ML20058P069

Forwards SALP Rept 50-289/91-99 for Period 911117-930731. Weaknesses Noted in Operations Area Identified

ML20058P069
Person / Time
Site:	Three Mile Island
Issue date:	10/15/1993
From:	Martin T NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I)
To:	Broughton T GENERAL PUBLIC UTILITIES CORP.
Shared Package
ML20058P072	List: IR 05000289/1991099 ML20058P069
References
NUDOCS 9310220060
Download: ML20058P069 (3)

See also: IR 05000289/1991099

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(08T15 B993

Docket No. 50-289

Mr. T. Gary Broughton

Vice President and Director, TMI-1  !

GPU Nuclear Corporation

Three Mile Island Nuclear Station

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P. O. Box 480

Middletown, Pennsylvania 17057-0191

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Dear Mr. Broughton:

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Subject: Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 1, Systematic Assessment of Licensee i

Performance (SALP) Report No. 50-289/91-99

This letter forwards the Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 1 (TMI-1) SALP report

(Enclosure 1) for the period November 17,1991, to July 31,1993. This SALP was

conducted under the new SALP process that was implemented by the NRC on July 19, 1993.'

The new SALP process rates licensees in four functional areas: Operations, Maintenance,

Engineering, and Plant Support. The Plant Support area includes radiological and effluent

controls, chemistry, security, emergency preparedness, fire protection, and housekeeping.

Overall you continued to operate the plant safely, with strong management oversight and

support for all activities. Your independent oversight provided effective self-assessment

through evaluations 15 t were comprehensive and appropriately focused on safety. Root

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cause analysis and operability determinations were generally good; however, the same

aggressiveness that you apply to determining common causes of hardware-related problems

needs to be applied to personnel performance-related problems. Although communications

ammg organizations was generally effective, some examples of communications problems

within the Operations organization, and between Operations and other departments, indicate a

need for improved formality and teamwork in operating the plant. This and other

weaknesses resulted in a decline in performance in the Operations area. We noted continued

strong performance in the Engineering and Plant Support areas. Although performance in

the Maintenance area improved, repetitive failures to properly return equipment to service

following maintenance and surveillance activities needs your attention.

Noteworthy strengths in the Engineering area included outstanding implementation of the

Design Basis Document recs .ttion program; a continued strong, technically competent

engineciing staff that produca comprehensive engineering evaluations with the appropriate

safety focus in support of site activities; and significant improvements in reduction of the

engineering evaluation backlog.

In the Plant Support area, radiological support for maintenance and surveillance activities, as -

well as keeping radiation exposure to workers as low as reasonably achievable, was excellent

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9310220060 931015 p 0FFICIAL RECORD COPY G:SALP-TMI.93 0'

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GPU Nuclear Corporation 2 '-

during the SALP period. Use of an independent radiological assessor was a continued

strengtli and proved beneficial in identifying weaknesses in the control and posting of '

radiologically controlled areas. Your training program in emergency preparedness was

generally effective and resulted in good performance in the May 1992 exercise; however, a

weakness in your response to the February 1993 intrusion event was noted. This weakne.ss

involved a delay in calling out emergency responders. Your security organization responded

very well to the intruder event; subsequency you aggressively developed and implemented

enhanced measures to further protect the piant from such events. ,

in the Maintenance area, maintenance personnel were highly trained and knowledgeable,

resulting in high quality maintenance activities with few errors. Maintenance procedure

upgrades completed and implemented over the SALP period were of high quality and very >

effective. Innovative use of diagnostic techniques to identify precursors to equipment failure

was noteworthy and effective. We recognize that you are currently evaluating the potential

for common causes of recurring problems in returning equipment to service following ,

maintenance and surveillance activities that occurred during this SALP period.

You were rated Category 1, declining in Operations in the previous SALP period for

problems associated with the conduct of infrequently performed evolutions during the '

refueling outage. Although you took corrective actions to address those problems (the

effectiveness of which is yet to be determined since there was no refueling outage during this

SALP period), we noted a decline in your performance in the Operations area. This decline

is based on weaknesses in communications within the Operations department, as well as

between Operations and other departments, that has resulted in problems with procedural

compliance and adherence to administrative processes; informality in the conduct of some

activities with excessive reliance on the knowledge and experience of personnel; and lack of

aggressive pursuit of these performance problems, which allowed them to recur over the

SALP period without evaluating the collective occurrences for root cause.

We have scheduled a management meeting with you, open for public observation, at the

training center on November 2,1993 at 10:00 a.m. At that meeting, you should be

prepared to discuss our assessment and any initiatives you plan to take to address weaknesses

indicated in our evaluation.

We appreciate your cooperation. .

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Sincerely,

OMN?L S!GED BY

Y;SU/.1 F.I M

Thomas T. Martin

Regional Administrator

Enclosure: SALP Report

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GPU N'uclear Corporation 3

cc w/ encl:

R. E. Rogan, TMI Licensing Director

M. J. Ross, Operations and Maintenance Director, TMI-1

J. Fornicola, Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Director

TMI-l Licensing Department

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E. L. Blake, Jr., Esquire

TMI-Alert (TMIA)

The Chairman

Commissioner Rogers ,

Commissioner Remick i

Commissioner de Planque i

K. Abraham, PAO (22) SALP l

Public Document Room (PDR) l

Local Public Document Room (LPDR)

Nuclear Safety Information Center (NSIC)

NRC Resident Inspector ,

Commonwealth of Pennsylvama

Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO)

bec w/ encl:

Region I Docket Room (with concurrences)

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bec via E-MAIL:

Region I Staff (Refer to SALP Drive)

bec w/ encl (VIA E-MAIL):

J. Taylor, EDO

J. Lieberman, OE

W. Scoi+, NRR/RPEB

V. McCree. OEi>O

J. Stolz, PD I-4, NRR

R. Hernan, PD I-4, NRR

T. Murley, NRR I

C. Holden, NRR/DRIUSALP Mgr.

RI RI fd Il

Cwgr K

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