ML17059B402
| ML17059B402 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Nine Mile Point  |
| Issue date: | 01/16/1997 |
| From: | Cooper R NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I) |
| To: | Sylvia B NIAGARA MOHAWK POWER CORP. |
| Shared Package | |
| ML17059B403 | List: |
| References | |
| EA-96-474, EA-96-541, GL-88-01, GL-88-1, NUDOCS 9701240133 | |
| Download: ML17059B402 (8) | |
See also: IR 05000220/1996013
Text
January
16,
1997
Mr. B. Ralph Sylvia
Executive Vice President Generation
Business
Group and Chief Nuclear Officer
Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation
Nuclear Learning Center
450 Lake Road
Oswego, New York 13126
SUBJECT:
NRC INSPECTION REPORT NOS. 50-220/96-13 AND 50-410/96-13
Dear Mr. Sylvia:
This report transmits the findings of safety inspections conducted
by NRC inspectors at the
Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, Units
1 and 2, from October 20 through November 30,
1996. At the conclusion of the inspection, the findings were discussed
with Messrs.
R.
Abbott, Vice President and General Manager - Nuclear; M. M'Cormick, Vice President-
Nuclear Engineering;
C, Terry, Vice President - Nuclear Safety Assessment
and Support;
and other members of your staff.
Based on the results of this inspection, the NRC has determined that a violation of NRC
requirements
occurred.
The violation is cited in the enclosed
Notice of Violation (Notice),
and the circumstances
surrounding the violation are described
in the enclosed report.
Specifically, the violation involved several examples of welds at both units that were not
inspected at the frequency required by Generic Letter 88-01 and the NMPC inservice
inspection program.
You are required to respond to this letter and should follow the instructions specified in the
enclosed
Notice when preparing your response.
The NRC will use your response,
in part,
to determine whether further enforcement action is necessary to ensure compliance with
regulatory requirements.
In addition, apparent violations were identified and are being considered for escalated
enforcement action in accordance
with the "General Statement of Policy and Procedure for
NRC Enforcement Actions" (Enforcement Policy), NUREG-1600.
The apparent violations
were identified based on our review of two events.
The first was the Unit 1 reactor vessel
overfill event on November 5, 1996, where it appears that weaknesses
with your
corrective action program and its implementation contributed to the event,
Specifically, we
noted that (1) a leaking feedwater flow control valve contributed to the high reactor vessel
water level and that you were aware of leaking flow control valves in July 1996, but did
not investigate the extent of the problem, (2) your staff identified in 1992 that the wide
range level instrument read lower than expected during power operation, but the condition
970i240i33 970iih
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Mr. B. Ralph Sylvia
was not dispositioned
in a timely manner and the operations staff, which relied upon the
instrument during the event, was not aware of the discrepancy,
and (3) the Unit 1 scram
procedure
did not provide sufficient direction to the operators to prevent a reactor overfill,
despite the fact that an appropriate procedure was developed for Unit 2 following an
overfill event in January 1988.
We also note that poor communications within your
organization appear to have contributed to the operators
being unaware of the discrepancy
with the reactor vessel level instrument.
Furthermore, we noted that your
organizations'esponse
to and evaluation of the event were weak in that it was only after the resident
inspectors questioned
the validity of the wide range level instrument reading and requested
a computation for density compensation
of the reading that you determined that water had
entered the main steam lines.
The second event was your discovery of foreign material in the Unit 2 suppression
pool
and downcomers during the 1996 refueling outage.
We'concluded that the Unit 2
suppression
pool was not adequately
cleaned during the refueling outage
in Spring 1995.
It appears weaknesses
in your corrective action pr'ogram also contributed to this event,
Specifically, we noted that your staff documented
that the debris removed in the 1995
refueling outage entered the suppression
pool via the downcomers,
but failed to inspect
the downcomers.
Also, it appears that your procedure for inspecting the drywell to ensure
no loose material existed was not properly implemented
in that you failed to identify caps
on seven downcomers that were apparently left in place since initial startup.
Accordingly, no Notice of Violation is presently being issued for these inspection findings.
In addition, please
be advised that the number and characterization of apparent violations
described
in the enclosed inspection report may change
as a result of further NRC review.
A predecisional
enforcement conference will be arranged to discuss the apparent
violations.
The decision to hold a predecisional enforcement conference
does not mean
that the NRC has determined that a violation has occurred or that enforcement action will
be taken.
This conference
is being held to obtain information to enable the NRC to make
an enforcement decision, such as a common understanding
of the facts, root causes,
missed opportunities to identify the apparent violation sooner, corrective actions,
significance of the issues and the need for lasting and effective corrective action.
In
addition, this is an opportunity for you to point out any errors in our inspection report and
for you to provide any information concerning your perspectives
on 1) the severity of the
violations, 2) the application of the factors that the NRC considers when it determines the
amount of a civil penalty that may be assessed
in accordance
with Section VI.B.2 of the
Enforcement Policy, and 3) any other application of the Enforcement Policy to this case,
including the exercise of discretion in accordance
with Section Vll.
You will be advised by separate
correspondence
of the results of our deliberations on this
matter.
No response
regarding the apparent violations is required at this time.
s
Mr. B. Ralph Sylvia
3
In accordance
with 10 CFR 2.790 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice,"
a copy'of this letter
and its enclosures,
and your response
will be placed in the NRC Public Document Room.
Sincerely,
Original Signed
by:
Richard W. Cooper, Director
Division of Reactor Projects
Docket Nos.
License Nos.
50-220, 50-410
Enclosures:
1.
2.
NRC Inspection Report Nos. 50-220/96-13 and 50-410/96-13
cc w/enclosures:
R. Abbott, Vice President & General Manager -.Nuclear
C. Terry, Vice President- Safety Assessment
and Support
M. McCormick, Vice President - Nuclear Engineering
N. Rademacher,
Unit 1 Plant Manager
J. Conway, Unit 2 Plant Manager
D. Wolniak, Manager, Licensing
J. Warden, New York Consumer Protection Branch
G. Wilson, Senior Attorney
M. Wetterhahn, Winston and Strawn
J. Rettberg, New York State Electric and Gas Corporation
Director, Electric Division, Department of Public Service, State of New York
C. Donaldson,
Esquire, Assistant Attorney General, New York Department of Law
J. Vinquist, MATS, Inc.
P. Eddy, Power Division, Department of Public Service, State of New York
F. Valentino, President,
New York State Energy Research
and Development Authority
J. Spath, Program Director, New York State Energy Research
and Development Authority
c
f
0
Mr. B. Ralph Sylvia
Distribution w/encls:
D. Screnci, PAO (1)
Region
I Docket Room (with concurrences)
Nuclear Safety Information Center (NSIC)
PUBLIC
NRC Resident Inspector
R. Zimmerman, ADPR, NRR
J. Goldberg, OGC
J. Lieberman, OE (2)
D. Holody, Rl
R. Correia, NRR
R. Frahm, Jr., NRR
L. Cunningham,
D. Barss, NRR
R. Gallo, NRR (Section E8.5)
L. Doerflein, DRP
T. Moslak, DRP
R. Junod,
Distribution w/encls:
(VIAE-MAIL)
W. Dean OEDO
B. Norris - Nine Mile Point
S. Bajwa, NRR
D. Hood, NRR
K. Cotton', NRR
M. Campion, Rl
Inspection Program Branch (IPAS)
DOCUMENT NAME: G:iBRANCH1iNMIR9613.BSN
To cecalve e copy of this docwnent, Indicate In the box:
C
~ Copy wlthotn ettschment/endoswe
E
~ Copy with ett
ent/endosure
N
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OFFICE
RI/DRP
RI/DRP
RI/DRP
NAME
BNorris
LDoerflein
RCooper
DATE
1/I" /97
1A /97
1/ /97
OFFICIAL RECORD COPY