IR 05000458/2007001

Annual Assessment Letter - River Bend Station (NRC Inspection Report 05000458/2007001)

ML070610605
Person / Time
Site:	River Bend
Issue date:	03/02/2007
From:	Hay M NRC/RGN-IV/DRP/RPB-C
To:	Venable J Entergy Operations
References
IR-07-001
Download: ML070610605 (8)

Text

U N I T E D STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY C O M M I S S I O N rch 2, 2007

SUBJECT:

ANNUAL ASSESSMENT LETTER - RIVER BEND STATION (NRC INSPECTION REPORT 05000458/2007001)

Dear Mr. Venable:

On February 6, 2007, the NRC staff completed its performance review of River Bend Station.

Our technical staff reviewed performance indicators for the most recent quarter and inspection results for the period from January 1 through December 31 , 2006. 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.

This performance review and enclosed inspection plan do not include physical protection information. A separate letter designated and marked as "Official Use Only - Security-Related Information" will include the physical protection review and resultant inspection plan.

Overall, River Bend 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 NRC's Action Matrix, based on all inspection findings being classified as having very low safety significance (Green) and all performance indicators indicating performance at a level requiring no additional NRC oversight (Green).

The NRC staff has identified a substantive crosscutting issue in the human performance area at River Bend Station. There were 16 Green findings with crosscutting aspects in the human performance area. Crosscutting themes were identified in the following area components:

(1) Work Practices (instances of ineffective human error prevention techniques), and (2) Resources (instances of inadequate procedures and instructions). Seven Green findings were related to a theme of ineffective human error prevention techniques affecting the Mitigating Systems, Occupational Radiation Safety, and Barrier Integrity cornerstones.

Examples include: a failure to evaluate radiological conditions; instances of failing to follow procedures resulting in consequential plant impacts, such as a substantial steam leak in containment resulting from the failure to adequately assemble a low pressure coolant injection valve; and the failure of operators to perform and verify proper control room switch alignment during the response to a plant scram, which further impacted the plant. To address problems in this area, your staff developed a performance improvement plan at the end of 2006, which

Entergy Operations, Inc. -2-included a focus area for improvement specifically requiring more on-shift supervisory observations of operations and maintenance activities. These actions have not yet proven effective in substantially mitigating this crosscutting theme for a sustained period of time. As a result, this substantive crosscutting issue will remain open until we determine, through focused baseline inspections, that corrective actions implemented in accordance with your improvement plan have resulted in improved performance.

With respect to the human performance component of resources specifically related to the aspect of procedure and work instruction adequacy, we determined that your staff appropriately recognized the declining trend, evaluated the declining trend in your corrective action program, performed a common cause analysis, established and implemented specific corrective actions, and ensured that measures were in place to perform effectiveness reviews. As of this time, we have concluded that the scope of your efforts to address this trend is appropriate.

In our midcycle assessment letter dated August 31,2006 (ADAMS Reference ML06243066),

we advised you of a substantive crosscutting issue in the area of problem identification and resolution involving the aspect of the identification of issues. During this assessment period there were six Green findings involving the problem identification and resolution component of corrective action affecting the Mitigating Systems and Initiating Events cornerstones. Examples included: a failure to recognize abnormal instrument noise and spiking conditions resulting in repetitive inadvertent isolations of reactor core isolation cooling system, a failure to promptly identify a nonconforming condition affecting a chart strip recorder following the chart paper mechanism falling on a control panel and causing an automatic reactor scram, and the failure to identify that a power supply breaker to the Division I l l engineered safety features bus was not properly racked in for a period of approximately 24 days following maintenance activities. To address problems in this area, your staff began implementing performance improvement measures in the latter part of the assessment period. While your performance measures indicate some increase in the number of problems being entered into your corrective action program, we understand your effectiveness review is not scheduled for completion until later in 2007. This substantive crosscutting issue will remain open until we determine, through focused baseline inspections, that corrective actions implemented in accordance with your improvement plan have resulted in sustained improvement.

The enclosed inspection plan details the inspections, except those related to physical protection, scheduled through September 30, 2008. The inspection plan is provided to allow for the resolution of any scheduling conflicts and personnel availability issues well 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.

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) component of NRCs document system (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.qov/readinq-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room).

Entergy Operations, Inc. -3-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) 860-8144 with any questions you may have regarding this letter or the inspection plan.

Sincerely, c.

Michael C. Hay, Chief a

Project Branch C Division of Reactor Projects Docket: 50-458 License: NPF-47 Enclosure:

River Bend Station Inspection/Activity Plan cc w/enclosure:

Executive Vice President and Manager, Licensing Chief Operating Officer Entergy Operations, Inc.

Entergy Operations, Inc. River Bend Station P.O. Box 31995 5485 US Highway 61 N Jackson, MS 39286-1995 St. Francisville, LA 70775 Vice President The Honorable Charles C. Foti, Jr.

Operations Support Attorney General Entergy Operations, Inc. Department of Justice P.O. Box 31995 State of Louisiana Jackson, MS 39286-1995 P.O. Box 94095 Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9005 General Manager Plant Operations H. Anne Plettinger Entergy Operations, Inc. 3456 Villa Rose Drive River Bend Station Baton Rouge, LA 70806 5485 US Highway 61 N St. Francisville, LA 70775 Bert Babers, President West Feliciana Parish Police Jury Director, Nuclear Safety & Licensing P.O. Box 1921 Entergy Operations, Inc. St. Francisville, LA 70775 1340 Echelon Parkway Jackson, MS 39213-8298 Richard Penrod, Senior Environmental Scientist, State Liaison Officer Office of Environmental Services Northwestern State University Russell Hall, Room 201 Natchitoches, LA 71497

Entergy Operations, Inc. -4-Brian Almon Federal Emergency Management Agency Public Utility Commission Region VI William 6. Travis Building ATTN: William E. Peterson, Regional Director P.O. Box 13326 Federal Center 1701 North Congress Avenue 800 North Loop 288 Austin, TX 78701 -3326 Denton, TX 76201-3698 Jim Calloway Walter Monsour/lrma Plummer/Alfred Public Utility Commission of Texas Williams 1701 N. Congress Avenue Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Austin, TX 7871 1-3326 Office of the Mayor - President East Baton Rouge Parish Chairperson P.O. Box 1471 Denton Field Office Baton Rouge, LA 70821 Chemical and Nuclear Preparedness and Protection Division Joanne Moreau, Director Office of Infrastructure Protection Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness Directorate Emergency Preparedness Dept. of Homeland Security East Baton Rouge Parish 800 North Loop 288 P.O. Box 1471 Federal Regional Center Baton Rouge, LA 70821 Denton, TX 76201-3698 Sharlot Edwards, Director Melanie Bueche, President Office of Emergency Preparedness Pointe Coupe Parish Police Jury West Baton Rouge Parish P.O. Box 290 P.O. Box 757 New Roads, LA 70760 Port Allen, LA 70767 Louis Kent, President Don Ewing, Director East Feliciana Parish Police Jury Office of Emergency Preparedness P.O. Box 427 Pointe Coupee Parish Clinton, LA 70722 P.O. Box 248 New Roads, LA 70760 Riley Berthalot, Jr., President West Baton Rouge Parish Police Jury Col. Jeff Smith, Acting Director P.O. Box 757 Louisiana Office of Homeland Port Allen, LA 70767 Security and Emergency Preparedness 7667 Independence Blvd.

Kip Holden, Mayor-President Baton Rouge, LA 70806 Office of the Mayor-President East Baton Rouge Parish Jesse Means, Jr., Director 222 St. Louis Street, 3rd floor Office of Homeland Security and Baton Rouge, LA 70802 Emergency Preparedness West Feliciana Parish P.O. Box 1927 St. Francisville, LA 70775

Entergy Operations, lnc. -5-Travis W. Prewitt, Director Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness East Feliciana Parish P.O. Box 1927 Jackson, LA 70748 The Honorable William D'Aquilla Mayor, Town of St. Francisville P.O. Box400 St. Francisville, LA 70775 Jeffrey P. Meyers Division Administrator Emergency and Radiological Services Division LA Dept. of Environmental Quality P.O. Box 4312 Baton Rouge, LA 70821-4312 Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO)

Records Center 700 Galleria Parkway SE, Suite 100 Atlanta, GA 30339

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Entergy Operations, Inc. -6-Electronic distribution by RIV:

Regional Administrator ( BSM1)

DRP Director (ATH)

DRS Director (DDC)

DRS Deputy Director (RJCI)

Senior Resident Inspector (PJA)

Branch Chief, DRPlC (MCH2)

Senior Project Engineer, DRPIC (WCW)

Team Leader, DRPITSS (FLB2)

RlTS Coordinator (MSH3)

V. Dricks, P A 0 (VLD)

W. Maier, RSLO (WAM)

L. Owen, RA Secretary (LAO)

DRS Branch Chiefs (WBJ, ATG, LJS, MPSI)

C. Miller, Chief, TRPS, OED0 (CGM)

S. Richards, Deputy Director, DIRS, NRR (SAR)

J. Lubinski, Deputy Director, DORL, NRR (JWL)

C. Haney, Director, DORL, NRR (CXH)

D. Terao, Chief, PLB IV, DORL, NRR (DXT)

B. Vaidya, NRR Project Manager (BKV)

RidsNrrDirslpab@nrc.gov ROPreports@,nrc.gov SUNS1 Review Completed: -MCH- ADAMS: ra Yes No Initials: -MCH ra Publicly Available 0 Non-Publicly Available 0 Sensitive Non-Sensitive 11 MCHay;df

/RA/

2/26/07 DDChamberlain

/RA/

12/26/07 ATHowell Ill IRA/

12/29/07 MCHay 13/2/07

/RA/

OFFICIAL RECORD COPY T=Telephone E=E-mail F=Fax