IR 05000456/2003001

Annual Assessment Letter - Braidwood Units 1 & 2 - (05000456-03-001; 05000457-03-001)

ML030640359
Person / Time
Site:	Braidwood
Issue date:	03/04/2003
From:	Dyer J Region 3 Administrator
To:	Skolds J Exelon Generation Co, Exelon Nuclear
References
IR-03-001
Download: ML030640359 (9)

Text

rch 4, 2003

SUBJECT:

ANNUAL ASSESSMENT LETTER - BRAIDWOOD STATION, UNITS 1 AND 2 (REPORT 50-456/03-01; 50-457/03-01)

Dear Mr. Skolds:

On February 11, 2003, the NRC staff completed its end-of-cycle plant performance assessment of the Braidwood Station, Units 1 and 2. The end-of-cycle review for the Braidwood Station, Unit 1 and 2 involved the participation of all technical divisions in evaluating performance indicators (PIs)

for the most recent quarter and inspection results for the period from January 1 through December 31, 2002. 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.

Overall, Braidwood Unit 2 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).

Likewise, Braidwood Unit 1 operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety with moderate degradation in safety performance. During the first two quarters of 2002, plant performance for Unit 1 was within the Degraded Cornerstone Column due to declining performance in the Mitigation Systems Cornerstone. This assessment was based on one White Performance Indicator (Safety System Unavailability, Heat Removal System (Auxiliary Feedwater))

and one low to moderate safety (White) finding concerning the Unit 1 pressurizer power operated relief valve air accumulator check valves. This finding was identified by the NRC in February 2002; however, the final risk significance was not determined until July 2002. The finding was determined to be a violation of NRC requirements for failing to prevent recurring failures of the air accumulator check valves. During the last two quarters of 2002, plant performance for Unit 1 changed to the Regulatory Response Column of the Action Matrix when the Auxiliary Feedwater system performance indicator returned to the Green performance band. In November 2002, Supplemental Inspection 95002, Inspection for One Degraded Cornerstone or Any Three White Inspection Inputs in a Strategic Performance Area, was conducted to better understand the circumstances for the individual White issues and for the degraded cornerstone.

As documented in Inspection Report 50-456/2002-10(DRP), we concluded that your staff initiated corrective actions to address the root causes for the White finding; therefore, in accordance with Inspection Manual Chapter 0305, Operating Reactor Assessment Program, the finding will only be considered in assessing plant performance for a total of four quarters. However, because your proposed corrective actions and evaluation activities associated with the degraded cornerstone were in a developmental and investigatory phase, we were not able to assess their effectiveness.

As such, we will review and, if necessary, re-assess your corrective actions during an additional Problem Identification and Resolution inspection which will be performed this year.

The enclosed inspection plan details the inspections scheduled through March 31, 2004. Three infrequently performed inspections will be conducted this year. These include (1) a triennial Fire Protection inspection which is scheduled for June 23 through July 11, 2003; (2) a combined Safety System Design/Modification/10 CFR 50.59 inspection which is scheduled for August 25 through September 12, 2003; and (3) an additional Problem Identification and Resolution inspection which is scheduled for November 3 through December 5, 2003. The inspection plan is provided to minimize the resource impact on your 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 six months of the inspection plan are tentative and may be revised at the mid-cycle review meeting.

As you are aware, since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the NRC has issued several Orders and threat advisories to enhance security capabilities and improve guard force readiness.

We have conducted inspections to review your implementation of these requirements and have monitored your actions in response to changing threat conditions. For calendar year 2003, we plan to continue these inspections, conduct portions of the security baseline inspection program, as well as perform additional inspections to evaluate your compliance with new requirements that may be ordered. Based on our final determinations in this regard, we will notify you of any inspection plan changes.

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.790 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) 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). 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 Ann Marie Stone, Chief, Reactor Projects Branch 3 at (630) 829-9729 with any questions you may have regarding this letter or the inspection plan.

Sincerely,

/RA/

J. E. Dyer Regional Administrator Docket Nos. 50-456, 50-457 License Nos. NPF-72, NPF-77 Enclosure: Braidwood Station Units 1 and 2 Inspection/Activity Plan See Attached Distribution