ML20094B833

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Requests Extension of Qualification Program Completion Schedule to End of June 1985 Refueling Outage for Crosby Lift Indicating Switch Assemblies & Veam Thermocouple Connectors
ML20094B833
Person / Time
Site: Point Beach  NextEra Energy icon.png
Issue date: 08/02/1984
From: Britt R
WISCONSIN ELECTRIC POWER CO.
To: Harold Denton, John Miller
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
References
TAC-55557, TAC-55558, TAC-60640, TAC-60641, NUDOCS 8408070245
Download: ML20094B833 (3)


Text

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r-O lHscomun Elecinc romcwm 231 W. MICHIGAN, P.O. BOX 2046, MILWAUKEE, WI 53201 August 2, 1984 Mr. H. R. Derton, Director Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Washington, D. C.

20555 Attention:

Mr. J.

R. Miller, Chief Operating Reactors, Branch 3 Gentlemen:

DOCKET NOS. 50-266 AND 50-301 ENVIRONMENTAL QUALIFICATION OF PRESSURIZER SAFETY VALVE DIRECT POSITION INDICATORS AND INCORE THERMOCOUPLE CONNECTORS POINT BEACH NUCLEAR PLANT, UNITS 1 AND 2 This letter will inform you of the current status of the environmental qualification (EQ) program for the Crosby lift

' indicating switch assemblies (LISAs), which will be installed on our Unit 1 and 2 pressurizer safety valves, and the Veam thermo-couple connectors, which are being installed on the Unit 1 and 2 Incore Thermocouple Systems.

This letter also requests an exten-sion of the EQ deadline to June 7, 1985 for the LISAs and the thermocouple connectors pursuant to paragraph (g) of the NRC rule 10 CFR 50.'49.

The current EQ deadlines for the LISAs were established in Mr.

H.

R. Denton's letter to Mr. S. Burstein dated January 3, 1984 as November 2, 1984 for Unit 2 and May 24, 1985 for Unit 1 The current EQ deadline for the thermocouple con-nectors is November 2, 1584 for both Units.

Due to continued problems in qualifying the LISAs using the original electrical interface method and the fact that the original interface method could have caused delays in disconnecting the LISAs during safety valve testing every refueling, we have revised the electrical interface design.

Unlike the original method, the new design uses previously qualified sealed components

~(i.e.,

flexible conduit and connectors) which would prevent steam and chemical spray from coming in contact with the LISA electrical components.

This new design greatly increases our confidence that the LISAs will be qualified.

A new LISA test specimen using the new interface design has been assembled by Crosby for qualification testing.

The qualification test program using the new specimen is expected to begin in July, 1984 with completion of testing expected qf by the end of 1984.

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Mr. H. R. Denton Augu0t 2, 1984 This means that we will be unable complete the qualifi-cation documentation for the LISAs by the current Unit 2 deadline of November 2, 1984 In your letter of January 3, 1984, you concurred with our decision not to install the Crosby LISAs prior to resolution of the qualification test difficulties.

However, with the added assurance of qualification given by the new acaled interface design, we intend to install the unqualified Crosby LISAs in Unit 2 during the fall 1984 outage.

We still intend to install the qualified LISAs on Unit 1 during the spring 1985 refueling outage.

Our review of the Crosby test report and the plant-specific qualification documentation are expected to be completed by June 7, 1984, the scheduled end of the next re-

-fueling outage for Unit 1.

In a related matter, the Incore Thermocouple Systems at Point Beach Units 1 and 2 are being upgraded by replacing the l

connectors at the reactor vessel head and all cabling from the connectors to the computer room with qualified components, and by relocating the reference junction boxes to a mild environment.

These modifications were completed on Unit 1 during the steam generator replacement outage which ended this past April and are planned on Unit 2 during a refueling outage scheduled to begin September 28, 1984 The seismic qualification tests of the connectors have been completed successfully.

However, the environ-mental qualification tests of the Veam thermocouple connectors were recently halted prior to LOCA testing because the test cable being used for the electrical interface to the test specimens appeared to have been damaged by overaging during the precondi-tioning tests.

In order to prevent the damaged cable from jeopar-dizing the environmental qualification of the connectors, we decided to restart the environmental qualification testing using new connec-tor cable specimens and a revised test plan which minimizes the cable damage during aging.

The new specimen must now undergo the entire sequence of qualification tests including thermal aging and irradiation.

The new qualification tests are scheduled to be completed in January 1985 with a final test report to be issued in approximately March 1985.

The review of the test report and plant-specific documentation of qualification are expected to be completed by June 7, 1985.

A new method for installing the connectors on the mineral-insulated (MI) thermocouple cable, which exits through the reactor vessel head, is being used for Unit 2.

This installation method adds epoxy to the open end of the MI cable after preparing the conductors for actual connector installation.

The Unit 1 install-ation method did not use epoxy for this connector and may be susceptible to moisture intrusion.

The new qualification program includes connectors both with and without the opoxy.

If the connec-tor without the epoxy fails the qualification test and the connector with the epoxy passes, the Unit 1 connectors will have to be reworked during the next Unit 1 refueling outage.

Mr. L. R.'Denten-August 2, 1984

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We therefore request that the EQ deadline for the Unit 1 i

and Unit 2 LISAs and Incore Thermocouple connectors be extended to coincide with the revised scheduled end of the next Unit 1 refuel-t ing outage, i.e., June 7, 1985, in accordance with the provisions i

of 10 CFR 50.49 (g).

We believe that this request is timely in that we were only recently advised of the qualification program comple-tica schedule for both the Crosby LISAs and veam connectors.

We believe that this request shows good cause because test program difficulties have been directly related to the method of install-ation for the LISAs and because of actual test complications for l

the thermocouple connectors.

We would be pleased to answer any questions you may have regarding this information or these requests for extension of the environmental qualification deadline.

l Very truly yours, i

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resident i

R. W. Britt RNB/cj Copy to NRC Resident Inspector i

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