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. Gentlement:
The enclose'd IE Information Notice No. 81-20, " Test Failure of Electrical Penetration Assemblies" is forwarded to you for information.
No written response..is required.
If you desire additional information regarding this matter,-please. contact this office, Sincerely, Boyce H. Grier Director
Enclosure:
IE Information Notice No. 81-20 with l' attachment CONTACT:
S. D. Ebneter
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LIST OF HOLDERS OF.UUCLEAR POWER REACTOR OPERATING LICENSES AND CUESTRUCTION PERMITS RECEIVING IE INFORMATION NOTICE NO. 81-20 Baltimore Gas.and Electric Company Docket Nos. 50-317 ATTN: Mr. A. E. Lundvall, Jr.
50-318 Vice President, Supply ~
P. 0. Box 1475 Baltimore,- Maryland 21203 Boston Edison Company M/C Nuclear Docket No. 50-293
. ATTN:.Mr. A. V. Morisi Nuclear Operations Support Manager 800 Boylston Street Boston, Massachusetts 02199 Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company Docket No. 50-213
- ATTN: Mr. W. G. Counsil Vice President'- Nuclear Engineering and Operations P. O. Box 270 Hartford,-Connecticut 06101 Consolidated Edison Company of Docket Nos. 50-03 New York, Inc.
50-247 1 ATTN: Mr. John O. O'Toole Vice. President - Nuclear Engineering and Quality Assurance 4 Irving Place
.New York, New York 10003 Duquesne Light Company Occket No. 50-334
-ATTN: Mr. J. J. Carey -
Vice President Nuclear Division
.P. 0.. Box 4-Shippingport, Pennsylvania 15077
-Jersey Central Power and Light Company Docket No. 50-219
. ATTN: Mr. Ivan R. Finfrock, Jr.
Vice President Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station P. O. Box 388
. Forked River, New Jersey 08731 I
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Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company Docket No. 50-309 ATTN: Mr. Robert H. Groce Senior Engineer-Licensing 1671 Worcester Road Framingham, Massachusetts 01701 Metropolitan Edison Company Docket No. 50-289 ATTN: Mr. H. D. Hukill
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.Vice President and Director of TMI-1 P. 0.-Box 480 Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 Metropolitan Edison Company Docket No. 50-320 ATTN: Mr. G. K. Hovey Vice President and Director of TMI-2 P.'0. Box 480
'Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057 Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation Docket No. 50-220 ATTN:
Mr. T. E. Lempges Vice President Nuclear Generation 300 Erie Boulevard West Syracuse, New York
.13202 Northeast Nuclear Energy Company Docket Nos. 50-336 ATTN: 1 Mr. W. G. Counsil 50-245 Senior Vice Presicent - Nuclear 50-423 Engineering and Operations P.13. Box 270 Hartford,. Connecticut 06101 Philadelphia Electric Company Docket Nos. 50-277 ATTN: Mr. S. L. Daltroff 50-278 Vice President Electric Production 2301 Market Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19101 Power Authority of the State of New York Docket No. 50-286 Indian Point 3 Nuclear Power Plant
- ATTN: Mr. J. C. Brons Resident Manager
-P. O. Box 215
- Buchanan, New York 10511 L
3 Power Authority of the State of New York Docket No. 50-333 James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant 1
ATTN: Mr. -R. J. Pasternak Resident Manager s
P. O. Box 41 Lycoming, New York 13093 Public Service Electric and Gas Company Docket Nos. 50-272 ATTN: Mr. F. W..Schneider 50-311
.Vice President - Production
- 80 Pa'rk Plaza - 15A
. Newark, New Jersey 07101 Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation Docket No. 50-244 ATTN: Mr. John E. Maier
'Vice President Electric and Steam Production 89 East Avenue Rochester, New York 14649
. Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corporation Docket No. 50-271 ATTN: Mr. Robert L. Smith Licensing Engineer 1671 Worcester Road Framingham, Massachusetts 01701 Yankee'Atcmic Electric Company Docket No. 50-29 l
ATTN: Mr. James A. Kay Senior Engineer-Licensing 1671 Worcester Road Framingham, Massachusetts 01701 Duquesne Light Company Docket No. 50-412 ATTN: Mr. E. J. Woolever
".e President
-'435 Sixth Avenue Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219 Jersey Central Power & Light Company Docket No. 50-363
~ ATTN: Mr. I. R. Finfrock, Jr.
Vice President 260 Cherry Hill Road Parsippany, New Jersey 07054 Long Island Lighting Company Docket No. 50-322 ATTN: Mr. M. S. Pollock Vice President - Nuclear r
175. East Old Country Road Hicksville, New York 11801
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/NiagaraMohawkPowerCorporation Docket No. 50-410
- ATTN
- Mr. Gerald K. Rhode
-Vice' President System Project Management.
c/o'Miss Catherine R. Seibert-
-300 Erie Boulevard, West Syracuse, NY 13202
' Pennsylvania Power & Light Company.
Docket Nos. 50-387 ATTN:'Mr. Norman W. Curtis 50-388 Vice President
. Engineering and Construction - Nuclear 2 North Ninth Street Allentown, Pennsylvania 18101 Philadelphia Electric company Docket Nos. 50-352 ATTN: Mr. John. S. Kemper 50-353 Vice President Engineering and Research 2301 Market Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19101 Public Service Electric & Gas Ccmpany Docket Nos. 50-354 ATTN:
Mr..T. J. Martin 50-355 Vice President-Engineering and Construction-180 Park Plaza - 17C Newark, New Jersey 07101
.Public Service Company of New Hampshire Docket Nos. 50-443
-~ ATTN :
Mr.~W. C..Tallman.
50-444 Chairman and Chief Executive Officer 1000 Elm Street Manchester, New Hampshire 03105 i
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Accession No.:
810330405 IN 81-20 N
UNITED STATES
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF INSPECTION AND ENFORCEMENT m
WASHINGTON, D.C.
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July 13, 1981 o.s.1I
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IE.Information Notice No. 81-20: TEST FAILURES OF ELECTRICAL PENETRATION ASSEMBLIES Summary of Observed Problem:
Environmental qualification testing of con" '~ ment electrical penetration assemblies (EPA)'by the D. G. O'Brien Company and similar NRC sponsored tests conducted by:the Sandia National Laboratories disclosed a potential material application problem and/or a potential problem with the accelerated aging technique as applied during these tests.
Following expcsure of the assemblies to high temperatures.during simulated aging and LOCA testing sequsr.ces (NUREG-0588), the grommet sealing material was' observed to have extruded through the
, spacer. assembly around the electrical conductors. The extruded grommet sealing material. stripped insulation from the conductors resulting in electrical groundir.g during steam / chemical spray test conditions and failure of the assembly to satisfy the qualification test requirements.
The grommet material is a Dow Corning Company, Silgard 170 silicone RTV (elastomer). Extrusion of the material was attributed to confinement in the
. assembled EPA which did not allow for thermal expansion during exposure to sustained elevated temperatures during the thermal aging process.
Details:
The Sandia National Laboratory, under contra'ct to the NRC, recently completed
, an independent environmental qualification test of x 0. G. O'Brien model K EPA.
The test EPA was obtained from the Duke Power Comp iy's Catawba plant.
The
.only other known application of EPAs of the same design is in the McGuire plant and two replacement units at Yankee Rowe.
The EPAs are designed for low voltage power, instrumentation and control applications.
Thi test resulted in a failure (electrical grounding) of three of the 104 circuits passing through the penetration assembly. Ten additional circuits showed_a reduction in resistance to ground to less than the 5 x 106 ohm acceptance requirement; however', electrical operability was maintained.
Investigation of the failure disclosed the mechanism to be extrusion of the grommet. material through a spacer plug containing the insulated conductors.
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The extruded grommet material stripped insulation from all of the conductors toa_varyingdegreeestablishingalowresistancepathwaybetweeneconductors,[
and a metallic plug sleeva. The electrical grounding was observed during t e the steam and chemical spray environment test.
The extrusion of the grommet ADP,
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material was caused by mechani:al confinement during exposure to elevatedgd/ 7 7 temperatures applied in the accelerated aging process.
Q [w edb IN 81-20 July 13, 1981 Page 2 of 2 In 1978' the D. G. O'Brien Company attempted to qualify this same EPA design to a set of-test' conditions applicable to the Virgil Summer p.lant.
During that test _the silicone greemet extrusion nachanism was observed and also resulted in the failure of the EPA.
D. G. O'Brien concluded that the extrusion occurred
-Secause of mechanical confinement at elevated temperatures.
In lieu of
._ retesting the same design, D. G. O'Brien redesigned the module plug assembly for the Virgil Summer plant. The redesigned unit passed the Virgil Summer plant qualification test.
It is noted that the retest did not include accelerated aging of the redesigned plug.
Qualification _ tests had been successfully performed for the McGuire plant in the 1975-1977 time period on the model K O'Brien connector. These tests did not thermally age the grommet material.
The EPA was exposed to the same sceam/ chemical spray conditions used in the NRC/Sandia test.
The-connector portion of the EPA design uses a Dow Corning Company, Silgard 170
' silicone RTV material as a 3ealing grommet. When the individual connector modules of the EPA are olaced in the fully assembled and tightened state, the grommet material is confined and_ unable to expand freely as the temperature of the_ assembly increases.
During the NRC/Sandia test each individual connector
_.2;dule was tighteried prior to thermal aging at 150*C and again prior to radiation' exposure at approximately 50'C.. Consequently, the sealing grommet was expanded and the extrusion process occurred twice prior to exposing the EPA to the simulated LOCA steam test.
Similar tightening.of the grommet was done during the testing for the Summer plant.
This situation apparently caused
' excessive' extrusion of the grommet material'through the spacer plug containing the insulated conductors. The extrusion process stripped the insulation from
.the' conductors thereby establishing an electrical failure mode.
Contact with:the vendor, D. G. O'Brien, indicates that only Catawba, McGuire and Yankee Rove units have the model K connectors with the same grammet seal j.
- arrangement. - Duke Power. Company has performed an evaluation and concluded that operation with the connectors isLacceptable based on earlier successful i.
testing and the early stage of plant operation. Additional testing of the connector is being ' performed by Duke Power Company.
L No written response to this information is required.
If you need additional information regarding this matter, please contact the Director of the
" appropriate NRC Regional Office.
Enclosure:
Recently issued IE Information Notices c.
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c Attachment IN 81-20 July 13, 1981 RECENTLY ISSUED-IE INFORMATION NOTICES Information Subject Date Issued to
~ Notice No.
Issued
'94 n.81-19 Lost Parts in Primary 7/6/81 All holders of a Coolant System power reactor OL or CP 81-18 Excessive Radiation 6/23/81 Specified licensees Exposures to the Fingers holding Byproduct of Three Individuals licenses
.,m,,
-Incurred During Cleaning and Wipe Testing of
. Radioactive Sealed Sources at a Sealed-Source Manufacturing F.ctlity 16 Control Rod Drive 4/23/81 All holders of a BWR System Malfunctions power reactor OL or CP 81-15.
Degradation of' Auto--
4/22/81 All holders of a matic ECCS Actuation power reactor
. Capability by Isolation OL or CP
-of Instrument Lines 81. Potential Overs' tress of 4/17/81 All holders of a power Shafts on Fisher Series reactor OL 9200 Butterfly Valves with Expandable T Rings 81-13 Jammed Source Rack in 4/14/81 Specified Irradiator a Gamma Irradiator Licensees 81-12 Guidance on Order 3/31/81 All holders of a Issued January 9,19L power reactor Regarding Automatic OL or CP Contr:1 Rod Insertion on Low Control Air Pressure
~ 1-11 Alternate Rod Insertion 3/30/81 All holders of a 8
'for BWR Scram Represents BWR power reactor a' Potential Path for OL or CP Loss of Primary Coolant 81-10
-Inadvertant Containment 3/25/81 All holders of a Spray Due to Personnel power reactor Error OL or CP i