ML062540425

Performance at Salem & Hope Creek in Last Quarter

ML062540425
Person / Time
Site:	Salem, Hope Creek
Issue date:	11/14/2003
From:	Meyer G NRC Region 1
To:
References
FOIA/PA-2005-0194
Download: ML062540425 (2)

Text

Performance at Salem & Hope Creek in Last Quarter I

Performance and changes at Salem and Hope Creek within the last quarter can be categorized into Continued Evidence of Poor Performance and Reasons for Hope, as follows:

Continued Evidence of Poor Performance:

Plant Events & Equipment Reliability - The pace of unplanned plant level events has been significant. While no PIs have exceeded thresholds and all PIs remain green, the following events have occurred:

• July 29 - Salem Unit 1 load reject due to output breaker fault; Unusual Event

• *Sept 19 - Hope Creek scram & Salem shutdowns due to switchyard salting

• Oct 3 - Hope Creek manual scram due to significant EHC leak

• Oct'15 - Salem Unit 1 shutdown'due to jammed feed reg valve Both Hope Creek events were either caused or complicated by BOP equipment problems. Additionally, operator response in both instances was challenged by two

.longstanding workarounds in the BOP. (Only one workaround had been previously identified by PSEG.)

White Finding on EDG Turbocharger Remains - The supplemental inspection of the EDG turbocharger failure determined that.the corrective actions in place did not provide a sufficient basis to close the White finding. Therefore, the finding which would have ceased to exist in the first quarter of 2004 will continue in the Action Matrix into 2004.

Nonetheless, PSEG has committed considerable resources to establishing a clear root cause.

Salem Special Inspection - The special inspection of the July 29 load reject concluded that PSEG's understanding of the event had been slow and not thorough. They determined that two violations existed for inadequate corrective actions (manual control of circ water breaker Was insufficient) and inadequate design control (weak 1992 mod did not evaluate worst case).

SCWE Allegation - The evaluations and interviews associated with an allegation have provided insights into the,state of the working environment at Salem and Hope Creek.

The evaluations and interviews are proceeding, and conclusions remain to be drawn. It is worth noting that the new managers have not been implicated thus far, and several of the involved managers are no longer at the site.

Information in this record was deleted in accordance with the Freedom of Infortation Act, exemptions

I Reasons for Hope

Management to ~ -.i .! management

. ...Additions - 0Signficant the.. ari a .. . ."ad . ....In additi .

di.. itions have occurred.

the -andl[*has arrived as

{' lerly, there is hope t t these* managers will enable improvement in site performance. Nonetheless, these changes will need time to demonstrate any overall performance improvement, and there is currently no evidence that the changes have had any significant effect. There is evidence that upper management has gotten NRC's message that performance needs to be improved.

Salem Unit 2 Outage - The outage begun October 9 is nearing its end. Thus.far, the outage .has been generally uneventful; there have been no NRC notifications, inadvertent actuations or operational events. Further, the unexpected ISI results, e.g.,

steam generator 23 tube indications and SG 24 foreign material, have been addressed properly. Working level problems regarding work control and maintenance have occurred.

Working Relationship Between NRC and PSEG - At the inspector level there'are indications that communications between NRC and PSEG remain awkward

• (misstatements,'slow, etc). Nonetheless, the new PSEG management appears to have heard the message on general communications and cooperation on PRA / SDP, and to be interested in improving these areas. Some initial steps have been taken, but it is too early to measure any real progress. Further, upper manageme A -

IN-M have sought opportunities to discuss PSEG performance assessments with regional management. These efforts appear.to have enabled better understanding of performance issues but also somewhat suggest a PSEG management effort to put some of their actions in a better light.

Glenn Meyer Nov. 14, 2003 G:\Br.3\Assessment -S&HC\Q3 Assessment Deltas.wpd