ML17187A694
| ML17187A694 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Dresden  |
| Issue date: | 12/24/1996 |
| From: | Taylor J NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO) |
| To: | Oconnor J COMMONWEALTH EDISON CO. |
| Shared Package | |
| ML17187A695 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 9612270052 | |
| Download: ML17187A694 (7) | |
See also: IR 05000237/1996201
Text
UNITED STATES
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
WASHINGTu"!, D.C. 20555--0001
December 24, 1996
Mr. James J. O'Connor
_
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Commonwealth Edison Company
Post Office Box 767
Chicago, Illinois 60690
SUBJECT:
INDEPENDENT SAFETY INSPECTION OF DRESDEN NUCLEAR POWER STATION
(NRC INSPECTION REPORT 50-237/96-201; 50-249/96-201)
Dear Mr. O'Connor:
I .am forwarding the report on the Dresden Nuclear Power Station by the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Independent Safety Inspection (ISi)
team.
The purposes of the ISi were:
to evaluate the effectiveness of your
corrective action programs; to provide an independent assessment of
conformance with the design and licensing bases; to evaluate the conduct and
effectiveness of maintenance activities, including work processes,
post-maintenance testing, and implementation of maintenance rule activities;
and to provide an independent assessment of operational safety performance.
The ISi team was large and multi-disciplined in order to provide a thorough,
in-depth review.
The team, which consisted of 21 members, was managed by a
senior NRC manager and included an observer from the state of Illinois.
During the two onsite inspection periods, team members also conducted
interviews at Commonwealth Edison's (ComEd's) corporate offices in Downers
Grove and Chicago.
To ensure an independent perspective, the NRC members were
selected from NRC offices other than Region III. Additionally, only persons
. with no significant prior responsibility for regulating ComEd facilities were
chosen, and the team manager reported to me.
The ISi was conducted in response to the NRC's concern about the long history
of poor performance*at Dresden Station. Dresden Station was first placed 6fi
the NRC Watch List as a Category 2 plant in 1987.
Improved performance
resulted in the site being removed from the Watch List in December 1988.
Performance subsequently declined and in January 1992, Dresden Station was
again placed on the NRC Watch List.
For the past several years, safety
performance has been cyclic with identified weaknesses in plant material
condition, procedure quality and adherence, engineering and licensing support,
work performance, communications, execution of management expectations, and
supervision and control of work activities.
Improvements have been made in all the areas that were inspected.
The rate of
improvement has been incremental and has varied significantly among Dresden
Station organizations.
Safety performance has significantly improved in plant
operations while the level of improvement in engineering has not yet resulted
in fully effective problem identification and resolution as evidenced by the
failure to identify significant weaknesses in-design control and maintenance
of design basis calculations, and the failure to resolve a number of long-
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Mr. James J. O,Connor
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standing problems affecting safety-systems.
The results of improvement
initiatives in radiological protection, maintenance, testing, and self-
assessment were mixed.
Notwithstanding these improvements, the ISi identified signific~nt weaknesses
in the areas of radiation protection, maintenance and testing, engineering,
and in the implementation of the corrective action program.
A number of
significant deficiencies were identified during the inspection. Deficiencies
are apparent failures to comply with a regulatory requirement or apparent
failures to satisfy a written commitment that is not legally binding. A
summary of these deficiencies is provided in Appendix F of the enclosed
report, and many of them appear to be related to two root causes:
until
recently, corporate and site managers were not fully focused on correcting
organizational, programmatic, pro~ess and material condition problems that
have been evident for a number of years; and corporate oversight of and
involvement with contractor engineering services firms were not sufficient to
ensure the appropriate control and maintenance of design basis calculations.
Corrective actions to resolve the lack of control and maintenance of design
basis calculations are only now being implemented after the problem was
brought to the attention of Dresden Station senior managers by the ISI.
Because of the significance of the engineering and design basis issues, ComEd,
in a letter dated November 8, 1996, committed to a number of actions to
provide further confidence in the adequacy of the design basis and engineering
activities at Dresden Station. The short-term actions were confirmed by an
NRC Confirmatory Action Letter, dated November 21~ 1996 .
. The ISI also identified that significant challenges to continued improvement
exist. First, the level of emergent work continues to hamper the ability to
perform planned work consistently, which is preventing the reduction of the
corrective maintenance backlog to.the desired level and is unnecessarily
challenging plant safety systems and plant operators.
Second, corrective
actions that have been implemented for programmatic and hardware problems have
not been effective in a number of areas, resulting in repetitive problems.
Finally, the full implications of the lack of design control and maintenance
of design basis calculations have not yet been determined, pending ComEd's
continuing reviews in this area.
The results of the ISI were presented during an exit meeting, open to public
observation, on December 12, 1996, at Dresden Station.
I request that
following the review of this report, you determine the additional actions
needed to ensure the long-term resolution of the deficiencies identified.
NRC
Region III will be responsible for followup of the issues identified during
the inspection, including the assessment of corrective .actions and the
determination of any enforcement action that is deemed appropriate.
.:.,
Mr. James J. O'Connor
- 3 -
In accordance with 10 CFR 2.790(a}, a copy of this letter and the enclosure
will be placed in the NRC Public Document Room.
Should you have any questions
concerning this inspection, I would be pleased to discuss them with you.
Dockets:
50-237; 50-249
Enclosure:
NRC Inspection Report
50-237/96-201; 50-249/96-201
w/Appendices
cc w/enclosure:
See next page
Sincerely,
~M~
~ecutive Director for Operations
..
.
Mr. James J. O'Connor
cc w/enclosure:
D. A. Sager, Vice President,
Generation Support
Commonwealth Edison Company
Executive Towers West III
1400 Opus Place, Suite 300
Downers Grove, IL
60515
H. W. Keiser, Chief Nuclear
Operations Officer
Commonwealth Edison Company
1400 Opus Place
Downers Grove, IL
60515
T. Nauman, Station Manager, Unit l
Dresden Nuclear Power Station
6500 North Dresden Road
Morris, IL 60450
- 4 -
M. Heffley, Station Manager, Units 2 and 3
Dresden Nuclear Power Station
6500 North Dresden Road
Morris, IL
60450
F. Spangenberg, Regulatory Assurance
Manager
Regulatory Assurance Supervisor
Dresden Nuclear Power Station
6500 North Dresden Road
Morris, IL
60450
D. Farrar, Nuclear Regulatory
Services Manager
Commonwealth Edison Company
Executive Towers West III
1400 Opus Place, Suite 300
Downers Grove, IL
60515
Richard Hubbard
MHB Technical Associates
1723 Hamilton Avenue
Suite K
San Jose, CA
95125
Nathan Schloss, Economist
Office of the Attorney General
Public Utilities Division
100 West Randolph, 12th Floor
Chicago, IL
60601
Mr. James J. O'Connor
cc w/enclosure: (Continued)
State Liaison Officer
State of Illinois
1035 Outer Park Drive
Springfield, IL
62704
- 5 -
Chairman, Illinois Commerce Commission
Public Utility Commission
527 East Capitol Avenue
Springfield, IL
62706
Document Control Desk-Licensing
Commonwealth Edison Company
1400 Opus Place, Suite 400
Downers Grove, IL
60515
.:.
Mr. James J. O'Connor
- 3 -
In accordance with 10 CFR 2.790(a), a copy of this letter and the enclosure
will be placed in the NRC PubTiC Document Room.
Should you have any questions
concerning this inspection, I would be pleased to discuss them with you.
- since re 1 y, ~ ~*"'!') r.'"'n~,. .. ~,
W*l~*U9.l i.>I~' ., *.** .. I J
James M. T~
M. Taylar'
Executive Director for Operations
-Dockets:
50-237; 50-249
Enclosure:
NRC Inspection Report
50-237/96-201; 50-249/96-201
w/Appendices
cc w/enclosure:
See next page
E-Mail report to NRR Event Tracking System {IPAS)
E-Mail report to R. Correia {RPC)
bee w/Enclosure:
Chairman Jackson
Commissioner Rogers
Commissioner Dicus
Commissioner McGaffigan
Commissioner Diaz
Public
JTaylor, EDO, 0-17G21
HThompson, EDO, 0-17G21
BMcCabe, EDO, 0-17G21
FCongel, AEOD, T-4D28
EJordan, AEOD, T-4D18
AThadani, NRR, 0-12G18
RGallo, NRR, 0-9A 1
WOlmstead, OGC, 0-15818
Jlieberman, OE, 0-7H5
GCaputo, 01, 0-2G5
HMiller, RI
SEbneter, Rll
PHiland, Riii
JLynch, Riii
LCallan, RIV
WJones, RIV
Dresden File, RIV
CVanderniet, SRI, Dresden
DCD/CentralFiles
JMilhoan, EDO, 0-17G21
VMcCree, EDO, 0-17G21
EDO R/F, 0-17G21
SRubin, AEOD, T-4D28
FMiraglia, NRR, 0-12G18
RZimmerman, NRR, 0-12G1
FGillespie, NRR, 0-12G1 8
RBangart, OSP, 0-3D23
WBeecher, OPA, 0-2G5
HBell, OIG, 0-3E4
Jlinville, RI
ABeach, Riii
JHopkins, Riii
PAO Riii (2)
JPellet, RIV
HWong, RIV
ISi Team Members
LTremper, OC/LFDCB, T-9E10
DOCUMENT NAME: P:\\DRESDEN\\FINAL\\96201.FNL
OPS:LEADER
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E-Mail report to NRR Event Tracking System (IPAS)
E-Mail report to R. Correia (RPC)
bee w/Enclosure:
Chairman Jackson
Commissioner Rogers
Commissioner Dicus
Commissioner McGaffigan
Commissioner Diaz
Public
JTaylor, EDO, 0-17G21
HThompson, EDO, 0-17G21
BMcCabe, EDO, 0-17G21
FCongel, AEOD, T-4D28
EJordan, AEOD, T-4D18
AThadani, NRR, 0-12G 18
RGallo, NRR, 0-9A1
WOlmstead, OGC, 0-15818
Jlieberman, OE, 0-7H5
GCaputo, 01, 0-2G5
HMiller, RI
SEbneter, Rll
PHiland, Riii
JLynch, Riii
LCallan, RIV
WJones, RIV
Dresden File, RIV
CVanderniet, SRI, Dresden
DCD/CentralFiles
JMilhoan, EDO, 0-17G21
VMcCree, EDO, 0-17G21
EDO R/F, 0-17G21
SRubin, AEOD, T-4028
FMiraglia, NRR, 0-12G 18
RZimmerman, NRR, 0-12G1
FGillespie, NRR, 0-12G 18
RBangart, OSP, 0-3D23
WBeecher, OPA, 0-2G5
HBell, OIG, 0-3E4
Jlinville, RI
ABeach, Riii
JHopkins, Riii
PAO Riii (2)
JPellet, RIV
HWong, RIV
ISi Team Members
LTremper, OC/LFDCB, T-9E10
DOCUMENT NAME: P:\\DRESDEN\\FINAL\\96201.FNL
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ENG:LEADER
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