ML071340138

Summary of Oyster Creek Issues & Concerns Raised to Bill Levis, Sr. VP, Mid-Atlantic Rog

ML071340138
Person / Time
Site:	Oyster Creek
Issue date:	05/27/2003
From:	NRC Region 1
To:	Levis B AmerGen Energy Co, Exelon Corp
References
FOIA/PA-2007-0175
Download: ML071340138 (2)

Text

Summary of Oyster Creek Issues & Concerns Raised to Bill Levis, Sr. VP, Mid-Atlantic ROG On May 27, 2003, Hub made a call to Bill Levis of Exelon/AmerGen to discuss the following recent issues at Oyster Creek:

1) Safety-Related / Key NSR Cable Issues The recent cable failure and resulting safety-related 4160 V bus loss on 5/20 raised renewed concerns with the adequacy of the Oyster Creek cable monitoring program.

This clearly remains an important issue for the site; Oyster Creek is an industry outlier when it comes to cable failures. It is disconcerting that, notwithstanding the importance of the issue, the plant failed to accurately reflect cable configuration in the design basis.

This cable failure, and identification of a second cable misclassification on another key non-safety-related (NSR) electrical bus, called into question previous equipment walkdowns. The NRC will continue to follow AmerGen's efforts in this area.

2) Equipment Reliability The plant shutdown revealed continued problems with equipment/material condition -

examples included the startup transformer cooling fans which failed to transfer power supplies, RWCU problems during shutdown, and oscillations with the C Recirc pump during power operations and the 5/20 plant shutdown. Some of these issues were known before the event (e.g., the C recirc pump) and were being addressed, but some were not. This indicates the need for Oyster Creek to continue equipment improvement efforts.

3) Operator Response During the 5/20 Plant Shutdown - Generally good overall

4) Security Equipment Concerns were raised with the magnitude of the security equipment losses following the 5/20 electrical bus loss. AmerGen appears to have adequately implemented compensatory measures in a timely manner. However, many other sites have backed up their security equipment with additional UPS sets to prevent such long-term, widespread losses.

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5) Potential Economic Impacts The security and equipment problems noted above and instances where outage scopes have been reduced (e.g., elimination of some cable replacement work in the last outage) raised some questions about potential economic pressure (real or perceived) on plant staff.

6) Thoroughness of Evaluations Concern was expressed that the NRC may have had to push on several issues this past week (i.e., cable extent of condition verification & cable failure location) to ensure that AmerGen staff did not default to the first quick answer, but rather were thorough and deliberate.

7) Occupational Safety NRC inspectors performing strike watch coverage observed at least three cases of poor industrial/occupational safety practices during high voltage testing of new and failed 4160 V cable, possibly due to the use of outside individuals that are not experienced with Oyster Creek safety procedures. These events were particularly important given the current strike situation. The NRC recognized that plant management is talking to the staff about safety precautions. These recent events underscored the need for continued vigilance in this area. These examples of "near misses" are precursors that can be used to make the issue real for the Oyster Creek staff.

Summary Mr. Levis was informed that the NRC will continue to closely follow events at Oyster Creek.

Region I will attempt to schedule a management site visit sometime in the next several months.

File - G:\Branch7\Oyster Creek\5-27 call with AmerGen.wpd