ML092450747
| ML092450747 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Davis Besse  |
| Issue date: | 09/10/2009 |
| From: | Satorius M Region 3 Administrator |
| To: | Allen B FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co |
| References | |
| EA-03-214 | |
| Download: ML092450747 (9) | |
Text
UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION REGION III 2443 WARRENVILLE ROAD, SUITE 210 LISLE, IL 60532-4352 September 10, 2009 EA 03-214 Mr. Barry Allen Site Vice President FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station 5501 North State Route 2, Mail Stop A-DB-3080 Oak Harbor, OH 43449-9760
SUBJECT:
COMPLETION OF REQUIREMENTS OF 2004 CONFIRMATORY ORDER MODIFYING LICENSE
Dear Mr. Allen:
This letter is in response to your May 12, 2009, letter, informing the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) had completed all actions required by the March 8, 2004, Confirmatory Order Modifying License (Order) issued to the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station. The Order was a condition of the NRCs approval for the restart of Davis-Besse stemming from the identification of significant reactor pressure vessel head degradation in 2002. The NRC had issued a Confirmatory Action Letter to Davis-Besse confirming the Licensees agreement that NRC approval was required for restart.
An effective licensee self-assessment process is a key element in preventing the recurrence of safety-significant events, such as the reactor pressure vessel head degradation. Given the magnitude, scope, and duration of problems identified during the extended outage at Davis-Besse, and, during the same time frame, that Davis-Besses internal self-assessments had not been fully effective, additional assurance regarding the effectiveness of the self-assessment program was essential in allowing Davis-Besse to restart. To that end, the Order required FENOC to:
- 1.
Contract with independent outside organizations to conduct comprehensive assessments of the Davis-Besse operations performance; organizational safety culture (SC), including safety-conscious work environment (SCWE); the corrective action program implementation; and the engineering program effectiveness.
- a.
Ninety days prior to each assessment, FENOC was to inform the Regional Administrator of Region III of the identity of its outside assessment organizations, and the scope and depth of the assessment plans;
- b.
The outside independent assessments were to be completed before the fourth calendar quarter of 2004 and annually thereafter for five years; and
B. Allen
- c.
Within 45 days of completion of the assessments, the licensee was to submit all assessment results and any action plans necessary to address areas for improvement raised by the assessments.
- 2.
Conduct a visual examination of the reactor pressure vessel upper head bare metal surface, including the head-to-penetration interfaces; the reactor pressure vessel lower head bare metal surface, including the head-to-penetration interfaces; and the control rod drive mechanism flanges during the Cycle 14 midcycle outage.
Beginning in 2004 and continuing into 2009, the NRC monitored, through our inspection program, FENOCs implementation of the Order requirements. Our inspections included reviews of each independent assessments plan, including the independence of the outside organization; observation, where reasonable, of the independent teams in-process activities; and a review of each assessments results and FENOCs action plans to address areas identified as needing improvement. In addition, during the first three years of the Order-required assessments, the NRC conducted independent assessments of Davis-Besses organizational SC/SCWE. The additional NRC assessments were conducted to validate the inputs FENOC and its independent teams were using to assess the SC/SCWE area. Further, these additional inspections allowed the NRC to more effectively assess the effectiveness of FENOCs actions to address areas for improvement in the SC/SCWE area. The NRC documented the results of its monitoring activities in publicly available inspection reports identified in Enclosure 1 to this letter. identifies the Report Number and Report Section in which our reviews and observations for each of FENOCs independent assessments are documented. Enclosure 2 identifies the ADAMS ML Number for each report.
With regard to the Order required visual examinations during the Cycle 14 midcycle outage, NRC inspectors observed portions of those examinations during the January 2005 outage. The results of those observations were documented in NRC Inspection Report 050000346/2005003, Sections 4OA5.2 through.4.
In the final independent assessments, i.e., those conducted in 2008, each independent team concluded that Davis-Besses performance in its area of review continued to be adequate and effective to support continued safe facility operation. The NRC has also concluded, as noted in our most recent End-of-Cycle report (ML090630180), that Davis-Besses performance continues to be adequate to support safe facility operations. Further, the NRC has concluded that Davis-Besses performance has improved over the past five years, based on trending the results from the independent assessments, the results from our special oversight inspection activities, and the results from our Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) Base Line inspections completed.
As noted previously, the Order required that FENOC contract for independent comprehensive assessments for a fixed period of time. Independent NRC inspections between 2004 and 2009 have confirmed that each of the required assessments was completed. In addition, the inspections verified that the Order required milestones for each assessment regarding the identity of the assessment organizations, the scope and depth of the assessment plans, the assessment results, and action plans necessary to address issues raised by the assessments, were completed as required. In-process assessment observations by NRC inspectors confirmed that the assessment teams activities were of sufficient scope and depth. It should be
B. Allen noted that the visual examinations described in Section 2 of the Order were required to be performed only once.
In summary, based on our review of the Order requirements and the results of our inspections conducted between the second calendar quarter of 2004 and the first calendar quarter of 2009, we conclude that FENOC has met all of the requirements contained in the March 8, 2004, Confirmatory Order Modifying License issued to the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station.
No additional independent assessments are required by this Order.
In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 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 NRCs document system (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Website at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room).
Sincerely,
/RA/
Mark A. Satorius Regional Administrator Docket No. 50-346;72-014 License No. NPF-3
Enclosures:
As stated DISTRIBUTION:
See next page
Letter to B. Allen from M. Satorius dated September 10, 2009
SUBJECT:
COMPLETION OF REQUIREMENTS OF 2004 CONFIRMATORY ORDER MODIFYING LICENSE cc w/encl:
The Honorable Dennis Kucinich J. Hagan, President and Chief Nuclear Officer - FENOC J. Lash, Senior Vice President of Operations and Chief Operating Officer - FENOC Manager - Site Regulatory Compliance - FENOC D. Pace, Senior Vice President of Fleet Engineering - FENOC K. Fili, Vice President, Fleet Oversight - FENOC P. Harden, Vice President, Nuclear Support D. Jenkins, Attorney, FirstEnergy Corp.
Director, Fleet Regulatory Affairs - FENOC Manager - Fleet Licensing - FENOC C. OClaire, State Liaison Officer, Ohio Emergency Management Agency R. Owen, Administrator, Ohio Department of Health Public Utilities Commission of Ohio President, Lucas County Board of Commissioners President, Ottawa County Board of Commissioners
B. Allen noted that the visual examinations described in Section 2 of the Order were required to be performed only once.
In summary, based on our review of the Order requirements and the results of our inspections conducted between the second calendar quarter of 2004 and the first calendar quarter of 2009, we conclude that FENOC has met all of the requirements contained in the March 8, 2004, Confirmatory Order Modifying License issued to the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station.
No additional independent assessments are required by this Order.
In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 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 NRCs document system (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Website at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room).
Sincerely,
/RA/
Mark A. Satorius Regional Administrator Docket No. 50-346;72-014 License No. NPF-3
Enclosures:
As stated DISTRIBUTION:
See next page DOCUMENT NAME: G:\\1-Secy\\1-Work In Progress\\Davis-Besse Order Completion Letter.doc Publicly Available Non-Publicly Available Sensitive Non-Sensitive To receive a copy of this document, indicate in the concurrence box "C" = Copy without attach/encl "E" =
Copy with attach/encl "N" = No copy OFFICE RIII RIII RIII OE NAME JCameron:cms KOBrien KSWest NHIlton for CCarpenter DATE 08/06/09 08/10/09 08/13/09 08/10/09 - per email OFFICE NRR RIII RIII RIII NAME FBrown MSatorius DATE 08/10/09 - per email 09/10/09 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY
Letter to B. Allen from M. Satorius dated September 10, 2009
SUBJECT:
COMPLETION OF REQUIREMENTS OF 2004 CONFIRMATORY ORDER MODIFYING LICENSE DISTRIBUTION:
RidsNrrDorlLpl3-2 Resource Susan Bagley RidsNrrPMDavisBesse Resource RidsNrrDirsIrib Resource Cynthia Pederson Kenneth OBrien Steven Orth Jared Heck Allan Barker Jeannie Choe Linda Linn DRPIII DRSIII Patricia Buckley Tammy Tomczak ROPreports Resource Bill Borchardt Bruce Mallett Cynthia Carpenter Nick Hilton Ross Moore Marvin Itzkowitz Catherine Marco Eric Leeds Bruce Boger Daniel Holody Carolyn Evans William Jones Mary Ann Ashley Holly Harrington Hubert Bell Guy Caputo Mona Williams James Lynch Viktoria Mitlyng Prema Chandrathil Paul Pelke Patricia Lougheed OEMAIL Resource
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