IR 05000416/1987028

Insp Rept 50-416/87-28 on 871005-09.No Violations or Deviations Noted.Major Areas Inspected:Closeout of Unresolved Item,Review of Core Performance & Nuclear Instrument Calibrs

ML20236Q548
Person / Time
Site:	Grand Gulf
Issue date:	11/10/1987
From:	Burnett P, Jape F NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION II)
To:
Shared Package
ML20236Q528	List: IR 05000416/1987028 ML20236Q526
References
50-416-87-28, NUDOCS 8711200123
Download: ML20236Q548 (4)

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.g * $ UldlTED STATES g 'j NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION'

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101 MAR.ETTA ST., ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30323 4,g,

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. Report No.: 50-416/87-28 Licensee: System Energy Resources, In Jackson,,MS'. 39205 Docket No.: 50-416 License No.: .NPF-29 Facility Name: Grand Gulf Nuclear. Station -

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Inspection Conducted: ctober 5 - 9,'.1987 Inspector:

'PTT. Wrireft" ~

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//-/p87 Date Signed Approved by: Mww F."dap'e, Section Chief,

/e/o - F 7 l .p Date. Signed

/ Engineering Branch'

Division of Reactor Safety -

SUMMAR Scope: This routine inspection was conducted in the areas of closeout of unresolved item, review of core performance and nuclear instrument'

calibration Results: No violations or deviations were identified.

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I REPORT DETAILS

.' Licensee Employees Contacted J.E. Cross, GGNS Site Director

, R.F. Rogers,' Manager, Unit 1 Projects

• M.J. Wright, Manager, Plant Support

• J.D. Bailey,. Compliance Coordinator

• D.G. ' Cupstid, Technical Support Superintendent

• L.F. Daughtery,-Compliance Superintendent-

• W. R. Patterson, Reactor Engineering Supervisor Other. licensee employees contacted included engineers and office -f

. personne j NRC Resident Inspectors  ;

• R. C. Butcher Senior Resident Inspecto J. L. Mathis, Resident Inspector

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• Attended' exit interview d Exit Interview (30703)

l The inspection scope and findings were. summarized on' October 9, 1987 with <

those persons indicated in paragraph 1 above. : Proprietary materials were reviewed during this inspection, but are not included in;this report. The j licensee had no comment on the inspection finding . Licensee Action on Previous Enforcement Matters (92702)

(Closed) Unresolved item 416/86-06-02: Define the allowed applications'of'

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rod position bypass switches. By letters dated October:7, 1986 and i December 5, 1986, the licensee applied for amendment 28 to license-NPF-29 l to change Technical Specifications for the rod pattern controller function

to properly position out-of-sequence control rods. That extensive change j to Technical Specification 3.1.4.2 was authorized by Commission letter

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dated March 5, 1987. This item is close ] Unresolved Items

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No unresolved items were identifie i l

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i I Documents Reviewed XN-NF 87-11(P) (Revision 1). Grand Gulf .Un'it 1, . Cycle.2, Startup and Operations Report, XN-NF 833(P), POWERPLEX(R) Core Monitoring. Software System. , 'Userf s Manual for The' Grand Gulf Nuclear.' Station,' RE1C51-0-0001 (Revision 26),' Local' Power Range Monitor Calibra--

tion, (addresses Technibal Specifications Table 4.3.1.1-1 item 2 -

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'4.3.7.7, 4.3.6, and 4.3.1.1),' , RE-1J11-V0001 (Revision 31), : Power . Distribution. Limits Verifica'- ..

tion (addresses Technical Specifications- 4.2.1, 4.2.3, 4.2.4, Table:

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' 4.3.1.1-1 items: 2b and 2c and Table 4.3.6-1. item 2a),' 4.2.4,. Table

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4.3.1.1-1 items 2b and 2c, table 4-3.6-1 item 2.a),

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I RE-SB13-V-0017 (Revision 25), Reactivity Anomalies '(addresses Technical Specifications 4.1.2.1 and'4.1.2.b),

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6. Power Distribution Monitoring (61702) 1 With fuel cycle 2, which began in December 1986, the licensee changed fuel vendors. One-third of the present core is ' composed of bundles manufac-tured by Advanced Nuclear Fuels Corporation'(ANF),:formerly Exxon Nuclear Fuels (XN). Consequently it was necessary to change theLeomputer-based fuel performance monitoring procedures, although the remainder of the core is fuel provided by General . Electric (GE),: the original supplie .

The ANF PowerPlex software system for core. monitoring is described in ,

document 5.b and is installed on a PRIME computer ~ .which is backed up by

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another PRIME. Plant instrumentation,; including the local power range

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monitors (LPRMs) and traveling incore probes (TIPS) remain interfaced .to i the original plant computer (PC), which now serves as a data link rather than a data analyzer. With the PC down, it is possible to ' manually enter plant data into PowerPle '

This' software is more fully described in the topical . report XN-NF-80-19, . l Volume 1 and Supplements 1 and 2 Exxon Nuclear Methodology for Boilin Water Reactors-Neutronic Methods for design.and Analysis (March 1983), i This topical report was approved in an NRC letter dated April-7, 198 '

The more powerful computer and software provide the opportunity to perfor three-dimensional core power distribution analysis and prediction in a  ;

manner of minutes and whenever desired. According to the reactor engineer- !

ing supervisor, this capability has been 'much needed during this cycle.-

Although the core has ample margin to all thermal limits:during steady-state, full-power operation, maintaining thermal limits dur.ing transient such as.startups and rod pattern changes has been difficult. However, the i analytical capability has been available to the.' operations staff ~

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around-the-clock. The reactor engineering supervisor and'two qualified reactor engineers each have dumb terminals in their homes,.from which it -

is possible for them to monitor, analyze, and predict. core. performance.,

Therefore it is never necessary for operations to' move a rod at any time without the benefit of reactor engineering judgement based upon ' review of the predicted effect calculated by a core-design-quelity. cod Surveillance of thermal thermal limits is performed using'an approved procedure, document A review of the completed procedures; confirmed- H that the surveillance had been performed with the proper frequency an i satisfactory result during the period January 12, 1987:to July 10, 198 !

R No violations or deviations were identifie i CalibrationofNuclearInstruments'(61705) .

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Calibration of LPRMs by use of the TIPS is accomplished by. approved .

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procedure, document 5.c. Review of completed procedures _and surveillance records confirmed that the calibrations had been performed at. intervals less than 1000 Mwd /T throughout the current cycl I Procedures for calibration of the average power range monitors (APRMs) are'

contained in document 5.c. in which case the APRMs are recalibrates imediately after the LPRM calibrations, and in document 5.d, whic .

assures recalibration every twenty-four hours.- Review of over twenty procedures completed during the current. cycle showed no instances of-unacceptable gain adjustment factor No violations or deviations were identifie . Shutdown Margin and Reactivity Anomaly (61707)

i The beginning-of-cycle measurement of shutdown margin is described in

, Acument 5.a. The predicted R factor for increase in core reactivity

during the cycle from consumption of burnable poisons in_ the fuel was u i 1.31% rho, which led to a minimum acceptable shutdown margin of 1.69% rho I for the measurement. The measured shutdown margin using in-sequence rod withdrawal was 4.06% rho, the inspector reviewed the data analysis and ,

agreed with the result l Surveillance of reactivity anomalies is adequately addressed in document 5.e. Review of procedures completed during the current cycle' confirmed that the surveillance was being performed at an acceptable frequency with satisfactory result No violations or deviations were identified.

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