ML17296A253
| ML17296A253 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Palo Verde  |
| Issue date: | 11/24/1978 |
| From: | Engelken R NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION V) |
| To: | Vanbrunt E ARIZONA PUBLIC SERVICE CO. (FORMERLY ARIZONA NUCLEAR |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7811300076 | |
| Download: ML17296A253 (26) | |
Text
6p,II II66p W~*yW UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION REGION V SUITE 202, WALNUTCREEK PLAZA I 950 N. CALIFORNIABOULEVARD WALNUT CREEK, CALIFORNIA 54596 November 24, 1978
'ocket Nos.
50-528 50-529/'0 50-530~
Arizona Public Service Company P. 0.
Box 21666 Phoenix, Arizona 83036 Attention:
Mr. E.
E.
Van Brunt, Jr.
Vice President, Construction Projects Gentlemen:
Enclosed is a supplement (IE Bulletin No.78-12A) to IE Bulletin No. 78-12 which requires action by you with regard to your power reactor facility(ies) with an operating license or a construction permit.
Should you have any questions regarding this Bulletin or the actions required by you, please contact this office.
Sincerely, R.
H. Engelken Director
Enclosures:
l.
IE Bulletin 78-12A 2.
List of IE Bulletins Issued in 1978 cc w/enclosures:
R. H. Kramer, APS 7 8 13. 300C37G
UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF INSPECTION AND ENFORCEMENT WASHINGTON, D.C.
20555 November'4, 1978 IE Bulletin No.78-12A ATYPICAL WELD MATERIAL IN REACTOR PRESSURE VESSEL WELDS Description of Circumstances:
This Bulletin's a supplement to IE Bulletin 78-12, issued on September 29, 1978, and the two documents should be considered together.
Bulletin 78-12 described the use of weld wire that failed to meet all specified chemical proper ties in welds of twelve identified reactor pressure vessels.
Use of the atypical weld material in vessel weldments causes them to have higher than normal nil-ductility transition temperature characteristics which in turn requires more conservative'ressure/tempera-ture operating limits.
Bulletin 78-12 was issued for the purpose of verifying that similar atypical weld material was not also supplied to other vessel manufacturers and used in reactor pressure vessel.fabrication.
Recognizing that the scope of the record review required is extensive and time consuming, and to assure that responses provided are meaningful, the requirements of Bulletin 78-12 are being modified.
Action To Be Taken By Licensees and Permit Holders:
For all power reactor facilities with an operating license or a construction permit, except those already identified as possibly having atypical weld material The twelve nuclear units identified as having possible atypical pressure vessel weldments are:
Three Mile Island Unit Nos.
1 and 2, Crystal River Unit No. 3, Arkansas Nuclear One Unit No. 1, Oconee Unit No. 3, Rancho Seco Unit No. 1, Midland Unit No. 1, guad Cities Unit No. 2, Browns Ferry Unit No. 1, Turkey Point Unit No.
4 and Zion Unit Nos.
1 and 2.
1 of2
IE Bulletin No.78-12A November 24, 1978 1.
Provide all information available on weld material~
used for each reactor vessel primary boundary ferritic weldment.
(Items lc, ld, 2a, 2b, first sentence of 2c, 3 and 4 of Bulletin 78-12.)
This information may be provided to NRC through the vessel manufacturer s or suppliers as appropriate to prevent duplication of data.
2.
Correlation of specific heat, lot or batch to specific'eldments
.in specific vessels is not required at this time.
(Last sentence of Item 2c,Bulletin 78-12.)
- However, each licensee is required to verify that the weld materials information provided to the NRC under Item 1 does in fact cover each reactor vessel for which the licensee is responsible.
3.
Responses to Item 1 above shall be submitted in writing within 120 days of the date of this Bulletin supplement.
Reports should be submitted to the Director of the appropriate NRC Regional Office and a copy should be forwarded to the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Inspection and Enforcement, Division of Reactor Construction Inspection, llashington, D.C.
20555.
Approved by GAO, B180225 (R0072); clearance expires 7/31/80.
Approval was given under a blanket clearance specifically f'r i'dentified generic problems.
Meld material information submitted will be evaluated by NRC.
Requests for further information will be dependent upon results of these evalua-tions.
Additional requests or instructions will be issued following these evaluations.
20f 2
November 24, 1978 LISTING OF IE BULLETINS ISSUED IN 1978 Bulletin Subject No.
Date Issued Issued To 78-01 78-02 78-03 78-04 78-05 78-06 78-07 Flammable Contact-
, Arm Retainers in G. E.
CR120A Relays Terminal Block qualification Potential Explosive Gas Mixture Accumula-tions,Associated with BWR Offgas System Operations Environmental guali-fication of Cer tain Stem Mounted Limit Switches Inside Reactor Containment Malfunctioning of Circuit Breaker Auxiliary Contact Mechanism-General Model CR105X Defective Cutler-
- Hammer, Type M Relays With DC Coils-Protection afforded by Air-Line Respirators and Supplied-Air Hoods
1/16/78 1/30/78 2/8/78 2/21/78 4/14/78 5/31/78 6/12/78 All Power Reactor Facilities with an OL or CP All Power Reactor Facilities with an OL or CP All BWR Power Reactor Facilities with an OL or CP All Power Reactor Facilities with an OL or CP All Power Reactor Facilities with an OL or CP All Power Reactor Facilities with an OL or CP All Power Reactor Facilities with an OL, all class E and F
Research Reactors with an OL, all Fuel Cycle Facilities with an OL, and all Priority 1
Material Licensees Enclosure 2
Page 1 of 2
LISTING OF IE BULLETINS ISSUED IN 1978 IE Bulletin No.78-12A Date:
November 24, 1978 Bulletin No.
Subject Date Issued Issued To 78-08 Radiation'evels from Fuel Element Transfer Tubes 6/12/78 All Power and Research Reactor Facilities with a Fuel Element transfer tube and an OL.
78-09 78-10 78-11 78-12 78-13 BWR Drywell Leakage Paths Associated with Inadequate Drywell Closures Bergen-Paterson Hydraulic Shock Suppressor Accumulator Spring Coils Examination of tlark I Containment Torus Welds Atypical Weld Material in Reactor Pressure Vessel Welds Failures in Source Heads of Kay-Ray, Inc., Gauges t1odels
- 7050, 7050B, 7051 7051B, 7060,
- 7060B, 7061 and 7061B 6/14/78 6/27/78 7/21/78 9/29/78 10/27/78 All BWR Power Reactor Facilities with an OL or CP All BWR Power
'eactor Facilities with an OL or CP BWR Power Reactor Facilities for action:
Peach Bottom 2 and 3, guad Cities 1
and 2, Hatch 1, Monti-cello and Vermont Yankee All Power Reactor Facilities with an OL or CP All General and Specific Licensees with Kay-Ray Gauges Enclosure 2
Page 2 of 2
,.'R~C>,
~
0 ir ~
Q~
+>>**+
UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION REGION V SUITE 202, WALNUTCREEK PLAZA 1990 N. CALIFORNIABOULEVARD WALNUT CREEK, CALIFORNIA 94596 HOV 6 mS Docket Nos.
50-528 50-529 50-530 Arizona Public Service Company P. 0.
Box 21666
- Phoenix, Arizona 85036 Attention:
Nr. E. E. Van Brunt, Jr.
Vice President, Construction Projects Gentl emen:
The enclosed IE Circular No. 78-18, is forwarded to you for information.
No specific action is requested and no written response is required.
If you desire additional information regarding this matter, please contact this office.
Sincerely, R. H. Engelken Director
Enclosures:
l.
IE Circular No. 78-18 2.
List of IE Circulars Issued in 1978 cc:
R. tl. Kramer, APS
IE Circular No. 78-18 November 6, 1978 Page 1 of 3 UL FIRE TEST
Background
On September 15, 1978, a fire test of a f'ull-scale vertical cable tray array was conducted at the Underwriters Laboratory (UL) near Chicago, Illinois. It was part of the fire protection research program managed by Sandia Laboratories under NRC contract.
The purpose of the test was to demonstrate the effectiveness of area sprinklers and cable tray fire barriers constructed of ceramic fiber blankets in preventing damage to cables as a result of an exposure to a flammable liquid fire.
The test resulted in damage to some electrical cables.
Discussion The configuration of the fire test was selected to simulate a section of a plant area with'vertical cable trays containing redundant safety divisions arranged such that the redundant divisions could be simul-taneously exposed to a potential fire resulting from an inadvertent spill of flammable liquid in the area.
The arrangement of'he cable trays and the designation of the redundant tray divisions is shown in Figure l.
Figure 2 shows the location of the fire detectors and the three groups of sprinklers.
Each of the five cable trays contained cable insulated with polyvinyl chloride and was enclosed in a separated ceramic fiber blanket fire barrier from floor to ceiling in accordance with the manu-facturer's recommendations.
The sprinkler and detector arrangement was
's permitted by NFPA Code.
- However, no water was actually used at any time during this test due to the failure of some sprinkler heads to
- actuate, as explained below.
Each sprinkler location in the test arrangement contained three nominally identical temperature sensing sprinkler heads with fusible links adjacent to an open sprinkler head which was connected to a manual water supply valve.
The temperature sensing heads were wired to signal when their links fused.
After all three temperature sensing heads at a given loca-tion activated, then the water supply for the open head was to be manually admitted.
The sprinklers were of a type which actuate at the slow end of acceptance for reaction time.
The test procedure required that all three temperature sensing heads had to activate before water would be turned on.
In this way, it was expected to get some data on variability in the response time of identical sprinklers.
IE Circular No. 78-18 November 6, 1978 Page 2 of 3 Test Details The test was started by igniting the two gallons of heptane that was poured into the floor pan.
A fully developed fire occurred almost immediately.
The ceiling smoke detector alarmed in about 15 seconds.
'In about 50-60 seconds, two of the three temperature sensing sprinklers located between the wall and cable trays 1
and 2 activated.
The fire between cable trays 1, 2, 3, and 4 appeared most intense, apparently because of a chimney effect betw'een the four trays.
The flames between cable trays 3 and 5 did not appear to be so intense.
The, ceramic fiber, blanket absorbed some of the heptane so that after the heptane in the pan burned, most of the flame seemed to come from the bottom outside surface of the ceramic fiber blanket.
No additional temperatur e sensing sprinkler heads at any location activated; thus, the sprinkler water supply was not turned on for any of the three sprinkler locations.
The apparent slow response of the third temperature sensing sprinkler is
'eing investigated, since this was not intended to be a slow response sprinkler.
At about 3 minutes into the test there was an indication of a short circuit in cable tray 3, which was probably caused by the fire.
After 5-7 minutes the height of the flames appeared to subside;
- however, residual flames continued for about 40 minutes.
Preliminary Results and Analyses Preliminary information indicates that the flammable liquid or flames penetrated the protective barriers at the bottom of the ver tical trays and caused fire damage to the polyvinyl chloride insulation on cables in four of the five trays.
On subsequent 500-volt megger tests, it was found that another cable in tray 2 had also experienced some
- damage, as evidenced by a conductor to ground short.
The most probable cause of the fire damage in certain cable trays appears to be related to the absorption or seepage of heptane under the ceramic fiber blanket at the juncture with the floor.
Once the heptane entered the interior regions of the cable tray, then ignition apparently occurred via the small opening at the floor or through a.vapor/air path within the joints.
There is some indication that some cable damage was caused by absorption of heptane on the inside of the barrier (wicking effect) and its ignition which heated a cable tray ladder rung, causing damage to a cable in contact with the rung.
The ingress of the heptane into the ceramic fiber needs to be further evaluated since this appears to be the most significant failure mode.
IE Circular No. 78-18 November 6, 1978 Page 3 of 3 Tentative Conclusions The test results.are still being analyzed, and it would be premature to establish firm conclusions at this time; however, the results now available indicate that the following areas of the fire protection program need close consideration:
1.
To protect against spills of flammable liquids, barriers or curbs may be needed to prevent entry of the flammable liquid behind fire barriers.
A wick effect may also need to be considered in the design of fire barriers.
2.
Some small fires may not actuate sprinkler heads.
To reduce this possibility in sprinkler systems to be install'ed, fast response sprinkler heads should be considered (less than approximately 3 minutes in the UL Standard 199 "Automatic Sprinklers for Fire Protection Service" ).
3.
The location of the fire detection devices and 'the sprinkler heads relative to the. fire and components being protected is of great importance.
The path of the air movement in the area influences the actuation of such devices and should be considered in the system layout.
The final results of this test will be issued when the analysis of the test is complete.
This circular is being issued 'for information only.
No specific action is requested and no written response is required.
If you desire addi-tional information regarding this matter, contact the Director of the appropriate NRC Regional Office.
Attachments:
1.
Figure 1
2.
Figure 2
Figure t
>PPr>> ISA ~Q bOUAdapg 0f phn f0'iquid
$P'it) fire
'Pl V Vertical Tray Corner 7est
gg~~A<lC P4LE PCTCCV'CM
~
~ s g,+ oped Zp1. ILCI) eorgzt~8~>
~<
gp le<fj'~p' s'-
+g~~ ~
~t,
$0@
0 FIGURE 2 y~p y~ayg gg fdEQAL I
IE Circular No.. 78-18 November 6, 1978 LISTING OF IE CIRCULARS ISSUED IN 1978 Circular No.
78-01 78-02 78-03 78-04 78-05 78-06 78-07 78-08 78-09 Subject Loss of Well Logging, Source Proper Lubricating Oil for Terry Turbines Packaging Greater Than Type A guantities of Low Specific Activity Radioactive Material for Transport Installation Error That Could Prevent Closing of Fire Doors Inadvertent Safety Injection During Cooldown Potential Common Mode Flooding of ECCS Equipment Rooms at BWR.Facilities Damaged Components of a Bergen-Paterson Series 25000 Hydraulic Test Stand Environmental'gualification-of Safety Related Equipment at Nuclear Power Plants Arcing of General Electric Company Size 2 Contactors Date of Issue 4/5/78 4/20/78 5/12/78 5/15/78 5/23/78 5/23/78 5/31/78 5/31/78 6/5/78 Issued To All Holders of Well Logging Source Licenses All Holders of Reactor OL's or CPs All Holders of Reactor OLs, CPs, Fuel Cycle, Priority I Material and Waste Disposal Licenses All Holders of Reactor OLs or CPs Al.l Holders of Reactor OLs or CPs All Holders of Reactor OLs or CPs All Holders of Reactor OLs or CPs All Holders of Reactor OLs or CPs All Holders of CPs Enclosure 2
Page 1 of 2
I
IE Circular No. 78-18 November 6, 1978 LISTING OF I E CIRCULARS ISSUED IN 1978 78-10 Control of Seal ed Sources Used in Radiation Therapy Circular Subject No.
Date of Issue 6/14/78 Issued to All Medical Licensees in Categories G
and G1 78-11 78-12 78-13 Recircul ation M-G Set Overspeed Stops HPCI Turbine Control Valve Lift Rod Bending Inoperability of Hultiple Service Water Pumps 6/15/78 6/30/78 7/10/78 All Holders of BWR OLs or CPs All Holders of BWR OLs or CPs for plants with HPCI Terry Turbine All Holders of Reactor OLs and CPs except for plants
, located in: AL, AK, CAq FL GAq LAq I'lSs 78-14 78-15 78-16 HPCI Turbine Reversing Chamber Hold Down Bolting Checkvalves Fail to Close In Vertical Position Limitorque Valve Actuators 7/12/78 7/20/78 7/26/78 All Holders of BWR OLs or CPs for plants with a HPCI Terry Turbine excepting Duane Arnold and Nonticello All Holders of Reactor OLs or CPs All Holders of Reactor OLs or CPs 78-17 Inadequate Guard Training/
gualification and Falsified Training Records 10/13/78 All Holders of and applicants for Reactor OLs.
Enclosure 2
Page 2 of 2,
J
~ N l
I