IR 05000297/1990002

Insp Rept 50-297/90-02 on 901029-1101.No Violations or Deviations Noted.Major Areas Inspected:Review & Oversight of Reactor Activities

ML20062F579
Person / Time
Site:	North Carolina State University
Issue date:	11/14/1990
From:	Belisle G, Burnett P NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION II)
To:
Shared Package
ML20062F577	List: IR 05000297/1990002 ML20062F573
References
50-297-90-02, 50-297-90-2, NUDOCS 9011280049
Download: ML20062F579 (7)

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UNITED STATES

[p0800So . NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

/" .RE0lON11 g ,t 101 MARIETTA STREET. * * ATLANT A, GEORGI A 30323

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Report No.: 50-297/90-02 i

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Licensee: North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27607 Docket No.: 50-297 License No.: R-120 1 Facility Name: North Carolina State University Inspection Conducted: October 29 - November 1,,1990 Inspector; b Lm P. T. Burnett-c/

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.Date 51gned Approved by: W 7- ,-r-

//// </Md G. A. Belisle," Chief Date Signed Test Programs Section Engineering Branch Division of Reactor Safet SUMMARY Scope:

This routine, unannounced inspection addhessed the biennial inspection of Class #"

11 research reatt;r A recently completed repair of the pool liner and open items were also reviewed Results:

The licensed operator ,requalification progrera was current with respect to regulatory requirements, but has fallen behind tho' licensee's planned. schedule 4 by seven lectures (four days of activity).' The slippage.in training was caused

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by the loss of two key reactor staff members in= the spring. Both: positions have been filled, and.the licensee expressed confidence that the program would be completed by the end of the year. 0ne strong feature of this program is the annual evaluation of operator proficiency conducted by the chief reactor operato (Paragraph 4.c)

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.The Radiation Protection Comittee and the Reactor Safety Advisory Group have been meeting with greater than! prescribed frequency and -their review and oversight of reactor activities- has been performed with care, obviou competence, and timelines (Paragraphs-4.d and-4.f)

Surveillance activities have. been< performed at the-required frequencies with satisfactory test methods. (Paragraph 4.e)

9011'00049 901120 PDR ADOCK 05000297 Q PDC

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a REPORT-DETAILS: , Persons Contacted Licensee Employees-

, S. J. Bilyj, Chief of'Peactor Maintenance I

• T. L. Brackin, Reactor Safety Specialist

• T. C. Bray, Reactor Operatict's Manager

• D. J. Dudziak, Head, Department of Nuclear Engineering K. V. Mani, Reactor Health Physicis * D. Miller, Associate Director Nuclear Reactor Program D. W. Morgan, Radiation Protection Officer 0ther licensee employees contacted included. Nuclear Engineering Department-Faculty, operators, and office personne '

• Attended exit interview on November 1, 1990.-

Acronyms and initialisms used. throughout this? report are listed .in Lthe last paragrap . Initial Interview (30703)

The deputy director gavel:the inspector a" full andt candid briefing on facility status and staffing immediately.upon the inspector,'s. arrival on site. No material problems with the facility were identified. The staff recently . lost two SRO-licensed people. iincluding thei chief' reactor operator, who is still at NCSU and available for' consultation. . Some staff ,

l members are currently functioning in dual roles tof assure that all: of the i

functions described in TS 6.1.1: are performed, By.the end of the inspec-L tion, both positions had been filled, but it will. be some months before the new people are prepared for an operator's. license examination and are able to fulfill their dutie FacilityTourandObservations(40750)

' A tour of the facility gave a . strong impression of -good cleanliness !

control and well-maintained : facilities and ' equipment.- Control room staffing was always in compliance with TS 6.1.2, when observed, and the operators appeared to be attentive to the control The inspector's observation of the coolant flow: channels as illuminated-by the Cerenkov glow showed all to be free ofiobstruction l

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2 j i Records. Review Review of Operating Logs and Records- J The Operations Logbook was reviewed, on a sampling basis (more than 10 percent of. the pages were examined), for the. period from May 24, 1988 to October 26, 1990.' Particular attention was paid to entries .

of reactor. power. T.% licensee's calibration records show that MWth is equivalent to a core. temperature rise ygf:13.8:*f at 500' gpm and.to 0.405 E10-08 am3eres indicated on-the N . monitor. No entries in excess of 0.405 E:,0-08 ' amperes were ' observed. -In the few instances in 'which the temperature . rise appeared to be high, the reactor pool was not in equilibrium, and the measurement was not -

reliabl Paired entries of ECP and ACP were all wi. thin. acceptable agreement, and all entries of SDM indicated'at-least twice the TS minimum of-400 pc Other entries in' the operating log documented control roJ worth measurements, fuel movement, and other surveillance activities, which are discussed further belo Entries are made in the Primary Water 1 Inventory Log every working-day. The gross leakage is determined from the change in reactor _ pool level and then adjusted for estimated evaporative losses _and measured losses from' the reactor coolant pump seal; the pumpiruns constantly.-

Since the repair of the pool liner, all water loss can be accounted for from the known losses listed above. The licensee is conridering increasing the interval between surveillances to weekl Procedure Changes-The Operations' Manual was revised in.'its entirety.in 1989, Revision Procedure format was improved for readability and details were expanded. The new manual reflects extensive =and successful effort on the part of the licensee, Requalification Training i

Review of the operator license. requalification program records for 1990 indicated that the 19901 program is behind by seven lectures,

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four training days. At least two of the lectures, Technical Specifi-cations and 10 CFR Chapter 1, will be overdue.for the-biennium if not completed by the end of 1990. _ Licensee management acknowledged thec slippage in training lectures;Lascribed it to the loss of the CR0; and expressed confidence that the entire series of lectures, annual examination, and annual evaluation of operator. proficiency, conducted by the CRO, would be completed by the end of the. year. The profi-

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ciency evaluation will be conducted by either'the reactor operations l

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i n.ansger or the deputy director. The annual evaluation of operator:

proficiency is a strong feature of this progra d. Maintenance Activities The leak in the reactor pooi liner was repaired in February 1990-by a contractor experienced in the appifcation of underwater epoxy patches. The contractor's final report, which was reviewed by the inspector, is R and D Report No.1649 (Issue A) March 1990, " Application of Epoxy Reinforcing Patch to the Fuel : Storage Wall. Liner in PULSTAR REACTOR, M. F. Taylor and M. J. Mudihimer; The actual application of the patch was performed under the control'

of PULSTAR Maintenance Procedure, . " Procedure 'for Applying Epoxy Reinforcement to Liner! in PULSTAR REACTOR '(Revision 3, -

February 22,1990).

Other pertinent documents reviewed included memoranda generated b RSAG and RPC reporting on the-ir witnessing, oversight, and review

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activitie These references and the~ absence of any evidence-of leakage ;since the repair lead to the conclusion that the repair activitiestwere well managed by the facility staff, properly monitored by. the oversight ,

committees, and successfully. complete No other maintenance activities of- significance were performed during 7 the period reviewe Surveillance Activities

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i Surveillance activities ' completed :over the past two years were

. reviewed for conformance to TS-specified : frequencies and acceptance-L l

criteri The completed surveillances revicwed are ordered below by .

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TS:

4. PS-40-7:81, Fuel Movement ; Checklist for Biennial! Fuel l= Inspection and Dose Rate Measurements Around Core and South; L Storage Pit. _ All- fuel assemblies on the grid were removed l to either the fuel storage pits or .the storage racks; L Graphite reflector assemblies were removed one-at-a-time,

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inspected for ' swelling or cracking, and returned to the gri Fuel assemblies wer'c then visually . inspected i one-by-one . and returned tc the grid. -That: inspection'was limited to the condition of the assembly box surface and ;

the screws attaching the bales, grids and- nose piecesito i theLbo The inspection was' performed on May 29~, 199 ;

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Based upon the results of this . inspection, two graphite  :

assemblies were retired ~ and replace !

4. The Operations Logbook and the PULSTAR DATA SUM W Y,: Volume .

II, Reactor Operator's Data',, confirm that control ud worth !

measurements were performed annually-and whenever 1.he' core .

constituents were changed.- With the: decreasing, exces:  ;

reactivity of the core due to burnup,_. itL is not possible

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, for the core to be critical with anyc rod:fullyLinserted,-

l hence the reactivity worth of the lower portion of each rod '

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.must be determined by extrapelation based :;pon the shapes-of earlier-determined rod. worth curves. This . practice is-reasonable and acceptabl . The drop _ and drive times - of the scrammable rods-'were determined annually. ' Review of the .results; of the past several years indicates no significant change. in control rod drop times, which are significantly less _than: the' TS-limit. .-The procedures used -for this activity are surveil--

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lance / maintenance procedures, and not all" steps must be _,

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perfarmed for- surveillance' activities that .do not follow'

maintenance, but the procedures'are not completely clear as l to wh'ch steps:must be performed when. Licensee management agreec- to annotate the procedures - to indicat? which are required to accomplish the specified surveil'ance . Visuc' inspecti'ons .o# the- control rods 3 were -_ performed bienniall The rerords of the. last three inspections indicate only minor surface scratches ou the' rod . A calorimetric cal (bration of.the nuclear instruments has bgnperformed,wthunchangedresultswithrespecttothe d

N monitor, everi six months for the past three year . _The records confirmed _ that the pool water temperature monitor,. pr mary. cooling and flow monitor, pool. water level.-

monitor, primary heat exchanger RTDs, and safety _ and linear '

power channels were calibrated every six: months for the past three years, Committees'

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Review of RPC and RSAG minutes for the.two-year period preceding'this inspection confirmed that meetings were held.-'with the. required quarterly frequency. The minutes contained records of . reviews of-PULSTAR operations, procedures, and inspection.results, Experiments R No new experiments have been performed in the last bienniu The major applications 'of the facility continue to be support.of student-i

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laboratories, neutron activation analysis by the faculty,'short-lived isotope production for on-campus use, and use in the reactor operator; training programs for local utilitie . Action on Previous Inspection' Findings (92701)

(Closed) Inspector followup. item 297/88-03-01: Establish administrative procedures to require that non-intent changes. to any RPC-approved proce-dure be reviewed by the RPC within sixty days.-

Operations Manual 2.4.3 and Special Pmedure' 2.1.. implement the desired revie (Closed) Unresolved item 29//C0 03-02: -Full implementatha of the opera-tor requalification program was unresolved pending receipt of- nere infor-mation from the license The licensee forwarded t'o the Regional Office the.necessary information to !

confirm full implementation of the operator requalification progra (Closed) Violation- 297/88-03 03: RSAG' did not meet at least every six calendar month Since. the violation was ' identified', RSAG has been meeting with the re-quired frequency. RSA3 has a'so been_ expanded-to five members from three to make it easier to obtain a querum,,and the, meetings have been placed upon the annual calendir of the facility and.the member . ExitInterview(30703) ,

The inspection scope _ and findings were_ summarized ~ on November 1,1990, with those persons- indicated in paragraph 1 above. -The inspector de-

< scribed the areas-inspected and discussed in detail the inspection lind-l ing No dissenting comments were received from the licensee. _ ine licensee did not identify as proprietary any of the materials provided to or reviewed by the inspector during this irspectio . Acronyms and Initialisms Used'Throughout.This Report ACP actual critical-position CFR Code of Federal' Regulations '

CR0 chief reactor operator ECP estimated critical position MWth megawatts ',hermal NCSU North Carolim State University pcm Orcent mill f rho, reactivity units-RPC Raciation Pratection Committee RSAG Reactor Safaguards Advisory Group RTD.- resistance temperature device SDM shutdown trargin TS Technical Specification

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