ML17332A823

Advises That Safety Review of Proposed Cancellation of Commitment Re Blocked Alarms Concluded That Cancellation Would Be Beneficial & Prudent & Therefore Justified

ML17332A823
Person / Time
Site:	Cook
Issue date:	06/26/1995
From:	Fitzpatrick E INDIANA MICHIGAN POWER CO. (FORMERLY INDIANA & MICHIG
To:	NRC OFFICE OF INFORMATION RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IRM)
References
AEP:NRC:00106B, AEP:NRC:106B, NUDOCS 9507030124
Download: ML17332A823 (5)

Text

PRIORZTY 1 (ACCELERATED RZDS PROCESSING)

REGULATORY INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM (RIDS)

ACCESSION NBR:9507030124 DOC.DATE: 95/06/26 NOTARIZED: NO DOCKET FACIL:50-315 Donald C.

Cook Nuclear Power Plant, Unit 1, Indiana M

05000315 P

'0-316 Donald C.

Cook Nuclear Power Plant, Unit 2, Indiana M

05000316 AUTH.NAME AUTHOR AFFILIATION FITZPATRICK,E.

Indiana Michigan Power Co.

(formerly Indiana

& Michigan Ele RECIP.NAME RECIPIENT AFFILIATION Document Control Branch (Document Control Desk)

I

SUBJECT:

Advises that safety review of proposed cancellation of commitment re blocked alarms concluded that, cancellation would be beneficial:& prudent

& therefore justified.

DISTRIBUTION CODE:

AOOID COPIES RECEIVED:LTR J ENCL

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TITLE: OR Submittal:

General Distribution NOTES:

RECIPIENT ID CODE/NAME PD3-1 LA HICKMAN,J INTERNAL: ~P~~E~R 01 HRR/DRCH/HICB NRR/DSSA/SRXB OGC/HDS2 I

EXTERNAL: NOAC COPIES LTTR ENCL 1

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NOTE TO ALL "RIDS" RECIPZENTS:

PLEASE HELP US TO REDUCE WASTE!

CONTACT THE DOCUMENT CONTROL

DESK, ROOM OWFN SD8 (415-2083)

TO ELIMINATE YOUR NAME FROM DISTRIBUTION LISTS FOR DOCUMENTS YOU DON'T NEED!

c3 TOTAL NUMBER OF COPIES REQUIRED:

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Indiana Michigan Power Company P.O. Box 16631 Coiumbus, OH 43216 June 26, 1995 AEP'NRC:00106B Docket Nos.

50-315 50-316 U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ATTN: Document Control Desk Washington, D. C.

20555 Gentlemen:

Donald C.

Cook Nuclear Plant Units 1 and 2

NOTIFICATION OF CANCELLED COMMITMENT ON BLOCKING ALARMS This letter supersedes letter AEP:NRC:00106A, dated June 12, 1995, which was an earlier version of the letter stored in the

computer, printed, and mailed in error.

It is worth noting that neither the initial conditions nor the end point included in the superseded 00106A are altered by this revised submittal.

We regret any inconvenience this error may cause.

During review of a proposed change to a plant procedure regarding actions to be taken in response to blocked control room alarms, a commitment made to the NRC seventeen years ago was uncovered.

Our evaluation found

that, while the commitment had been satisfied in the plant procedures at that

time, the current procedure revision was not in full, literal compliance with the original commitment.

Actual current plant practice was, however, considered to be equivalent or superior to the intent of the commitment.

The purpose of this letter, therefore, is to inform you of our plan to cancel the previous commitment.

Specifically, the previous commitment was made in response to a Notice of Violation from IE Inspection Reports No.

50-315/78-27 and 50-316/78-31.

In those reports, a finding identified that the low temperature alarm in the control room for the Unit 2 RWST was blocked without being approved or logged.

AEPSC responded to this Notice of Violation on December 21,

1978, in letter AEP:NRC:00106.

The initial corrective action included a

procedural requirement that the Unit Supervisor, who is in charge of the Control Room, remove all blocked alarms prior to turning over to the relieving shift.

The practice in recent years has been to require more thorough technical review and documentation for blocked alarms.

The technical reviews are independently verified as part of the documentation process.

The number of problem alarms is also 9507030124 950b2b PDR ADOCK 05000315 P

PDR

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Page 2

AEP:NRC:00106B followed by plant management and by AEPSC representatives in a morning status meeting.

In addition, the 1995 AEPNO Production Work Plan

- Performance Standards specify that high priority standing annunciators be cleared within 14 days during operation, and within 14 days of parallel following outages.

The increased attention by management, as well as by the system engineers at Cook Nuclear

Plant, and the "full deck" equipment operating philosophy, has generally resulted in fewer blocked alarms, for shorter periods, than existed at the time the original commitment was made in 1978.

The overall management of alarms has significantly improved, without dependence on the commitment that will be cancelled.

Both Cook Nuclear Plant unit control rooms operated without a single annunciator lit on April 16, 1995.

This is the first time that this performance measure was achieved in the operating history of the plant.

Reaching this operating record is evidence of the effectiveness of our policies on annunciator alarms and underlying design, engineering, and maintenance issues.

The commitment we made in AEP:NRC:00106, dated December 21, 1978, concerning blocked alarms is not needed and can be cancelled.

Under our current practice, the Unit Supervisor reviews a list of the currently blocked alarms prior to coming on duty each shift.

Technical reviews are also performed when an alarm is blocked, under our current practice.

Regular oversight of blocked alarms by management and system engineers provides additional assurance of safe operation.

In accordance with our procedures and NRC regulations, a safety review was completed for the proposed cancellation of this commitment.

This safety review concluded that the change would be beneficial and prudent and would have no deleterious effect on the health and safety of the public.

Therefore, based upon the above review, we believe that there is technical justification to support cancellation of the current commitment.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Page 3

AEP'NRC'00106B As a result of our review, we believe that the cancellation of the commitment will result in continued effective control of blocked alarms.

Sincerely, E.

E. Fitzpatrick Vice President cad CC:

A. A. Blind G. Charnoff J.

B. Martin - Region III NFEM Section Chief NRC Resident Inspector J.

R. Padgett