ML030620772

2003 Annual Assessment Letter - Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station

ML030620772
Person / Time
Site:	Hope Creek
Issue date:	03/03/2003
From:	Meyer G Reactor Projects Branch 3
To:	Kaiser H Public Service Enterprise Group
References
IR-03-001
Download: ML030620772 (6)

Text

March 3, 2003 Mr. Harold W. Keiser Chief Nuclear Officer and President PSEG LLC - N09 P. O. Box 236 Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038

SUBJECT:

ANNUAL ASSESSMENT LETTER - HOPE CREEK NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION (Report 50-354/2003-001)

Dear Mr. Keiser:

On February 6, 2003, the NRC staff completed its end-of-cycle plant performance assessment of Hope Creek. The end-of-cycle review for Hope Creek 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, Hope Creek operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety and met all cornerstone objectives. Plant performance for the most recent quarter and during the previous three quarters 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). Therefore, we plan to conduct only baseline inspections at your facility through March 31, 2004.

Additionally, the staff has identified a substantive cross-cutting issue in the area of problem identification and resolution (PI&R), particularly regarding ineffective problem evaluations and untimely, ineffective corrective actions. Numerous inspection findings documented shortcomings within the problem identification and resolution area, and these shortcomings enabled problems to recur and longstanding problems to go uncorrected. The most noteworthy examples included an inservice test failure of a standby liquid control (SLC) pump in October 2002, which represented a repetition of a similar test failure of the other SLC pump in March 2002, and a February 2002 incident on the standby service water (SW) pump, which represented a recurrence of a similar February 2001 standby SW pump event. Further, there were multiple occasions in which problems were not promptly identified.

Mr. Harold W. Keiser 2 We also note that the same overall corrective action program is concurrently implemented at both Hope Creek and Salem, and that both stations have experienced an adverse PI&R trend. This appears to indicate that program improvements to address these trends will need to be broadly based and site-wide to improve PI&R performance at Hope Creek, as well as at Salem Units 1 and

2. We plan to closely monitor your performance in the PI&R area.

The enclosed inspection plan details the inspections scheduled through March 31, 2004. 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 on-site. 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 me at 610-337-5211 with any questions you may have regarding this letter or the inspection plan.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Glenn Meyer, Chief Projects Branch 3 Division of Reactor Projects Docket No. 50-354 License No. NPF-57

Enclosure:

Hope Creek Inspection/ Activity Plan

Mr. Harold W. Keiser 3 cc w/encl:

M. Friedlander, Director - Business Support J. Carlin, Vice President - Engineering D. Garchow, Vice President - Projects and Licensing G. Salamon, Manager - Licensing T. O'Connor, Vice-President - Operations R. Kankus, Joint Owner Affairs J. J. Keenan, Esquire Consumer Advocate, Office of Consumer Advocate F. Pompper, Chief of Police and Emergency Management Coordinator M. Wetterhahn, Esquire N. Cohen, Coordinator - Unplug Salem Campaign E. Gbur, Coordinator - Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch E. Zobian, Coordinator - Jersey Shore Anti Nuclear Alliance State of New Jersey State of Delaware

Mr. Harold W. Keiser 4 Distribution w/encl:

Region I Docket Room (with concurrences)

J. Schoppy - NRC Resident Inspector H. Miller, RA J. Wiggins, DRA G. Meyer, DRP S. Barber, DRP DRS Director, Region I J. Furia, DRS G. Smith, DRS N. McNamara, DRS B. Platchek, DRP T. McGinty, OEDO J. Clifford, NRR G. Wunder, PM, NRR R. Fretz, Backup PM, NRR RidsNrrDipmIipb Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO)

DOCUMENT NAME: G:\BRANCH3\ROP3 EOC Information\HC ROP-3 EOC Letter.wpd After declaring this document An Official Agency Record it will be released to the Public.

To receive a copy of this document, indicate in the box: "C" = Copy without attachment/enclosure "E" = Copy with attachment/enclosure "N" = No copy OFFICE R1/DRP R1/DRP R1/DRP R1/DRP NAME SBarber /GSB/ JSchoppy /GSB for/ GMeyer /GWM/ ABlough /ARB/

DATE 02/28/03 02/28/03 02/28/03 02/28/03 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY

Page 1 of 2 Hope Creek 02/25/2003 10:47:01 Inspection / Activity Plan Report 22 12/29/2002 - 03/27/2004 Unit No. of Staff Planned Dates Inspection Number Inspection Activity Title on Site Start End Type 71121 - OCC RAD SAFETY 1 1 IP 7112101 Access Control to Radiologically Significant Areas 01/06/2003 01/10/2003 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 7112102 ALARA Planning and Controls 01/06/2003 01/10/2003 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 7112103 Radiation Monitoring Instrumentation and Protective Equipment 01/06/2003 01/10/2003 Baseline Inspections 7111117B - MODS 3 1 IP 7111102 Evaluation of Changes, Tests, or Experiments 01/13/2003 01/17/2003 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 7111117B Permanent Plant Modifications 01/13/2003 01/17/2003 Baseline Inspections 3/17 EXM - OPERATOR LICENSING LSRO INTIAL EXAMS 3 1 U01494 HOPE CREEK LSRO INITIAL EXAM (3/17/03) 02/02/2003 02/07/2003 Not Applicable 1 U01494 HOPE CREEK LSRO INITIAL EXAM (3/17/03) 03/17/2003 03/21/2003 Not Applicable 7112203 - PUB RAD SAFETY - REMP 1 1 IP 7112203 Radiological Environmental Monitoring Program 02/10/2003 02/14/2003 Baseline Inspections 7111111B - L.O. REQUALIFICAITON PROGRAM (LSRO) 2 1 IP 7111111B Licensed Operator Requalification 02/03/2003 02/06/2003 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 7111111B Licensed Operator Requalification 11/11/2003 11/13/2003 Baseline Inspections 7111108 - INSERVICE INSPECTION 1 1 IP 7111108G Inservice Inspection Activities - BWR 04/21/2003 04/25/2003 Baseline Inspections 71121 - OCC RAD SAFETY 1 1 IP 7112101 Access Control to Radiologically Significant Areas 04/21/2003 04/25/2003 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 7112102 ALARA Planning and Controls 04/21/2003 04/25/2003 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 7112103 Radiation Monitoring Instrumentation and Protective Equipment 04/21/2003 04/25/2003 Baseline Inspections 6/16 EXM - OPERATOR LICENSING INITIAL EXAMS 4 1 U01499 HOPE CREEK INITIAL EXAM (6/17/03) 05/19/2003 05/23/2003 Not Applicable 1 U01499 HOPE CREEK INITIAL EXAM (6/17/03) 06/16/2003 06/20/2003 Not Applicable 71121 - OCC RAD SAFETY 1 1 IP 7112101 Access Control to Radiologically Significant Areas 08/18/2003 08/22/2003 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 7112102 ALARA Planning and Controls 08/18/2003 08/22/2003 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 7112103 Radiation Monitoring Instrumentation and Protective Equipment 08/18/2003 08/22/2003 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 71151 Performance Indicator Verification 08/18/2003 08/22/2003 Baseline Inspections 7113003 - RESPONSE TO CONTINGENCIES 2 1 IP 7113003 Response to Contingency Events (Protective Strategy and Implementation of Protective Strategy) 09/08/2003 09/12/2003 Baseline Inspections 71152B - PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION AND RESOLUTION 4 1 IP 71152B Identification and Resolution of Problems 11/17/2003 11/21/2003 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 71152B Identification and Resolution of Problems 12/08/2003 12/12/2003 Baseline Inspections This report does not include INPO and OUTAGE activities.

This report shows only on-site and announced inspection procedures.

Page 2 of 2 Hope Creek 02/25/2003 10:47:01 Inspection / Activity Plan Report 22 12/29/2002 - 03/27/2004 Unit No. of Staff Planned Dates Inspection Number Inspection Activity Title on Site Start End Type 7111111B - L.O. REQUALIFICATION PROGRAM 1 1 IP 7111111B Licensed Operator Requalification 11/11/2003 11/12/2003 Baseline Inspections 7112201 - PUB RAD SAFETY - RETS 1 1 IP 7112201 Radioactive Gaseous and Liquid Effluent Treatment and Monitoring Systems 11/17/2003 11/21/2003 Baseline Inspections 71114 - EP PROGRAM INSP & PI VERIFICATION 1 1 IP 7111402 Alert and Notification System Testing 12/07/2003 12/11/2003 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 7111403 Emergency Response Organization Augmentation Testing 12/07/2003 12/11/2003 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 7111404 Emergency Action Level and Emergency Plan Changes 12/07/2003 12/11/2003 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 7111405 Correction of Emergency Preparedness Weaknesses and Deficiencies 12/07/2003 12/11/2003 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 71151 Performance Indicator Verification 12/07/2003 12/11/2003 Baseline Inspections 71122.02 - RADWASTE 1 1 IP 7112202 Radioactive Material Processing and Transportation 12/15/2003 12/19/2003 Baseline Inspections 7111112B - MAINTENANCE RULE 1 1 IP 7111112B Maintenance Effectiveness 01/12/2004 01/16/2004 Baseline Inspections 71121 - OCC RAD SAFETY 1 1 IP 7112101 Access Control to Radiologically Significant Areas 02/23/2004 02/27/2004 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 7112102 ALARA Planning and Controls 02/23/2004 02/27/2004 Baseline Inspections 1 IP 7112103 Radiation Monitoring Instrumentation and Protective Equipment 02/23/2004 02/27/2004 Baseline Inspections 7111107B - HEAT SINK 1 1 IP 7111107B Heat Sink Performance 03/01/2004 03/05/2004 Baseline Inspections This report does not include INPO and OUTAGE activities.

This report shows only on-site and announced inspection procedures.