ML14013A260
| ML14013A260 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | San Onofre  |
| Issue date: | 09/23/2013 |
| From: | Bauder D Southern California Edison Co |
| To: | Document Control Desk, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| References | |
| EA 10-191 | |
| Download: ML14013A260 (7) | |
Text
Douglas R. Bauder ISOUTHERN EDISON' CALIFORNIA An EDISON INTERNATIONAL& Company Site Vice President & Station Manager San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station September 23, 2013 ATTN: Document Control Desk U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C. 20555-0001
Subject:
San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, Units 2 and 3 Docket Nos. 50-361, 50-362 Reply to a Notice of Violation: EA 10-191, Revision I
References:
- 1. Letter, Mr. Neil O'Keefe (NRC) to Mr. James J. Sheppard (SCE), San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station - NRC Triennial Fire Protection Inspection Report 05000361/2010007 and 05000362/2010007 and Notice of Violation, dated September 30, 2010
- 2. Letter, Mr. Douglas Bauder (SCE) to NRC Document Control Desk, Reply to a Notice of Violation: EA 10-191, dated October 29, 2010
Dear Sir or Madam:
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) letter (Reference 1) dated September 30, 2010 transmitted NRC Inspection Report No. 05000361/2010007 and 05000362/2010007 to Southern California Edison (SCE). The inspection report provided the results of the NRC Triennial Fire Protection Inspection at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) Units 2 and 3 that was completed on August 16, 2010. The September 30, 2010 letter also transmitted a Notice of Violation (EA 10-191). SCE provided a response to the Notice of Violation, which was detailed in Reference 2.
Because of SONGS transition to permanent shutdown and defueled status, the enclosure to this letter provides an updated response to the Notice of Violation EA 10-191.
This letter and enclosure do not contain any commitments.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or Mr. R. J. St. Onge at (949) 368-6240.
Sincerely, P.O. Box 128 San Clemente, CA 92672 (949) 368-9275 PAX 89275 Fax: (949) 368-9881 Doug. Bauder@sce.com
Document Control Desk September 23, 2013
Enclosure:
As stated cc: S. A. Reynolds, Regional Administrator (Acting), NRC Region IV G. G. Warnick, NRC Senior Resident Inspector, San Onofre Units 2 and 3 B. Benney, NRC Project Manager, San Onofre Units 2 and 3 R. Hall, NRC Project Manager, San Onofre Units 2 and 3
RESPONSE TO NOTICE OF VIOLATION: EA 10-191, Revision 1 Docket Nos. 50-361, 50-362 RESTATEMENT OF THE VIOLATION The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Notice of Violation (NOV) states 1 :
License Condition 2.C(14), "Fire Protection," for Units 2 and 3, requires that the licensee shall implement and maintain in effect all provisions of the approved fire protection program as described in the Updated Fire Hazards Analysis through Revision 3 and as approved in the NRC staff's Safety Evaluation Report dated February 1981. The Updated Fire Hazards Analysis through Revision 3 specifies, in part, that fire protection features are provided consistent with the fire hazards analysis for each fire area/zone and the functional requirements necessary to achieve safe shutdown. Methods for assuring that necessary structures, systems and components are free of fire damage are provided.
Deviations from the requirements of 10 CFR 50, Appendix R, Section III.G were identified along with the basis for acceptability as providing an equivalent level of protection. For nonalternative shutdown areas other than Fire Area 2-AC-50-29, the fire protection program required compliance with the requirements of 10 CFR 50, Appendix R, Section III.G.1 or III.G.2, unless deviations were specifically requested and approved.
Contrary to License Condition 2.C(14), since initial licensing of Unit 2 on February 16, 1982, the licensee failed to implement and maintain in effect all provisions of the approved fire protection program as described in the Updated Fire Hazards Analysis through Revision 3. Specifically, the licensee failed to ensure that one train of equipment necessary to achieve and maintain hot shutdown conditions from would remain free of fire damage. The licensee relied upon local manual actions to mitigate the effects of potential fire damage rather than provide the physical separation or protection required in the approved fire protection program.
On July 24, 2007, the NRC documented that this noncompliance was identified in Inspection Report 05000361/2007008 and 05000362/2007008. The NRC exercised discretion not to cite this violation at that time because the licensee met the criteria described in Enforcement Guidance Memorandum (EGM) 98 002, Revision 2, and Supplement 2 to that revision. EGM 07-004, issued on June 30, 2007, superseded EGM 98-002 and required licensees to initiate corrective actions and implement compensatory measure for noncompliances related to post-fire operator manual actions, excluding those for multiple-spurious actuations, by September 6, 2007, and to complete corrective actions by March 6, 2009. This violation is being cited due to the failure to complete corrective actions and restore compliance within the required time.
1 In addition to the referenced License Condition, License Condition 2.C(12) is applicable to Unit 3 Page 1 of 5
II. BACKGROUND During the 2007 Triennial Fire Protection Inspection, the NRC identified a Violation at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) for failing to comply with the approved Fire Protection Program, including implementation of License Condition 2.C(14), "Fire Protection" (Reference 1). In some instances, Southern California Edison (SCE) utilized operator manual actions (OMAs) not previously approved by the NRC instead of meeting the required separation criteria to ensure safe shutdown equipment would remain free of fire damage. The NRC granted SCE enforcement discretion in accordance with Enforcement Guidance Memorandum (EGM) 98-002, Revision 2, Supplement 2, for some OMAs that had not been previously addressed in an NRC Safety Evaluation Report (SER). The NRC granted this enforcement discretion because SCE had entered the noncompliance into the Corrective Action Program (CAP) in 2007, and appropriate compensatory measures were implemented.
Enforcement discretion under EGM-98-002 (as superseded by EGM-07-004) expired in March 2009, and SCE had not resolved the noncompliances. SCE believed that its March 2008 letter of intent to transition to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 805, "Performance-Based Standard for Fire Protection for Light Water Reactor Electric Generating Plants" (Reference 2), was an appropriate CAP response and provided continued enforcement discretion for the OMAs not previously approved by the NRC. The NRC Interim Enforcement Policy Regarding Enforcement Discretion for Certain Fire Protection Issues (10 CFR 50.48) stated that enforcement discretion for existing identified noncompliances only applied if the licensee submitted the letter of intent for transition to NFPA 805 by December 31, 2005. SCE submitted its letter of intent on March 28, 2008.
Following discussions with the NRC during preparation for the 2010 NRC Triennial Fire Protection Inspection, SCE determined that the assumption that enforcement discretion applied during the NFPA 805 transition period for all OMAs was incorrect. SCE entered the failure to identify the expiration of enforcement discretion into the CAP in May 2010.
The NRC conducted a Triennial Fire Protection Inspection at SONGS from June 14, 2010 through July 2, 2010, and exited the inspection on August 16, 2010.
The inspection included NRC follow-up on the findings from the 2007 Triennial Fire Protection Inspection and in particular, the implementation status of compensatory and corrective actions that formed the basis for granting enforcement discretion in accordance with EGM-98-002. The inspectors identified that the enforcement discretion period for addressing OMAs not previously approved by the NRC had expired in March 2009 without SCE completing the required corrective actions to resolve the noncompliances.
On September 30, 2010, the NRC issued its inspection report for the 2010 Triennial Fire Protection Inspection (Reference 3). Since compliance was not restored before lapse of enforcement discretion, the NRC issued Notice of Violation EA 10-191 as part of the inspection report.
SCE did not contest the violation or the NRC's determination of its significance and, in a letter dated October 29, 2010, provided a response to the NOV (Reference 4). In this response, SCE confirmed that the OMAs would remain implemented until SONGS Page 2 of 5
transitioned to and implemented NFPA 805. In March 2013 SCE submitted License Amendment Requests 262 and 248 to revise the Fire Protection Licensing Basis to NFPA 805 (Reference 5). SCE's application to transition to NFPA 805 is currently under NRC review and SONGS has not yet transitioned to NFPA 805.
Due to the permanent shutdown of SONGS Units 2 and 3, SCE no longer has a need to transition to NFPA 805 and intends to withdraw the associated License Amendment Request. Because SONGS Units 2 and 3 are permanently defueled, SCE has reviewed the existing fire protection program to determine if compliance with all requirements can be achieved without reliance on the unapproved OMAs. Following permanent shutdown, those systems that were credited to achieve and maintain safe shutdown are no longer required. SCE has evaluated the OMAs implemented as compensatory measures and determined that they do not support spent fuel management and are no longer needed to comply with Unit 2 License Condition 2.C(14) and Unit 3 License Condition 2.C(12).
Ill. REASON FOR THE VIOLATION As described in the Background section, SCE utilized some OMAs not previously approved by the NRC instead of meeting the required separation criteria to ensure safe shutdown equipment would remain free of fire damage. The NRC granted enforcement discretion in 2007 based on SCE having entered the noncompliance into the CAP and taken appropriate compensatory measures. However, the enforcement discretion expired in March 2009 without SCE having resolved the noncompliances, and SCE did not determine until May 2010 that the enforcement discretion had expired.
Because resolution of the noncompliances has been an integral part of the plan to transition to NFPA 805, the timing of that transition contributed to the continued existence of the violation.
IV. CORRECTIVE STEPS THAT HAVE BEEN TAKEN AND THE RESULTS ACHIEVED SCE has implemented adequate compensatory measures to protect public health and safety while it was planning to transition to NFPA 805. Regulatory Issue Summary 2005-07 allows use of OMAs as alternate compensatory measures until compliance is restored. Additionally, NRC Inspection Procedure 71111.05TTP states, "the staff concluded that for the transition period [to NFPA 805], compensatory measures in the form of manual actions would be acceptable if the manual actions are feasible and reliable based on the criteria provided [in the Inspection Procedure]."
The SONGS evaluations that reviewed the feasibility of the SONGS post-fire safe shutdown compensatory measures are controlled in accordance with the SONGS Configuration Management Program. Prior to the 2007 Triennial Fire Protection Inspection, SCE performed a focused review of these documents and assessed a risk-based selection of OMAs to verify that interim actions were consistent with Regulatory Issue Summary 2005-07 and NRC Inspection Procedure 71111.05T. In fact, the NRC concluded in the Inspection Report for the 2007 Triennial Fire Protection Inspection that
"[t]he manual actions, though unapproved, were reviewed by the team and determined Page 3 of 5
to be reasonable and feasible in accordance with guidance in Inspection Procedure 71111.05T."
Prior to the 2010 inspection, SCE initiated assessments to re-verify the adequacy of the OMAs. Following identification of the misunderstanding regarding the duration of enforcement discretion for the OMAs not previously approved by the NRC that were identified by the NRC in 2010, SCE expanded the assessment and re-verified that the time-critical post fire OMAs are feasible and reliable, as confirmation of the adequacy of ongoing compensatory actions. In the Inspection Report for the 2010 Triennial Fire Protection Inspection, the NRC found that "the finding was determined to have very low risk significance... because of a combination of the availability of long recovery times for feasible operator manual actions and low-probability fire damage scenarios" for the identified OMAs (Reference 3).
As discussed in the Background section, SCE has determined that the OMAs are no longer needed to comply with the license conditions because of the permanent shutdown of SONGS Units 2 and 3.
V. CORRECTIVE STEPS THAT WILL BE TAKEN The final corrective action to resolve the OMAs not previously approved by the NRC was for SONGS to transition to and implement NFPA 805. As noted above, SONGS has transitioned to a permanent defueled status and SCE intends to withdraw its License Amendment Request to transition to NFPA 805.
SCE will continue to maintain a robust fire protection program that does not rely on unapproved OMAs to ensure the safety of SONGS Units 2 and 3 spent fuel.
VI. DATE WHEN FULL COMPLIANCE WILL BE ACHIEVED SCE achieved full compliance on June 12, 2013 when SCE submitted to the NRC a certification of permanent cessation of power operations (Reference 6).
VII. REFERENCES
- 1. Letter, Ms. Linda Smith (NRC) to Mr. Richard Rosenblum (SCE), San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Units 2 and 3 - NRC Triennial Fire Protection Inspection Report 05000361/2007008 and 05000362/2007008, dated July 24, 2007.
- 2. Letter, Mr. Ross Ridenoure (SCE) to NRC Document Control Desk, Letter of Intent to Adopt NFPA 805, Performance-Based Standard for Fire Protection for Light Water Reactor Electric Generating Plants, 2001 Edition, dated March 28, 2008.
Page 4 of 5
- 3. Letter, Mr. Neil O'Keefe (NRC) to Mr. James Sheppard (SCE), San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station - NRC Triennial Fire Protection Inspection Report 05000361/2010007 and 05000362/2010007 and Notice of Violation, dated September 30, 2010.
- 4. Letter, Mr. Douglas Bauder (SCE) to NRC Document Control Desk, Reply to a Notice of Violation: EA 10-191, dated October 29, 2010.
- 5. Letter, Mr. Douglas Bauder (SCE) to NRC Document Control Desk, License Amendment Requests 262 and 248, to Revise the Fire Protection Licensing Basis to NFPA 805 per 10 CFR 50.48(c), dated March 27, 2013.
- 6. Letter, Mr. Peter Dietrich (SCE) to NRC Document Control Desk, Certification of Permanent Cessation of Power Operations, dated June 12, 2013.
VIII. LIST OF REGULATORY COMMITMENTS No new regulatory commitments are contained in this revised NOV response.
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