IR 05000528/2004001
| ML040631097 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Palo Verde  |
| Issue date: | 03/03/2004 |
| From: | Clark J NRC/RGN-IV/DRP/RPB-D |
| To: | Overbeck G Arizona Public Service Co |
| References | |
| IR-04-001 | |
| Download: ML040631097 (10) | |
Text
rch 3, 2004
SUBJECT:
ANNUAL ASSESSMENT LETTER - PALO VERDE NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION (NRC REPORT 05000528/2004001; 05000529/2004001; 05000530/2004001)
Dear Mr. Overbeck:
On February 5, 2004, the NRC completed its end-of-cycle plant performance assessment of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. The end-of-cycle review for Palo Verde involved the participation of all technical divisions in evaluating performance indicators for the most recent quarter and inspection results for the period from January 1 through December 31, 2003. 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, Palo Verde 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 performance indicators indicating performance at a level requiring no additional NRC oversight (Green).
On January 14, 2004, we conducted a public meeting with you and members of your staff. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss aspects of the safety conscious work environment at Palo Verde. Your independent assessment, as well as our reviews, indicate that staff members feel free to raise safety issues to Palo Verde management. As discussed during the meeting, your assessments also indicated that a number of areas require attention. These areas include employee awareness and familiarity with your Employee Concerns Program and Differing Professional Opinions Process, as well as the effectiveness of the Management Issues Tracking and Resolution program in resolving non-nuclear issues. Additionally, it appears that interview data obtained by the NRC during the conduct of problem identification and resolution inspection activities in December 2003 regarding the degree to which the Instrumentation and Controls staff have used, or feel free to use, the condition reporting process to identify and document problems may not be fully consistent with statistical data provided at the meeting.
Arizona Public Service Company -2-Accordingly, NRC will focus on these and related areas during the upcoming problem identification and resolution inspection, as well as during the conduct of other routine NRC inspection activities.
As you are aware, the NRC has issued several Orders and threat advisories to enhance security capabilities and improve guard force readiness since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. 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 2004, we plan to continue inspections of Order implementation combined with newly developed portions of the security baseline inspection program. The enclosed inspection plan details the inspections scheduled through September 30, 2005. In addition to the baseline inspections, NRC will also be conducting inspections related to Temporary Instructions 2515/150, Revision 1, "Reactor Pressure Vessel Head and Vessel Head Penetration Nozzles,"
(NRC Bulletin 2002-02); 2515/152, Reactor Pressure Vessel Lower Head Penetration Nozzles (NRC Bulletin 2003-02); 2515/153, Reactor Containment Sump Blockage (NRC Bulletin 2003-01); and 2515/154, Spent Fuel Material Control and Accounting at Nuclear Power. 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 12 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 NRC's "Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter, its enclosure, and your response 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.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 817-860-8166 with any questions you may have regarding this letter or the inspection plan.
Sincerely,
/RA/ P. H. Harrell Acting For Jeffrey A. Clark, Acting Chief Project Branch D Division of Reactor Projects Dockets: 50-528 50-529 50-530 Licenses: NPF-41 NPF-51 NPF-74
Arizona Public Service Company -3-Enclosure:
Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station Inspection/Activity Plan cc w/enclosure:
Steve Olea Arizona Corporation Commission 1200 W. Washington Street Phoenix, AZ 85007 Douglas K. Porter, Senior Counsel Southern California Edison Company Law Department, Generation Resources P.O. Box 800 Rosemead, CA 91770 Chairman Maricopa County Board of Supervisors 301 W. Jefferson, 10th Floor Phoenix, AZ 85003 Aubrey V. Godwin, Director Arizona Radiation Regulatory Agency 4814 South 40 Street Phoenix, AZ 85040 M. Dwayne Carnes, Director Regulatory Affairs/Nuclear Assurance Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station Mail Station 7636 P.O. Box 52034 Phoenix, AZ 85072-2034 Hector R. Puente Vice President, Power Generation El Paso Electric Company 340 E. Palm Lane, Suite 310 Phoenix, AZ 85004 Terry Bassham, Esq.
General Counsel El Paso Electric Company 123 W. Mills El Paso, TX 79901
Arizona Public Service Company -4-John W. Schumann Los Angeles Department of Water & Power Southern California Public Power Authority P.O. Box 51111, Room 1255-C Los Angeles, CA 90051-0100 John Taylor Public Service Company of New Mexico 2401 Aztec NE, MS Z110 Albuquerque, NM 87107-4224 Cheryl Adams Southern California Edison Company 5000 Pacific Coast Hwy. Bldg. DIN San Clemente, CA 92672 Robert Henry Salt River Project 6504 East Thomas Road Scottsdale, AZ 85251 Brian Almon Public Utility Commission William B. Travis Building P.O. Box 13326 1701 North Congress Avenue Austin, TX 78701-3326 Lou Trammell, Assistant Director Arizona Division of Emergency Management 5636 East McDowell Road Building 101 Phoenix, AZ 85008-3495 Jeff Griffin, Regional Director Federal Emergency Management Agency Region IX 1111 Broadway, Suite 1200 Oakland, CA 94607-4052 The Honorable Ron Drake Mayor of Avondale 525 North Central Avondale, AZ 85323
Arizona Public Service Company -5-The Honorable Dustin Hull Mayor of Buckeye 100 North Apache Road Buckeye, AZ 85326 The Honorable Robert Robles Mayor of El Mirage P.O. Box 26 El Mirage, AZ 85335 The Honorable Elaine Scruggs Mayor of Glendale 5850 West Glendale Avenue Glendale, AZ 85301 The Honorable Jim Cavanaugh Mayor of Goodyear 119 North Litchfield Road Goodyear, AZ 85338 The Honorable J. Woodfin Thomas Mayor of Litchfield 244 West Wigwam Blvd.
Litchfield Park, AZ 85340 The Honorable John Keegan Mayor of Peoria 8401 West Monroe Street Peoria, AZ 85345 The Honorable Phil Gordon Mayor of Phoenix 200 West Washington Phoenix, AZ 85007 The Honorable Joan Shafer Mayor of Surprise 12425 West Bell Road Surprise, AZ 85374 The Honorable Adolfo Gamez Mayor of Tolleson 9555 West Van Buren Street Tolleson, AZ 85353
Arizona Public Service Company -6-The Honorable Bryan Hackbarth Mayor of Youngtown 12030 Clubhouse Square Youngtown, AZ 85363 Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO)
700 Galleria Parkway SE, Suite 100 Atlanta, GA 30339
Arizona Public Service Company -7-Electronic distribution by RIV:
Regional Administrator (BSM1)
DRP Director (ATH)
DRS Director (DDC)
Senior Resident Inspector (GXW2)
Branch Chief, DRP/D (JAC)
Senior Project Engineer, DRP/D (NLS)
Staff Chief, DRP/TSS (PHH)
RITS Coordinator (NBH)
RidsNrrDipmlipb V. Dricks, PAO (VLD)
W. A Maier, RSLO (WAM)
C. J. Gordon (CJG)
DRS Branch Chiefs (LJS, TWP, ATG, CSM)
W. D. Travers, EDO (WDT)
S. A. Richards, Chief, NRR/DIPM/IIPB (SAR)
R. K. Frahm, PPR Program Manager, NRR/DIPM/IIPB (RKF)
J. W. Craig, Associate Dir. for Inspection and Programs (JWC1)
B. Sheron, Associate Dir. for Project Licensing and Technical Analysis (BWS)
T. A. Bergman Chief, Regional Operations Staff, OEDO (TAB)
H. N. Berkow, NRR Project Director (HNB)
S. Dembek, Chief, Section 2, NRR/DLPM (SXD)
M. Fields, NRR Project Manager (MBF1)
ADAMS: W Yes G No Initials: __ath__
W Publicly Available G Non-Publicly Available G Sensitive W Non-Sensitive S:\DRP\DRPDIR\EOC for 03\Assessment Letters\PV.wpd RIV:AC:DRP/D D:DRS D:DRP For signature JAClark;df DDChamberlain ATHowell JAClark NSalgado for /RA/ /RA/ PHHarrell for 2/24/04 2/26/04 3/2/04 3/2/04 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY T=Telephone E=E-mail F=Fax
Page 1 of 3 Palo Verde 03/02/2004 08:57:24 Inspection / Activity Plan Report 22 03/01/2004 - 10/01/2005 Unit No. of Staff Planned Dates Inspection Number Inspection Activity Title on Site Start End Type PSB-S1 - AA-AC-FFD-PI 2 1, 2, 3 IP 7113001 Access Authorization 03/22/2004 03/26/2004 Baseline Inspections 1, 2, 3 IP 7113002 Access Control 03/22/2004 03/26/2004 Baseline Inspections 1, 2, 3 IP 7113008 Fitness For Duty Program 03/22/2004 03/26/2004 Baseline Inspections 1, 2, 3 IP 71151 Performance Indicator Verification 03/22/2004 03/26/2004 Baseline Inspections TI 150 - TI 150 RPV HEAD AND VESSEL HEAD PENET NO 1 1 IP 2515/150 Reactor Pressure Vessel Head and Vessel Head Penetration Nozzles (NRC Bulletin 2002-0 04/01/2004 06/30/2004 Safety Issues TI 152 - TI 152 RPV LOWER HEAD PENETRATION NOZZLE 1 1 IP 2515/152 Reactor Pressure Vessel Lower Head Penetration Nozzles (NRC Bulletin 2003-02) 04/01/2004 06/30/2004 Safety Issues TI 153 - TI 153 REACTOR CONTAINMENT SUMP BLOCKAGE 1 1 IP 2515/153 Reactor Containment Sump Blockage (NRC Bulletin 2003-01) 04/01/2004 06/30/2004 Safety Issues TI 154 - TI 154 SPENT FUEL MATERIAL CONTROL 1 1, 2, 3 IP 2515/154 Spent Fuel Material Control and Accounting at Nuclear Power Plants 04/01/2004 06/30/2004 Safety Issues EB-08P - ISI UNIT 1 1 1 IP 7111108P Inservice Inspection Activities - PWR 04/12/2004 04/16/2004 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 7111108P Inservice Inspection Activities - PWR 04/19/2004 04/23/2004 Baseline Inspections ACCESSPI - ACRSA/PIV 1 1, 2, 3 IP 7112101 Access Control to Radiologically Significant Areas 04/19/2004 04/23/2004 Baseline Inspections PEB-52 - BIENNIAL PIR 4 1, 2, 3 IP 71152B Identification and Resolution of Problems 05/03/2004 05/07/2004 Baseline Inspections 1, 2, 3 IP 71152B Identification and Resolution of Problems 05/17/2004 05/21/2004 Baseline Inspections EB-21/02 - SSD&PCI AND 50.59 11 1, 2, 3 IP 7111121 Safety System Design and Performance Capability 06/07/2004 06/11/2004 Baseline Inspections 1, 2, 3 IP 7111102 Evaluation of Changes, Tests, or Experiments 06/21/2004 06/25/2004 Baseline Inspections 1, 2, 3 IP 7111121 Safety System Design and Performance Capability 06/21/2004 06/25/2004 Baseline Inspections OB-RQ - OB-REQUALIFICATION 3 1, 2, 3 IP 7111111B Licensed Operator Requalification Program 08/09/2004 08/13/2004 Baseline Inspections PEB-07B - HX & HEAT SINK PERFORMANCE TESTING 1 1, 2, 3 IP 7111107B Heat Sink Performance 08/16/2004 08/20/2004 Baseline Inspections EB-08P - ISI UNIT 3 2 3 IP 7111108P Inservice Inspection Activities - PWR 10/04/2004 10/08/2004 Baseline Inspections 3 IP 7111108P Inservice Inspection Activities - PWR 10/18/2004 10/22/2004 Baseline Inspections TI 152 - TI 152 RPV LOWER HEAD PENETRATION NOZZLE 1 3 IP 2515/152 Reactor Pressure Vessel Lower Head Penetration Nozzles (NRC Bulletin 2003-02) 10/01/2004 12/31/2004 Safety Issues This report does not include INPO and OUTAGE activities.
This report shows only on-site and announced inspection procedures.
Page 2 of 3 Palo Verde 03/02/2004 08:57:24 Inspection / Activity Plan Report 22 03/01/2004 - 10/01/2005 Unit No. of Staff Planned Dates Inspection Number Inspection Activity Title on Site Start End Type TI 153 - TI 153 REACTOR CONTAINMENT SUMP BLOCKAGE 1 3 IP 2515/153 Reactor Containment Sump Blockage (NRC Bulletin 2003-01) 10/01/2004 12/31/2004 Safety Issues ALARA1 - ALARA PLANNING AND CONTROLS 1 1, 2, 3 IP 7112102 ALARA Planning and Controls 11/01/2004 11/05/2004 Baseline Inspections OB-INIT - OB - INITIAL EXAMINATION 3 1 X02273 PALO VERDE UNIT 1 (12/04) INITIAL 11/29/2004 12/03/2004 Not Applicable 2 X02275 PALO VERDE UNIT 2 (12/04) - INITIAL 11/29/2004 12/03/2004 Not Applicable 3 X02276 PALO VERDE UNIT 3 (12/04) - INITIAL 11/29/2004 12/03/2004 Not Applicable 1 X02273 PALO VERDE UNIT 1 (12/04) INITIAL 12/13/2004 12/17/2004 Not Applicable 2 X02275 PALO VERDE UNIT 2 (12/04) - INITIAL 12/13/2004 12/17/2004 Not Applicable 3 X02276 PALO VERDE UNIT 3 (12/04) - INITIAL 12/13/2004 12/17/2004 Not Applicable ALARA2 - ALARA PLANNING AND CONTROLS 1 1, 2, 3 IP 7112102 ALARA Planning and Controls 01/10/2005 01/14/2005 Baseline Inspections RP TEAM - RP PUBLIC DOSE TEAM INSPECTION 4 1, 2, 3 IP 7112103 Radiation Monitoring Instrumentation and Protective Equipment 01/31/2005 02/04/2005 Baseline Inspections 1, 2, 3 IP 7112201 Radioactive Gaseous and Liquid Effluent Treatment and Monitoring Systems 01/31/2005 02/04/2005 Baseline Inspections 1, 2, 3 IP 7112202 Radioactive Material Processing and Transportation 01/31/2005 02/04/2005 Baseline Inspections 1, 2, 3 IP 7112203 Radiological Environmental Monitoring Program 01/31/2005 02/04/2005 Baseline Inspections OB-EP EX - EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS EXERCISE 3 1, 2, 3 IP 7111401 Exercise Evaluation 02/28/2005 03/04/2005 Baseline Inspections 1, 2, 3 IP 7111404 Emergency Action Level and Emergency Plan Changes 02/28/2005 03/04/2005 Baseline Inspections 1, 2, 3 IP 71151 Performance Indicator Verification 02/28/2005 03/04/2005 Baseline Inspections EB17B - PERMANENT PLANT MODS 2 1, 2, 3 IP 7111117B Permanent Plant Modifications 03/07/2005 03/11/2005 Baseline Inspections PEB-12B - MAINTENANCE EFFECTIVENESS 1 1, 2, 3 IP 7111112B Maintenance Effectiveness 03/07/2005 03/11/2005 Baseline Inspections EB08P - ISI U2 1 2 IP 7111108P Inservice Inspection Activities - PWR 03/28/2005 04/01/2005 Baseline Inspections 2 IP 7111108P Inservice Inspection Activities - PWR 04/11/2005 04/15/2005 Baseline Inspections OB-INIT - INITIAL EXAM 3 1 X02282 PALO VERDE UNIT1 (05/05) INITIAL EXAM 07/11/2005 07/15/2005 Not Applicable 2 X02283 PALO VERDE UNIT 2 (11/05) - INITIAL EXAM 07/11/2005 07/15/2005 Not Applicable 3 X02284 PALO VERDE UNIT 3 (11/05) - INITIAL EXAM 07/11/2005 07/15/2005 Not Applicable 1 X02282 PALO VERDE UNIT1 (05/05) INITIAL EXAM 08/01/2005 08/05/2005 Not Applicable This report does not include INPO and OUTAGE activities.
This report shows only on-site and announced inspection procedures.
Page 3 of 3 Palo Verde 03/02/2004 08:57:24 Inspection / Activity Plan Report 22 03/01/2004 - 10/01/2005 Unit No. of Staff Planned Dates Inspection Number Inspection Activity Title on Site Start End Type OB-INIT - INITIAL EXAM 3 2 X02283 PALO VERDE UNIT 2 (11/05) - INITIAL EXAM 08/01/2005 08/05/2005 Not Applicable 3 X02284 PALO VERDE UNIT 3 (11/05) - INITIAL EXAM 08/01/2005 08/05/2005 Not Applicable This report does not include INPO and OUTAGE activities.
This report shows only on-site and announced inspection procedures.