ML17229A324
| ML17229A324 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Saint Lucie  |
| Issue date: | 05/05/1997 |
| From: | NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION II) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML17229A323 | List: |
| References | |
| 50-335-97-99, 50-389-97-99, NUDOCS 9705130114 | |
| Download: ML17229A324 (7) | |
See also: IR 05000335/1997099
Text
SYSTEMATIC ASSESSMENT
OF LICENSEE PERFORMANCE
ST.
LUCIE NUCLEAR PLANT
50-335/97-99
AND 50-389/97-99
BACKGROUND
The SALP board convened
on April 9,
199?, to assess
the nuclear safety
performance of the St. Lucie Nuclear. Plant for the period January
?,
1996, through March 29,'99?.
The board was conducted in accordance
with Management Directive 8.6,
"Systematic
Assessment
of Licensee
Performance."
Board Members were J.
R. Johnson
(Board Chairperson),
Director, Division of Reactor Projects;
D.
M. Collins, Acting Deputy
Director, Division of Reactor Safety;
and F. J.
Hebdon, Director,
Project Directorate II-3, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
This
Assessment
was reviewed
and approved
by the Regional Administrator.
PLANT OPERATIONS
This functional area
addresses
the control
and execution of activities
directly related to operating the facility. It includes activities such
as plant startup,
power operation,
plant shutdown,
and response to
It also includes initial and requalification training
programs for licensed operators.
Overall performance in the operations
area during the assessment
period
was considered
good.
Management oversight
was evident in day-to-day
plant operations
as well as daily plant status
and scheduling meetings.
The plant was operated
competently with few reactor trips,
none of which
were the result of operator error s.
Control
room conduct
and
'rofessionalism
were good.
Control
room communications
were clear
and
well executed
and comprehensive pre-activity briefings were conducted
during this assessment
period.
Operators'erformance
during plant shutdowns,
startups,
and transients
continued to be
a strength.
Operators
demonstrated
conservative
decision making and focused
on safety.
Plant startup
and shutdown
activities were well planned
and properly executed,
including activities
associated
with reduced inventory and fuel handling.
Operators
were properly trained
and qualified.
The requalification
program was adequate
but some weaknesses
existed.
The use of Real
Time
Training Coaches
indicated innovative and proactive Training Department
involvement. in plant activities.
Operators generally conducted routine plant activities in accordance
with management
expectations
and procedural
requirements.
Operator
attention to detai
1 has
shown
some improvement during the assessment
period.
Plant operations
continued to experience
challenges
in
9705f30ff4 970505
ADQCK 05000335
8
VllP
procedural
adequacy
throughout the assessment
period.
Weaknesses
were
identified in control
room command
and control early in the assessment
pel
1 od.
Deficiencies were noted in the effectiveness
of plant
operators'dentification
of configuration errors.
For examples,
walkdowns of the
units'nstrument air systems'ontainment
spray systems
and post
accident
sampling systems
resulted in the identification of a number of
procedural
inadequacies.
design drawing inaccuracies,
and hardware
deficiencies.
Management
was generally effective in controlling the use of, licensed
and non-licensed
operator
overtime.
However, the routine heavy use of
licensed
operator
overtime to support
normal plant operations
indicated
that maintaining
an adequate
number of licensed reactor operators
remains
a challenge.
Company Nuclear
Review Board activities to review proposed
license
amendments,
due to higher than expected
rates of Unit I steam generator
tube plugging, were found to be probing and competent.
Facility Review
Group activities were thorough
and appropriately
focused
on safety.
Quality assurance
activities associated
with operations
were generally
effective in identifying areas for improvements.
A broad self-
assessment
of the overall site performance at the St. Lucie Nuclear
Plant was comprehensive.
Implementation of plant management initiatives
to address
each of the fundamental
weaknesses
identified in the
assessment
was considered
necessary
to sustain
improvements.
The Plant Operations
area is rated Category 2.
MAINTENANCE
This functional area
addresses
activities associated
with diagnostic,
predictive, preventive
and corrective maintenance of plant structures,
systems
and components.
It also includes all surveillance testing, in-
service inspection
and tests
and other tests
associated
with equipment
and system operability.
Maintenance activities were generally conducted well with some
improvement noted during this assessment
period.
The Maintenance
Department
was reorganized into functional units with rotating shift
supervisors to improve performance.
There was generally
good planning
and attention to detail in the performance of mechanical
and electrical
maintenance.
Where used.
predictive maintenance
was effective in
improving equipment
performance.
The in-service inspection activities
were well planned,
appropriately
performed
and well managed.
In-service
testing
and surveillance activities were well coordinated
and
effectively implemented.
Management efforts toward upgrading procedures
and training personnel
to
use them were not completely successful,
particularly in Instrumentation
and Control
(IKC) .activities.
Licensee eff'orts to correct instances
of
inadequate
maintenance
work instructions in use at work sites
were more
effective toward the end of the period.
Planning
and management
control were deficient when the responsibilities
for calibration of the Unit
1 radiation monitoring systems
were
transferred
from the Chemistry Department to the
I8C Department before
the
I&C technicians
were qualified to perform those calibration
activities.
Subsequent
calibrations of plant radiation monitoring
equipment were not adequate.
Reductions
in operator
work arounds,
overdue preventive maintenances,
and maintenance
non-outage
work orders
demonstrated
improved
effectiveness
in the overall maintenance
program.
Plant material
condition was
good and improved during the
SALP period.
Nevertheless,
there continued to be challenges
in equipment
performance,
for the most
part in balance-of-plant
equipment,
that impacted plant reliability and
challenged plant operation.
Progress
made during the last
SALP period
in operation of the Post Accident Sampling System
(PASS) did not
continue this period.
The
PASS system
was not well maintained.
A self-assessment
of the Maintenance
Rule implementation
conducted prior
to rule implementation identified program areas
needing additional
attention.
A followup audit found good corrective actions
and
identified specific areas
needing further corrective action.
Late in
the period, the licensee
established
a program of quarterly self-
assessments
by each functional group in the Maintenance
Department
and
an annual
self-assessment
as
a whole.
The Maintenance
area is rated Category 2.
ENGINEERING
This functional
area
assesses
activities associated
with the design of
plant modifications,
and engineering
support for operations,
maintenance,
surveillance,
and licensing activities.
Overall performance in the engineering
area declined from its previous
superior level to an overall rating of good.
Engineering provided good
support for plant operations
and continued superior performance in the
area of licensing activities.
However.
weaknesses
were noted in the
preparation of modification packages,
in the quality verification and
validation of'omputer software,
and in the identification and
correction of'ong-standing
design control deficiencies.
Reduction in the number of operator work-arounds
was aggressively
pursued
and the backlog of plant changes
and modifications decreased
during the period.
No plant transients
attributable to engineering
occurred during the assessment
period.
The In-service Inspection
Program
was well planned,
well managed,
and effective in identifying and
correcting material
problems prior to impacting plant operations.
Problems related to modification planning
and design control persisted
during this period.
A number of problems related to the preparation of
design
changes,
independent verification, and post-modification testing
were identified associated
with a modification to the nuclear
instrumentation
system.
Failure to ensure that the computer
software
for the Digital Data Processing
System
was updated correctly resulted in
operation in slightly excess of maximum rated thermal
power for an
extended
period of time.
Although improvements
were noted toward the
end of the assessment
period, identification of problems in these
areas
indicated the need f'r continuing management
attention.
Recent
expansion of the System Engineer
program was viewed as
a
significant potential
improvement to the engineering
program.
However,
many of the System
Engineers
were still new to thei r positions
and
required further training and development.
Licensing submittals
were timely and well prepared.
Host submittals
were found acceptable
by the staff with no need for additional
information.
Requests
were submitted well in advance of when needed.
allowing ample time f'r staff'eview.
The licensee's
responses
to
NRC
requests
have
been timely and thorough.
Of particular note, the
NRC
staff recently reviewed the licensee's
actions related to Thermo-Lag
modifications
and concluded the plans were reasonable.
The Engineering
area is rated Category 2.
PLANT SUPPORT
This functional area
addresses
all activities related to the plant
support function, including radiological controls,
radioactive
effluents,
chemistry.
emergency
preparedness,
security, fire protection,
and housekeeping.
Implementation of the radiation protection program was good.
Strong
upper
management
support for maintaining radiation worker doses
As Low
As Reasonably
Achievable resulted in individual line management
accountability
and good control of individual and collective doses..
Efforts to correct contamination control problems were not fully
effective.
Radiological
worker practices
were inconsistent.
Audits and corrective actions for radiological control programs
were
generally thorough with appropriate corrective actions,
but the
threshold for identifying findings was high in review of the Process
Control
Programs
and Offsite Dose Calculational
Manual.
The threshold
was appropriately adjusted.
Corrective actions to assure that sampling
procedures
were properly implemented were not fully effective; repeated
procedural
non-compliances
resulted in inoperability of the Unit
1
containment radiation monitor on three occasions.
Training of Health Physics
personnel
was effective.
The radiological
effluent control
and monitoring program implementation
was good.
Water
chemistry was well controlled.
Efforts to reduce the large inventory of
contaminated
material
and solid radioactive waste
on site were very
effective.
The radioactive material
shipment
program was effective.
There was
a significant decline in the Radiological
Emergency
Preparedness
(REP) program early in the period.
Indicators of the
decline were identified to licensee
management,
but timely corrective
actions were not taken.
Corrective actions to audit findings were not
timely.
This indicated that management
oversight of and priority to the
emergency
preparedness
program were inadequate
early in the period.
The
REP program implementation
began to show improvement at the end of the
assessment
period.
The emergency
plan was
implemented effectively during several
actual
Unusual
Events.
An exercise early in the period also demonstrated
that
the onsite
emergency
plan could be effectively implemented.
Two
practice drills were requi red before this exercise for licensee
management to be satisfied with performance.
This was
an indication of
problems with the effectiveness
of training.
The program to assure that
all individuals assigned
emergency
response
f'unctions were properly
trained
was not fully effective.
The primary and backup methods for augmentation of onsite staff for
emergency
response
were not effective until corrective actions
were
taken late in the period.
0
The security program was generally effective, but there were problems
with access
control.
Training and qualification continued to be
a
strength.
Security equipment
and facilities were well maintained
and
compensatory
measures
were generally good.
Control of personnel
access
was weak.
Badges of terminated
employees
were not promptly .cancelled.
The licensee's
Access Authorization Program
was satisfactory.
The
licensee identified errors in implementation of the Fitness-for -Duty
Program
and took appropriate corrective actions.
Overall, the licensee's
response
to potential
and actual
tampering
events
was satisfactory,
but initially did not include evaluation of'he
full extent of condition.
Appropriate preventive
and corrective actions
were taken.
Fire prevention/protection
procedure quality was generally
good and
implementation
was effective.
Training of fire brigade personnel
was
good;
however,
personnel
with expi red medical certification were
assigned to the brigade.
Fire protection equipment maintenance
and
operability were overall effective; however,
several fire protection
features
were modified without adequate
evaluation.
Plant housekeeping
was very good, with significant improvement toward the end of the
assessment
period.
Licensee
management
supported
extensive efforts to
reduce stored
radwaste,
reducing the volume substantially.
Very few
plant system leaks were observed
and,
when identified, were promptly
repaired.
The Plant Support
area is rated Category 2.