Dates Start End No. of Staff on Site Title Unit Number Page 1 of 2 03/01/2005 08:31:53 Report 22
OB-RTEX
- RETAKE INITIAL EXAM Not Applicable 05/23/2005 05/27/2005 COLUMBIA (09/04) INITIAL EXAM X02266
5 PEB-52
- CGS PIR INSPECTION Baseline Inspections 03/14/2005 03/18/2005 Identification and Resolution of Problems IP 71152B
Baseline Inspections 03/28/2005 04/15/2005 Identification and Resolution of Problems IP 71152B
1 ALARA2
- ALARA PLANNING AND CONTROLS Baseline Inspections 04/25/2005 04/29/2005 ALARA Planning and Controls IP 7112102
1 EB08G
- ISI Baseline Inspections 05/09/2005 05/13/2005 Inservice Inspection Activities - BWR IP 7111108G
1 ACRSA
- ACCESS CONTROL FOR RAD SIGNIFICANT AREAS Baseline Inspections 05/23/2005 05/27/2005 Access Control to Radiologically Significant Areas IP 7112101
5 EB21/02
- SSD&PCI/50.59 Baseline Inspections 07/18/2005 07/22/2005 Safety System Design and Performance Capability IP 7111121
Baseline Inspections 08/01/2005 08/05/2005 Evaluation of Changes, Tests, or Experiments IP 7111102
Baseline Inspections 08/01/2005 08/05/2005 Safety System Design and Performance Capability IP 7111121
4 RP TEAM
- RADIATION SAFETY TEAM INSPECTION Baseline Inspections 07/25/2005 07/29/2005 Radiation Monitoring Instrumentation and Protective Equipment IP 7112103
Baseline Inspections 07/25/2005 07/29/2005 Radioactive Gaseous and Liquid Effluent Treatment and Monitoring Systems IP 7112201
Baseline Inspections 07/25/2005 07/29/2005 Radioactive Material Processing and Transportation IP 7112202
Baseline Inspections 07/25/2005 07/29/2005 Radiological Environmental Monitoring Program IP 7112203
1 PEB-07B
- HX PERFORMANCE Baseline Inspections 08/15/2005 08/19/2005 Heat Sink Performance IP 7111107B
1 ALARA3
- ALARA PLANNING AND CONTROLS Baseline Inspections 08/15/2005 08/19/2005 ALARA Planning and Controls IP 7112102
1 OB-EP2
- EMERG PREPAREDNESS PROGRAM INSPECTION Baseline Inspections 10/31/2005 11/04/2005 Alert and Notification System Testing IP 7111402
Baseline Inspections 10/31/2005 11/04/2005 Emergency Response Organization Augmentation Testing IP 7111403
Baseline Inspections 10/31/2005 11/04/2005 Emergency Action Level and Emergency Plan Changes IP 7111404
Baseline Inspections 10/31/2005 11/04/2005 Correction of Emergency Preparedness Weaknesses and Deficiencies IP 7111405
Baseline Inspections 10/31/2005 11/04/2005 Performance Indicator Verification IP 71151
4 PEB-05T
- TRIENNIAL FIRE PROTECTION Baseline Inspections 03/13/2006 03/17/2006 Fire Protection IP 7111105T
Baseline Inspections 03/27/2006 03/31/2006 Fire Protection IP 7111105T
1 ACRSA
- ACCESS CONTROL TO RAD SIGNIFICANT AREAS Baseline Inspections 05/15/2006 05/19/2006 Access Control to Radiologically Significant Areas IP 7112101
This report does not include INPO and OUTAGE activities.
This report shows only on-site and announced inspection procedures.
Columbia Generating Station Inspection / Activity Plan 03/04/2005 - 09/30/2006 Inspection Type Inspection Activity Planned Dates Start End No. of Staff on Site Title Unit Number Page 2 of 2 03/01/2005 08:31:53 Report 22
ALARA1
- ALARA PLANNING AND CONTROLS Baseline Inspections 07/10/2006 07/14/2006 ALARA Planning and Controls IP 7112102
4 OB-INIT
- COLUMBIA INITIAL EXAM Not Applicable 08/28/2006 09/01/2006 COLUMBIA INITIAL EXAM (09/06)
X02296
Not Applicable 09/18/2006 09/22/2006 COLUMBIA INITIAL EXAM (09/06)
X02296
3 OB-EP EX
- EMERG PREPAREDNESS EXERCISE Baseline Inspections 09/11/2006 09/15/2006 Exercise Evaluation IP 7111401
Baseline Inspections 09/11/2006 09/15/2006 Emergency Action Level and Emergency Plan Changes IP 7111404
Baseline Inspections 09/11/2006 09/15/2006 Performance Indicator Verification IP 71151
This report does not include INPO and OUTAGE activities.
This report shows only on-site and announced inspection procedures.