ML022830850
| ML022830850 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Davis Besse  |
| Issue date: | 09/17/2002 |
| From: | NRC/OCM |
| To: | |
| References | |
| Download: ML022830850 (16) | |
Text
1 1
2 3 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION FIRST ENERGY NUCLEAR OPERATING COMPANY 4 PUBLIC MEETING 5
Meeting held on Tuesday, September 17, 2002, at 6 7:00 p.m. at the Oak Harbor High School, Oak Harbor, Ohio, taken by me, Marlene S. Rogers-Lewis, Stenotype 7 Reporter, and Notary Public, in and for the State of Ohio.
8 9
10 PANEL MEMBERS PRESENT:
11 U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 12 John Grobe, Chairman, MC 0350 Panel 13 William Dean, Vice Chairman, MC 0350 Panel 14 Christine Lipa, Branch Chief, Region 3 15 Anthony Mendiola, Section Chief PDIII-2, NRR 16 Christopher (Scott) Thomas, Senior Resident Inspector - Davis-Besse 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MARLENE S. ROGERS-LEWIS & ASSOC. REPORTERS (419) 929-0505 (888) 799-3900
2 1 MR. GROBE: Good evening. My 2 name is Jack Grobe. I work for the Nuclear 3 Regulatory Commission office in Chicago, Illinois.
4 We have responsibility for the nuclear power plants 5 and the safety of the nuclear power plants in the 6 Midwest including, of course, the Davis-Besse 7 facility.
8 Let me start by introducing the NRC staff 9 that are here tonight. On my far left is Scott 10 Thomas. Scott is the Senior Resident Inspector.
11 He is a member of the staff of Region 3 that works at 12 the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant every day, lives 13 in the community.
14 Also is Doug Simpkins -- raise your hand, 15 Doug.
16 MR. SIMPKINS: (Indicating).
17 MR. GROBE: Dougs the Resident 18 Inspector at Davis-Besse. Also works here every day.
19 Next to Scott is Tony Mendiola. Tonys a 20 supervisor in our headquarters offices in Rockville, 21 Maryland. Tony has responsibility for licensing 22 activities associated with Davis-Besse along with a 23 number of other plants.
24 On my immediate left is Bill Dean. Bill is 25 the Deputy Director of the Division of Engineering MARLENE S. ROGERS-LEWIS & ASSOC. REPORTERS (419) 929-0505 (888) 799-3900
3 1 and headquarters. He is also the Vice Chairman of 2 the Davis-Besse oversight panel. Its a panel that 3 the NRC has chartered. Im the chairman of that 4 panel.
5 On my right is Christine Lipa. Christine is 6 a Supervisor in the Region 3 office. She supervises 7 Scott and Doug and has responsibility for two other 8 plants also.
9 In addition to Doug in the audience, we have 10 Jan Strasma. Jan, raise your hand.
11 MR. STRASMA: (Indicating).
12 MR. GROBE: Jan is our Public 13 Affairs Officer in the Region 3 office, and Roland 14 Lickus is State and Govern Affairs officer in the 15 Region 3 office. I think thats all the NRC staff 16 thats here tonight.
17 The purpose of the meeting tonight is to give 18 you a little bit of background on the meeting we had 19 this afternoon, as well as Christine is going to talk 20 a little bit about the meeting we have tomorrow, and 21 then we look forward to questions, any questions that 22 you might have, as well as any comments that you want 23 to provide us. Were here to receive input and to 24 answer your questions. Weve been doing this for a 25 number of months now.
MARLENE S. ROGERS-LEWIS & ASSOC. REPORTERS (419) 929-0505 (888) 799-3900
4 1 Let me first get a -- kind of a lay of the 2 land; is there anybody thats here this evening that 3 has not been to any of the prior meetings that weve 4 had on the Davis-Besse plant?
5 THEREUPON, several members raised their hands 6 indicating first time attendance.
7 MR. GROBE: Excellent, excellent.
8 The -- maybe I should go back since we have about a 9 dozen folks here that havent been here before. Let 10 me talk a little bit about the background of what 11 happened at Davis-Besse and what were all about, and 12 then well get into it. I appreciate you folks 13 coming out.
14 Davis-Besse shut down in the middle of 15 February this year for a routine refueling outage.
16 In addition to the normal refueling activities that 17 occur during those types of outages, they also were 18 implementing some special inspection activities that 19 were issued by the NRC in what we refer to as a 20 Bulletin. Its a document that we send all 21 Licensees and ask them to take certain actions, and 22 the action that we requested was that plants like 23 Davis-Besse, pressurized water reactors, perform an 24 inspection of the reactor head because weve 25 experienced a number of other plants that had some MARLENE S. ROGERS-LEWIS & ASSOC. REPORTERS (419) 929-0505 (888) 799-3900
5 1 leakage through some tubes. They are about four inch 2 diameter pipes that go through the reactor head and 3 those pipes -- theyre referred to as penetrations or 4 nozzles. The purpose is for equipment to go in and 5 out of the reactor head. There is about 69 of these 6 penetrations on top of the reactor. When we refer 7 to the head, its a semi-circular, bolted on top to 8 react to the pressure vessel. The presser vessel is 9 the part of the reactor that holds the nuclear fuel, 10 and thats where heat is generated, and eventually 11 that heat is converted into electricity through a 12 steam -- steam cycle.
13 The Company identified a number of cracks in 14 the penetrations which was not unexpected. Some of 15 those cracks went the whole way through the 16 penetration, and they had leaked out onto the top of 17 the reactor pressure vessel head.
18 In the process of repairing those cracks, the 19 Company identified that there had been a cavity that 20 developed next to one of the penetrations. When I 21 say a cavity, what I mean, it was about four to five 22 inches wide and about six or seven inches long. It 23 was kind of an oblong shaped -- and it went the whole 24 way through the six and a half inches of steel in 25 that area, and what happened is boric acid corroded MARLENE S. ROGERS-LEWIS & ASSOC. REPORTERS (419) 929-0505 (888) 799-3900
6 1 the steel away. Boric acid is an additive to the 2 reactor coolant. Its added to the reactor coolant 3 at very mild levels on the orders of hundreds to a 4 couple of thousands parts per million to control the 5 nuclear reaction, the system controlling the nuclear 6 reaction. The element boron is useful in that 7 regard.
8 When the leakage occurred through the 9 penetration, the cracks in the penetration, the boric 10 acid became more concentrated and corrosive and 11 corroded the steel. The -- the result of the 12 corrosion was that the liner on the inside of the 13 normal steel thats referred to as low alloyed steel, 14 theres a stainless steel liner, and thats the only 15 material that was left that was retaining the reactor 16 pressure, the reactor coolant system pressure.
17 The Agencys response, the NRCs response, to 18 these findings at Davis-Beese were to charter this 19 panel. Its referred to as the -- sometimes youll 20 see it referred to as the 0350 panel or the oversight 21 panel. Its -- 0350 refers to a procedure, an 22 internal procedure we have. Its a procedure number.
23 The purpose of this panel is to provide enhanced 24 oversight by the Agency, by the NRC, to ensure that 25 were doing a good job evaluating Licensees MARLENE S. ROGERS-LEWIS & ASSOC. REPORTERS (419) 929-0505 (888) 799-3900
7 1 performance and making sure that should this plant 2 get to a point where it can restart that weve done 3 our job and provided appropriate inspections and 4 licensing activities.
5 Situations like the situation Davis-Besse 6 finds itself in are fairly complex from our 7 perspective. It requires a lot of unique 8 inspections that are not part of our normal 9 inspection program. It also requires oftentimes 10 unique licensing activities. Currently, the Company 11 has six licensing actions into us for various 12 different issues, and because of the complexity of 13 the project, the Agency puts together a multi-faceted 14 panel with folks from headquarters, as well as the 15 region office or the resident office, and our goal is 16 to coordinate activities to make sure that the Agency 17 does what it needs to do.
18 As I mentioned, Bill Dean is a Senior Manager 19 from our headquarters office. Im the Senior 20 Manager from the region office in Chicago, so it has 21 a high level of management attention both from 22 regional office as well as headquarters.
23 We have been conducting meetings now for 24 several months. Our goal is to make our activities 25 as available to members of the public as possible so MARLENE S. ROGERS-LEWIS & ASSOC. REPORTERS (419) 929-0505 (888) 799-3900
8 1 we conduct the vast majority of our meetings in the 2 public here in the local area. Weve had the need 3 to conduct a couple meetings -- excuse me, either in 4 Chicago or in Washington just because of logistical 5 purposes, but the majority of our meetings will be 6 out here, and well normally be conducting business 7 meetings during the business day, but its my 8 expectation that whenever you come out, well be 9 conducting an evening meeting for those of you that 10 cant make it to a meeting during the business day.
11 Youll have an opportunity to come and ask us 12 questions and provide us input.
13 Any other background information -- oh, thank 14 you.
15 THEREUPON, the panel brought up the issue of 16 the handout.
17 MR. GROBE: When you came in this 18 evening there was a number of handouts out on the 19 table. I hope you had an opportunity to pick them 20 up. One of them is a newsletter we put out on a 21 monthly basis now. Its got six or seven pages.
22 Looks like this. Its called NRC Update --
23 Davis-Besse Reactor Vessel Head Damage, NRC Update.
24 It provides a variety of background information, but 25 also the last two or three pages are activities that MARLENE S. ROGERS-LEWIS & ASSOC. REPORTERS (419) 929-0505 (888) 799-3900
9 1 we currently have undergoing and activities that we 2 expect to be happening in the next six weeks, and it 3 will give you a sense for where we have been, where 4 we are now as an Agency and what to expect in the 5 future.
6 There also is a one page form in the back on 7 the table out front. Its what we refer to as a 8 feedback form. You can fill it out, fold it up, put 9 a staple on it, and drop it in the mailbox, and it 10 will come to us. We would certainly appreciate your 11 feedback on the format of these meetings, the 12 content, what we discussed, suggestions on how we can 13 improve these types of meetings, so if youd take a 14 few minutes, if you can, and fill one of those out, 15 send it back to us.
16 Anything else?
17 (No response).
18 Okay, very good.
19 What Id like to do now is ask Christine to 20 talk about the meeting were having tomorrow morning.
21 Its a little bit different situation. We had a 22 topic we wanted to spend an extended period of time 23 focused on one topic, so we scheduled a separate 24 meeting for that. It is a public meeting, and 25 Christine will talk to you a little bit about that.
MARLENE S. ROGERS-LEWIS & ASSOC. REPORTERS (419) 929-0505 (888) 799-3900
10 1 MR. STRASMA: Jack, you might 2 mention that its also available by telephone.
3 MS. LIPA: Right, right, okay.
4 As Jack mentioned, we have been having these 5 public 0350 panel meetings here every month, and then 6 when we have a special topic that we want to discuss, 7 we try to see if we can fit it in that meeting, if a 8 second meeting is warranted.
9 On August 15th we held a meeting in the 10 Region 3 office where the Licensee came in and 11 presented the results of their root cause of the 12 Management and Human Performance issues that led to 13 the degradation, and following that meeting, they let 14 us know just recently that theyre ready to come in 15 and present to us their corrective action plan for 16 the findings from that root cause, so weve scheduled 17 a meeting for tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m., from 18 nine to noon, and this meeting is actually going to 19 be held at the Davis-Besse administration building, 20 which is the building right there on Route 2. Its 21 pretty obvious what the building is, and youll be 22 able to get in and the auditorium is on the second 23 floor, and it will be obvious. There will be signs, 24 and so were planning to have this meeting tomorrow 25 from nine to noon. It will be a public meeting.
MARLENE S. ROGERS-LEWIS & ASSOC. REPORTERS (419) 929-0505 (888) 799-3900
11 1 It will also be -- phone lines will be available for 2 people who are not able to make the meeting and want 3 to call in and listen in and ask questions at the 4 end.
5 We will also have the Licensees 6 presentation, will be posted to our web page so that 7 people can print it out or follow along during the 8 meeting, and that meeting will also be transcribed 9 just like were have this meeting tonight 10 transcribed. Weve got Marlene down here, and we 11 have our regular business meetings every month 12 transcribed, and then we try to get those on our 13 website within about three weeks. We did get some 14 feedback from our earlier meeting that the 15 transcribed file was too large, so weve broken that 16 up into 50 page segments, and that seems to be easier 17 for users, so thats what I wanted to say about the 18 meeting tomorrow.
19 Another thing, when you came in, there might 20 have been left over handouts from this afternoons 21 meeting so that will give you a sense of what we 22 talked about this afternoon, and then Bill will give 23 us some more details.
24 UNIDENTIFIED: What is the phone 25 number, please?
MARLENE S. ROGERS-LEWIS & ASSOC. REPORTERS (419) 929-0505 (888) 799-3900
12 1 MS. LIPA: The phone number is on 2 the web page. I dont have it with me.
3 MR. GROBE: Jan, do you have it?
4 MR. STRASMA: No, but Ill get it.
5 MR. GROBE: If somebody needs 6 information like the phone number for that meeting 7 tomorrow morning, just let us know what you need, and 8 well get it to you. Thats not a problem at all.
9 The way we set this up is theres a large number of 10 phone lines available, and the sound quality should 11 be good. Im not sure how many we set up, 50 or 12 100, probably, so dont hesitate -- if youre unable 13 to attend the meeting tomorrow, if youre unable to 14 attend the meeting tomorrow, and you want to get on 15 by phone, dont hesitate to call in. If you have 16 access to a computer, the Licensees presentation 17 materials will be on our website.
18 Let me talk a little bit more about our 19 website for those of you that are -- have access to 20 computers. The NRC website is very simply 21 WWW.NRC.GOV, and a home page will come up in the 22 upper right-hand corner, will be a segment that talks 23 about current issues. Theres an indicator, a link 24 as its referred to, for Davis-Besse, and that will 25 take you right to the Davis-Besse website, which is, MARLENE S. ROGERS-LEWIS & ASSOC. REPORTERS (419) 929-0505 (888) 799-3900
13 1 I think, very well organized and has an enormous 2 amount of information on it. Its fairly easy to 3 navigate through, so if youre interested, you can 4 get a large amount of information -- access to a 5 large amount of information through that process, and 6 you can always call us, myself or Roland or Jan, and 7 get questions answered.
8 MS. LIPA: (Indicating).
9 MR. GROBE: Oh, you have the phone 10 number?
11 MS. LIPA: The phone number for 12 tomorrows meeting is 877-601-4713, and then the pass 13 code is Davis-Besse, so thats 877-601-4713, and 14 thats 9:00 a.m. to noon tomorrow.
15 MR. GROBE: Yeah, that phone 16 number is for an MCI operator and just tell her you 17 want Davis-Besse, and shell get you onto the right 18 conference call.
19 Let me talk a little more about the meeting 20 tomorrow because its a very important meeting.
21 There is a number of issues that caused the problems 22 of Davis-Besse. Obviously there is some equipment 23 problems that need to be fixed. The Company is 24 working on finding all those problems and fixing 25 them, but the issues at Davis-Besse werent caused by MARLENE S. ROGERS-LEWIS & ASSOC. REPORTERS (419) 929-0505 (888) 799-3900
14 1 equipment. They were caused by organizational 2 problems, management problems, organizational process 3 problems, and, quite frankly, problems with the 4 workers.
5 The Davis-Besse organization didnt do what 6 it needed to do. There were plenty of indicators 7 that there was a problem going on at the plant.
8 Their response to those indicators was insufficient.
9 We conducted what we refer to as an augmented 10 inspection team. Its an event response type 11 inspection right after this issue was identified, and 12 we just completed a follow-up to that inspection 13 which will document all of the deficiencies that were 14 identified in April right after the event occurred, 15 but last August, August 15th, the Company presented 16 to us what they believe are the organizational 17 problems that contributed to the event at 18 Davis-Besse, and the meeting tomorrow, the Licensee, 19 FirstEnergy is going to present to us what they 20 believe are the corrective actions that will fix 21 those organizational problems.
22 The key to fixing the issues at Davis-Besse 23 is not fixing hardware. Its fixing the 24 organizational problems that occurred, so tomorrow 25 mornings meeting is very important to us in fixing MARLENE S. ROGERS-LEWIS & ASSOC. REPORTERS (419) 929-0505 (888) 799-3900
15 1 these issues that resulted in low quality standards 2 and, quote, communications in the organization that 3 allowed an issue to go on for years where there were 4 clearly indicators that something was going wrong.
5 Those issues are the most important ones to fix, and 6 thats what I refer to as the root cause.
7 As Christine mentioned, the meeting is at the 8 Davis-Besse administration building. Just pull up 9 and park. There is only o