ML18052B205
| ML18052B205 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Palisades  |
| Issue date: | 07/23/1987 |
| From: | Davis A NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION III) |
| To: | Mccormick W CONSUMERS ENERGY CO. (FORMERLY CONSUMERS POWER CO.) |
| References | |
| EA-87-033, EA-87-33, NUDOCS 8707280369 | |
| Download: ML18052B205 (4) | |
See also: IR 05000255/1986030
Text
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Docket No. 50-255
License No. DPR-20
EA 87-33
Consumers Power Company
ATTN:
Mr. William McCormick
President
212 West Jackson Avenue
Jackson, MI
49201
Gentlemen:
JUL 2 3 1987
SUBJECT:
NRC INSPECTION REPORT NO. 50-255/86030 (DRP)
VY'o _6
I£ If
This refers to the NRC inspection conducted during the period July 24 through
December 31, 1986, at the Palisades Plant of activities authorized by NRC
License No. DPR-20.
During this inspection several examples of significant
violations of NRC requirements were identified.
Many of the problem areas
associated with these violations had been found by your plant staff in their
investigations into plant problems and were reported to the NRC.
The details
of these findings are provided in Inspection Report No. 50-255/86030 sent to
you by letter dated March 6, 1987.
These findings, your corrective actions, -
and actions to prevent recurrence were discussed during the Enforcement
Conference conducted with you on February 20, 1987.
In late 1984, NRC developed concerns with the Palisades Plant over the
degrading material' condition of plant equipment.
A special inspection was
conducted in February-March 1985, which identified further concerns in this
area including: (1) inadequate corrective actions to identified problems; (2)
lack of machinery history and trending; (3) inadequate implementation of your
preventive maintenance program; (4) inadequate training for your Maintenance/
Technical Department; and (5) excessive backlog of maintenance work orders.
After your failure to significantly reduce the maintenance backlog NRC issued
a Confirmatory Action Letter on October 30, 1985, addressing that issue as well
as other matters involving equipment material condition and maintenance.
During early 1986, recurrent equipment problems continued to manifest
themselves.
On May 19, 1986, Palisades Plant experienced a reactor scram
in which numerous equipment problems complicated the scram recovery.
As
documented in a Confirmatory Action Letter dated May 21, 1986, you agreed with
NRC to not restart the plant until those equipment problems were rectified and
other systems that impact plant safety were examined for operability and
maintenance problems.
Following that event you initiated several programs that resulted in
functional testing of selected systems.
While it is commendable that your
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Consumers Power Company
2
rJUL 2 3 1981
corrective actions resulted in your identification of a number of problems,
the extensiveness of those findings demonstrates that the Palisades plant
had a number of significant safety issues that went undetected for a
considerable period of time.
These situations resulted in violations of
Technical Specification requirements and caused several safety systems to be
degraded or unable to perform their intended function under accident conditions.
Specifically, (1) a low pressure safety injection pump and all three service
water pumps were rendered inoperable when their impellers were replaced with
inappropriate spares; (2) there was inadequate cooling water flow to both of
the shutdown heat exchangers and two of the containment air coolers due to
improper valve positions or adjustments; and (3) low pressure safety injection
flow to the reactor coolant system was reduced to both trains due to the
improper positioning of the flow control valve. These Technical Specification
violations existed between 1971 and May 1986 because of the inadequacy of
design control measures, inappropriate testing to assure that systems met their
design requirements, and in some cases, the lack of adequate corrective action.
As a result of these findings and the identified problem areas, the NRC issued
a request pursuant to 10 CFR 50.54(f) by letter dated November 20, 1986, for a
description of your corrective action programs with a subsequent request for
additional information on December 24, 1986.
We believe that your responses
dated December 1, 1986 and January 28, 1987, have sufficiently set forth your
program of corrective actions and actions to prevent further recurrence of
these types of violations. Therefore, we are not requesting any additional
response to this letter at this time.
We will continue to review the
effectiveness of your corrective action in future inspections.
The NRC considers these violations to be significant in that through a lack of
adequate management attention and involvement for an extended period of time
important plant equipment was rendered unable to perform its design basis
function.
Your past plant history and the reactor scram of May 19, 1986
demonstrated that plant equipment was not maintained in the proper condition.
However, the NRC acknowledges that extensive and aggressive actions were taken
to identify and correct violations. These actions included the establishment
of a material condition task force, a special pump testing program, an
augmented surveillance testing program, a system functional evaluation, and
an extensive configuration control program.
In recognition of these actions
taken while Palisades was shut down I have been authorized, after consultation
with the Commission and the Deputy Executive Director for Regional Operations,
to exercise enforcement discretion in this case for Palisades and refrain from
issuing a Notice of Violation for these violations.
Were it not for these
extensive and aggressive actions to identify and resolve these problems a
substantial civil penalty would have been proposed.
I expect that in the
future any similar problems will be promptly identified and corrected.
Consumers Power Company
3
JUL 2 3 1987
In accordance with Section 2.790 of the NRC
1s
11Rules of Practice,
11 Part 2,
Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations, a copy of this letter and its enclosures
will be placed in the NRC Public Document Room.
cc:
Mr. Kenneth W. Berry, Director
Nuclear Licensing
David P. Hoffman, General
Manager
DCS/RSB (RIDS)
Licensing Fee Management Branch
Resident Inspector, RIII
Ronald Callen, Michigan
Public Service Commission
Nuclear Facilities and
Environmental Monitoring
Section
J. Lieberman, OE
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7/'!J/87
RIII
N~ius
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RIII
Berson
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Sincerely,
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A. Bert Davis
Regional Administrator
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Consumers Power Company
DISTRIBUTION:
SECY
CA
JTayl or, DEDO
TMartin, DEDRO
SSohinki, OGC
Jlieberman, OE
HWong, OE
Enforcement Coordinators
RI, RI!, RIII, RIV RV
TMurl ey, NRR
BHayes, OI
SConnelly, DIA
EJordan, AEOD
Flngram, PA
DNussbaumer, GSOP