ML20012B435

LER 90-003-00:on 900129,when More Accurate Transmitters Placed in Svc,After Calibr Span Values Adjusted,Indicated Power Exceeded Core Thermal Power Limit.Caused by Incomplete Review of Manual.Transmitters recalibr.W/900302 Ltr

ML20012B435
Person / Time
Site:	FitzPatrick
Issue date:	03/02/1990
From:	Fernandez W, Lyons J POWER AUTHORITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK (NEW YORK
To:	NRC OFFICE OF INFORMATION RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IRM)
References
JAFP-90-0192, JAFP-90-192, LER-90-003, LER-90-3, NUDOCS 9003140397
Download: ML20012B435 (5)

Text

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. ! ( s- James A.MiaPetrick '

,_ t. W Vd' Nuolent Power Mont -

L ' P.O. Box 41

-' l.ycoming. New York 13093 315 342-3840 I - ,

k William Femandez 11

-M 0 _

Resident Manager 4t. i March 2,-1990.

'JAFP-90-0192'  :

L United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission .

Document Control Desk' Mail Station F1-137

[ Washington, D.C. 20555

SUBJECT:

DOCKET NO. 50-333 ';

LICENSEE EVENT REPORT: 90-003-00 L

Dear Sir:

, This Licensee Event Report is submitted in accordance with  :'

10 CFR 50.73.

Questions concerning this report may be addressed to

Mr..' John Lyons at (315)'349-6788. ,

Very truly.yours',

j ILL1 FERNAN EZ

.WF:JL':me

' Enclosure cc: .USNRC, Region I l e INPO Records Center i l American Nuclear Insurers l NRC Resident Inspector '

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10/08/89 Unit start-up following a scheduled maintenance outage.

Operations noted lower than expected flow at low power levels '

during plant power ascension. Instrument & Control (I&C) performed a feedwater calibration, discovered the transmitters were found out of tolerance, and restored the ,

transmitters to within tolerancc. As a result of this work, a separate work request was written to investigate an apparent problem with feed flow indication on one of the feedwater loops.  !

10/19/89 (Approximately) Thermal performance weekly monitoring detected a decrease in unit output since before the maintenance ostage and additional ~research was begun, i 10/26/89 (Approximately) Nuclear plant Reliability Data System (NPRDS) reviewer forwarded a copy of instrument problem report on the feedwater transmitter problem of 10/08/89 to performance -

engineer. In the course of the investigation, applicable operating experience reviewer documents, including General ,

Electric SIL 452, Supplement 1 "Feedwater Flow Element  !

Transmitter Calibration", were included in the review scope.

11/05/89 Unit scram (LER-89-020) due to unrelated reasons 11/07/89 Work identified on the 10/8/89 work request was corrected. ,

11/12/89 Unit start-up. Low feedwater flow was again obeerved during line feed start-up. Transmitter calibration checked satisfactory.

31/12/89 Unit scram (LER-89-023) due to unrelated reasons.

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11/13/89 Unit start-up. Satisfactory transmitter calibration check prior to start-up. Maintained power at 25% for electro-hydraulic system (LER 89-020) 11/14/89 I&C recalibrated the feedwater transmitters which included i static pressure compensation as a result of parallel research by both the performance engineer and the I&C Department.

i The initial effect on unit output following the change in transmitter ,

calibration was much larger than predicted. The engineering review continued to look at tho other issues in General Electric SIL 452, Supplement I and the lost capacity following the static pressure a dj us tment .

The site had been unable to obtain the methods or inputa used by the feedwater flow element vendor to predict plant operating response from '

the flow nozzle laboratory test data. Because of the reduced unit output, additional flow transmitters were purchased and calibrated at  ;

static pressure operating conditions by the transmitter vendor. This calibration at pressure cannot be performed on site because of the need for specialized test equipment. The lack of data from the flow element vendor forced the site to revert to a calculation to identify the setpoints for this transmitter calibration. The results predicted with these setpoints were identified (on 01/05/90) as being more conservative than the existing flow element vendor supplied numbers, -

but were suspect due to the already reduced output and the flow element vendor being very adamant that these units were not designed to -

specifications that allowed an industry standard approach to be applied. In the absence of flow element vendor specifics an appropriate correlation was selected by the site. This choice was reviewed for applicability by an author of the related ASME test code.

The site calculations were used for the transmitter calibration and the indicated power increased when the transmitters were placed in service on 01/29/90. The following day, the flow element vendor provided the input data for the setpoint calculation and at least one input error was identified which partially accounted for the power increase seen the day before. Due to the significantly reduced unit output, an investigation is ongoing.

Cause The failure to compensate for transmitter static pressurization effects was caused by an incomplete review of the transmitter vendor technical manual at the time of the modification which replaced the flow transmitters. During the process of updating the calibration procedure to reflect this modification, this compensation was mistakenly omitted.

Further causes may be identified as a result of the ongoing investigation.

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Boiais emos j raustify healt th Decent asuspen m I tem asuuste sei pagg a JAufl A. FITZPATRICK i.a et t' "'J.it; WWClf At POWER PL ANT o ooe3 3 99 0 l0 j3 0 ;0 g l4 op gl4 verv = . mir w mumm The flow elemen't. correlation errors are engineering application '

problems. Both the original and the replacement flow element vendors '

provided correlations with incorrect feedwater density values. Site '

engineering and NSSS staff investigations are continuing.

Analysis  !

It has been confirmed by the NSSS vendor that this event did not result in a condition which significantly affected nuclear safety with respect '

to fuel thermal limits. In accordance with USNRC guidance, an allowance for an uncertainty of 2% thermal power is included in the basis of the reload analysis of the reactor core. Since the total errors in the feedwater flow calibration methodology were less than ,

1.7%, this design parameter was not exceeded.

Corrective Action Immediate Corrective Actions 11/14/89 - Upon determining that the static aressure compensation '

factor had not been included in the feedwater flow '

transmitter calibration, both feedwater flow transmitters were recalibrated with the appropriate calibration applied.

l 1/29/90 - Upon replacement of the feedwater flow transmitter with the factory calibrated / compensated transmitters, calculated core thermal power exceeded the licensed limit. Power was promptly reduced to lower than the licensed limit.

Continuing Corrective Action Investigation by both site engineering and NSSS staff is continuing.

Additional Information LERs82-002 and 82-034 were related events.

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