ML20128G711
| ML20128G711 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 02/09/1993 |
| From: | NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| To: | |
| References | |
| REF-10CFR9.7 NUDOCS 9302160086 | |
| Download: ML20128G711 (69) | |
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1 UNITED STATES OF AMER 3' CAL T
NUCLEAR REGULATORY'COMMIS SION-Tit 10:
PERIODIC DRIEPING.ON. OPERATING REACTORS AND FUEL FACILITIES j
a LOCatiOD:
RocxvrLLE, MARYLAND L
1 Dat0:
' FEBRUARY 9, 1993 PageS:
59 PAGES r
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DISCLAIMER l
t This is an unofficial transcript of a meeting of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission ~ held oti.
February 9, 1993 in the Commission's office at One White Flint North, Rockville, Maryland.
The meeting.was open to public attendance and observation.- This. transcript t
has not been reviewed, corrected or edited, and it, may contain' inaccuracies.
b The transcript is intended solely for general informational purposes.
As provided:by 10 CFR 9.103,.it is not part of the' formal or informal record of decision of the' matters discussed.
Expressions.of opinion ' in ' this transcript do not'necessarily reflect final. determination or beliefs.
No pleading or other paper _may be filed,.with
~
the -Commission in any ' proceeding L as the result. of, or addressed to,. any statement - or - argument contained-herein, except as the Commission may authorize.
,t' NEAL. R GROSS:
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1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION PERIODIC DRIEFING 011 OPERATING REACTORS AND TUEL FACILITIES PUBLIC MEETING l
Nuc1 car Reguletory Commission-l One White Flint North Rockville, Maryland Tu2sday, February 9, 1993-l The Commission met' in open s e s s i o' n,-
pursuant to-notico, at. 2:30 p.m.,
Ivan
- Gelin, Chairman, presiding.
COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:
IVAN SELIN, Chairman of the Commission KENNETH C. ROGERS, Commissioner FokREST J. REMICK,-Commissioner JAMES R.-CURTISS,-Commissioner E. GAIL de PLAHQUE,; Commissioner s
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STAFF-SEATED AT THEl COMMISSION TABLE:-
' JAMES TAYLOR,' Executive Director for:Oporations, DR. TiiOMAS MURLEY, Director, NRR THOMA3 MARTIN, Region I Administrator STEWART _EBNETER, Region II Administrator A. DERT DAVIS, Region III Administrator-
- JAMES - MILIlOAN, Region IV Administrator -
JOHN MARTIN, Region V Administrator GUY ARLOTTO. Deputy Director, NMSS 1
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2:30 p.m.
3 CHAIRMAN SELIN:
Good afternoon, ladies
<l 4
and gentlemen.
It's a pleasure to welcome-the 5
representatives of the senior staff, including all our 6
regional directors.
I hope nothing goes wrong out in 7
the country tv.4 with all this management here.
8 This morning the staff will brief. the 9
Commission on the stistus - of operating reactors.and 10 fuel facilities.
It's a semi-annual presentation' 11 based on the results of discussions at the NRC re-4.or 12 management meeting held on January 26th'through 28th-13 in Mr. Martin's Region I-office.
I was fortunate 14 again to have the chanca to spend the first day:With-15 the staff during its discussions.
I was very 16 impressed with the staf f's extensive deliberations.
17 In fact,_-the whole process by which.this is not just~
18 a delegated responsibility-but.something whichJall-19 the senior staff participates, discusses and, in fact, 20 votes on-is really a commendable process.
21 Many aspects of licensee performance were 22 examined during detailed evaluations of each facilityE
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23 that. was selected-for _ discussion..
Those plants
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4 24 considered for superior performance are also held up; 25 to the closest of scrutir.y.
We're all eager to hear NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIDERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N,W :
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1 tho-observations of the staff and-their-2 recommendations.
3 Do you-have any_ comments?
4-COMMISSTONER-ROGERS:
Nothing.
5 CHAIRMAN SELIN:
Mr. Taylor, would you 6
proceed then?
7 MR. TAYLOR:
Good afternoon.
With me in 8
addition to the regional administrators are Doctor 9
Murley, NRR, and Guy Arlotto, the Deputy Director of 10 NMSS.
11 I would note that this is the 14th semi-12 annual session of the senior managers to review the 13 operating nuclear plants and materials -facilitien 14 licensed by the NRC.
The=first meeting,was hdld_-in 15 April 1986.
I would note that these meetingtsl assist L
16 our senior managers in assuring that_we're focusing 1
17 our attention:and our, resources'on. plants and' issues 18 of greatest-safety significance.
"j 19.
With those : thoughts LI'11 now turn the f
20 meeting over - to Doctor Murley who. will proceed andJ 21 carry on the rest'of the: meeting.
~
22
' DOCTOR MURLEY:
Thank_
- you, Jim,-
23 Commissis.iers.-
24 As you said,. Mr. Chairman, in preparation,
' 25.
for the January senior management meeting, the NRR, NEAL R. GROSS '
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1 the AEOD and the regional staff met in a-series of 2
meetings back here in lleadquarters in october to 3
review the performance of _ each nuclear plant in the 4
country.
From these screening meetings then, we-5 selected for further analysis and in-depth discussion 6
those plants that were discussed at the recent senior 7
management meeting.
8 Tnis review process has become a major 9
feature of the staff's process for evaluating 10 operational safety.
That is evaluating how well the 11 plants are being operated in this country.
The 12 meetings bring together the most experienced people.in -
13 the Agency and although strictly speaking we don't 14 vote, Mr. Chairman, we do seek.al.1 the views and get 15 all the views - from each of the cenior, managers there,;
16 including some of my staff as well as the. regional 17 administratcrs.
.18 We depend on the SALp reports as a base of 19 information, but we go beyond them and we review 20 recent inspection results. Sometimes we have. analyses 21 of design strengths and. ~ weaknesses that the 21 Headquarters statf has done,' and-then of-course: we 23 have AEOD's_ analysis of' operational events. Land 24 operating trends.
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whether the operational performance of any plants 2
reveal-weaknesses that warrant increased NRC-3 regulatory attention.
But we also discuss.a. number of 4
plants that our preliminary screening analysis had 5
found to have good safety performance over the last 6
year or so.
Among those latter plants, we concluded-7 that seven have shown consistently high performance 8
and warrant recognition and reduced inspection 9
activity.
10 (Slide)
If I could have slide 6.
11 These seven plants with sustained -high-12 level of safety performance are Diablo Canyon 1 and 2, 13 St. Lucie 1 and 2, Summer and.Susquehanna'I and 2.
14
.(Slide)
Now ifLI-could have the first 15 slide.
Actually slide 2, category 1 plants.-
16 Category 'l plants are those that. are 4
17 removed from the watch-list facilitico and this' tine-e I 's performance 18 we've concluded. that- ' Zion 11 -and 2
19 warrants their removal from the watch list.
20 (Slide) cou'Id I hav'e the next IslideY 21 Category 2 plants are ithose that are -
22-
. authorized te-operato but that the~NRC believes:must 23 be monitored closely. Categoiy 2 plants are Brunswick.
24
-1 and 2, Dresden 2 and 3 and Fitzpatrick.-
~25 (Slide)
And then the third slide;
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These are category 3 plants that are shut 2
down and' they-require NRC authorization to operate and -
3 which ' the NRC monitors closely while they are shut-4 down.
Here Browns Ferry 1'and 3 remain category 3 5
plants.
6 I'll turn now to the regional.
7 administrators to discuss their specific plants and Tim Mar'in will begin.
8 c
9 MR. T. MARTIN:
Okay, Tom, thank you.
10 The New York Power Authority James A.
11 Fitzpatrick Nuclear Power Plant was first discussed in 12 the June 1991 senior management meeting.
.Those 13 discussions were precipitated by declining performance 14 in the functional areas of operations, radiologicalf 15 controls and safety assessment quality verification.-
16 As a result, the EDO-directed the performance of a 17 diagnostic evaluation team assessment to determine the 18.
root-causes for the-poor-performance of the._-plant.
19 The licensee util'ized Ethe results of their own
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20 evaluations, along with-those of the DET,.to develop-21 a long-term results improvement program to improve the 22' performance at the site and at.the corporate office,
-23 which they continue 1to implement.
r 24 Fitzpatrick whs' shut down by the licensee 25-in Noventber 1991:to resolve a containment. isolation =
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1-logic problem.- The plant hMs remained in an extended.
E 2
refueling outage until very recently > in :' order to 3
resolve numerous design and engineering deficiencies, 4
most notably. in _ the fire protection ; and '10_ CFR ' 50 5
Appendix R programs.
6 During the January 1992 senior ~ management' 7
meeting, we placed Fitzpatrick on the watch list as a.
8 category 2 facility.
The NRC has since conducted a-l 9
significant number and scope of. inspections' and 10 assessment efforts under the direction and' oversight l-l 11 of the NRC's Fitzpatrick assessment panel.
In-
[
12 September 1992, the NRC proposed to_ fine-the New York L
13 Power Authority $500,000.00 for violations identified l
L 14 during the period October '91 through May of
'92..
The-15 licensee agreed that the violations occurred, but-16 requested full mitigation of, the civil' penalties.
17 Those civil penalties have recently been reduced.to ic 18
$300,000.00 in. -recognition-of-the substantial 19 resources and efforts put forward by the licensee to 20 tr. prove site performance and the positive results 21-achieved to date.
22 Since the last senior management meeting, _
23
=the NRC has concluded that the Fitzpatrick results 24 improvement ; program adequately addresses the root 25 causes and corrective actions -of the previously-lp NEAL R. GROSS -
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identified performance problems and provides a
2 reasonable process for assessing the effectiveness of 3
those activities..
4 overall, the licensee has made significant-
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-5 changes to promote
-both short and long-term 6
improvements in performance. Corporate management has 7
provided substantial resources and oversight.
The 8
operator requalification program is again-9 satisfactory. The performance in radiation protection 10 has improved.
The site engineering support has been 11 upgraded in both quality.and quantity.
The plant's 12 material condition has been substantially improved.
13 operating, maintenance and surveillance - procedures 14 have been enhanced.'
The long needed new-15 administration building is nearing completion and the 16
-facilities management team under the new resident-
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17 manager has been effective.
Clearly, improvements 18 have been made in management oversight and control at 19 the site and in correcting previously'- defined 20 performance deficiencies.
21 The NRC's restart assessment team 22 inspection conducted last October concluded that a 23 significant effort had-been made-to
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verification..
A - significant- _ number of major.. work 2
tasks were completed during the extended = outage and-3 the work was typically well controlled and performed.
4 over 5,000 work requests were completed. Further,_the 5
reduction in contaminated areas and' combustible 6
material in the plant and the improvement in plant and 7
equipment preservation and cleanliness were notable.
8 clearly the licensee has completed extensive physical 9
work during the extended outage, which included 10 substantial corrective maintenance, modifications and 11 reductions in control room deficiencies and temporary-.
12 modifications.
13 Following additional work by the licensee 14 to resolve specific concerns for ' electrical cable 15 separation, the relay room fire suppression system and 16 weld radiograph quality, the NRC staff concluded that 17 the_. physical condition of the Fitzpatrick plant was 18 adequate to support safe -restart and' operation.
19 Subsequently the NRC agreed with the New York Power-20 Authority's conclusion that the facility and staff are -
21 ready _to safety-support restart and power operations:
22 and on January 3rd their reactor was again made 23 critical.
24 During unit restart and power ascension, 25 the control room was quiet and professional.
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- 1-operators used excellent-formal communications.
The-2
.shif t - supervisors and assistant-shift supervisors 3
exhibited good command and-control and traffic _in.the 4
control room was minimal.
A corporate vice president 4
5 was assigned on site for the duration'of.the restart 6
program and 24 hour2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> coverage by maintenance 7
technicians, plant engincors and Fitzpatrick= senior 8
managers was in effect throughout the start-up and 9
power ascension.
Evolutions in progress were closely 10 controlled to minimize any interference or 11 distractions.
12 All-problems that-developed
~ were' 13 adequately defined and action plans formulated and 14 approved by site management prior to' any work or 15
' additional troubleshooting and. repairs.
- Overall, 16 start-up was conducted in a deliberate and safe manner 17 with excellent management oversight and control.
18 The plant reached - 100 _ percent _ power - on 19 January
- 30th, 1993.
All. required actions and 20 milestones of the-licensee's Fitzpatrick start-up plan _-
21 have been successfully._ completed.
The licensee 22 currently _ plans to operate at 100 percent power-until' 23 the end of February, at which time they will shut down 24 for several days to replace a degraded recirculation c
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12-1 monitor.
A meeting will be scheduled ~ in -the near' 2
future for the licensee to present their restart-self--
'3 assessment and lessons learned.
4 I n'-
summary,-
the performance of the 5
Fitzpatrick staff and the facility!s material 6
condition have improved.-
However, the facility has 7
just resumed power operation for the first timeiin I
8 over a year and the NRC has yet to_-see a sustained 9
period of improved performance - while in, operation.
10 Therefore, Fitzpatrick remains a category 2 plant l-11 subject to close NRC monitoring.
12 Are there any cptestions?
l 13 COMMISSIONER ROGERS:
Yes.
You mentioned' I-the improvement of on-site engineering capability. How 14 15
-was that brought about?
16 MR.
T.
MARTIN:-
A combination of. adding _
l 17 additional staff.
They authorized 7.0'now. positions.
l-la I think about 60 percent-of those at;e currently 19 filled.
They-established-an organization _.where the 20 corporate provides major _ modification and big 21 engineering work support by havin'g a site engineering 22 organization that reports to corporate'.
They vested l
L 23 in
-the corporate-organization all the design _
24 responsibility.
They established a tech services 25 organization which acts as the clearinghouse f_or all NEAL R. GROSS 1
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engineering requests. - So, an engineering request can 2
be generated anywhere in the organization.
It flows 3
to the tech services organization which reports 4
directly to the general manager of operations.
11 0 -
5 decides or that organization decides is it within the 6
tech services capability, should this be farmed out to 7
the maintenance
- engineer, the INC
- engineer, the 8
radiation protection engineer, or is this a large 9
modification or a major work item that needs-to be 10 farmed out to the corporate entity which happens to 11 also have assets on site.
12 So, with that clearinghouse and periodic 13 reprioritization of the work,.they have shown 14 improvement in their performance there.
It's not 15 perfect yet --
16 COMMISSIONER ROGERS:
I guess one of-the 17 concerns is they had a strong central engineering 18 group, I guess, in White Plains and the concern that 19 I have is that in improving engineering on-site at-20 Fitzpatrick that th'e Indian Point site doesn't suffer 21 from it in some way.
22 MR. T. MARTIN:
Understood.
And in large part, they did this by adding these 70 new poritions, 23 24 of which not all of them are filled.
The site 25 engineering group, just by the way, is brand new.
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Tnat's 34 - additional : people.
So, they have added.
-2 additional ~' staff.
-I suspect too.that there has been-3 acme diversion of focus from Indian Point:3-where it 4~
previously was to the Fitzpatrick plant because that S
was the plant that was getting 'all the engineering f
modifications.
But if you remember back when the DET 7l had their findings, they found about 75 percent of the 8
corporate resources were going to. Indian Point 3 and 9
only about 25 percent were going to Fitzpatrick.
10 We have not remeasured that balance there,.
11 but the licensee has provided additional staff and I.
12 assume is controlling that.
13 COMMISSIONER ROGERS:
Okay.
14 CHAIRMAN SELIN:
-But to follow up on 15 Commissioner Rogers'
- question,
.have
- you-seen 16 comparable deterioration at Indian Point 3 at the same 17 time you've-seen'the improvements at Fitzpatrick?
18 MR '. T. MARTIN:
We have seen problems at-19 Indian Point 3 that we need to get'on top of.
- Yes, 20 there are still some communications problems ' from -
21 corporate engineering to the site and where-certain-22 requirements or expectations have noti
'been-23 communicated and there are still some deficiencies in 24 the engineering support at Indian Point-3 that we need 25 to get more information on.
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15-1 CHAIRMAN - SELIN:
Are they the kind, of 2
-things you would expect to see-from resources being 3
diverted to Fitzpatrick or - are they = just sort of 4
independent problems at Indian _ Point?.
5 MR. T. MARTIN:
It-appears that a lot of 6
this is historical and not necessarily a direct result 7
of any diversion resources.
Most of it we can' trace 8
back to problems that existed prior to the DET.
9 CHAIRMAN SELIN:
I'm sorry, problems at 10 Indian Point 3?
11 MR.
T.
MARTIN:
At Indian Point 3, yes,.
12 sir.
13~
CHAIRMAN SELIN:
Okay.
14 DOCTOR MURLEY:
Region II, Stu Ebneter:
15 next, please.
16
'MR. EBNETER:- Good af ternoon.
I have two 17 plants to discuss,-the Brunswick plant and the Browns-18' Ferry plant.
19 Brunswick - Nuclear Plant is a two_ unit) 20 boiling water reactor station owned by Carolina-Powe.r.
21.
and_ Light Company.
It was placed on. the problem plant-22-list as-a category 2 plant.in June of 1992.
$Both; 23 units were voluntarily' shut down in April of 1992 and
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24--
they remain shut down in a maintenance outage.
25 Brunswick performance over the years has NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W.
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i been ; cyclical.and continued.to -decline: duel to:-
binadequate' management involvement,:? lack of: leadership,-
2 3;
poor communication of management: l expectations: - and '
4
. standards to the 'staf f, andi a. weak 'self-assessment -
~
-5 corrective action program.
The material,' condition of 6
'the plant had deteriorated substantially.due_to. poor.
7 maintenance practices and a poor work control; process 8
which contributed to personnel-errors in-delaystand 9
work accomplishment.
10 Since th3 last. Commission-lbriefingr
~
11 considerable progress has been made by the-licensee.
12
'A'new president and chief operating-officer-has-Lbeen; 13 appointed and he reported last fall.
'A new station 14 vice president has been recruited'.and he reported in 15 January 1993. Both-of these executives were recruited 16 from outsf de ' of the corporation: and have J extensive 17
-industry experience with the nuclear? facilities.
18
. In-addition,.
the_:
plant' Ihasi been?
19 reorganized to assign l specific management oversight'to a
4 20-both units and they~have a team now'which focuses on 21-
. recovery - activities-for :both of thesetunits.e LSince 22' these changes have been made,- there's been noticeable 23
-increase.'in progress., The licensee'has:srbmitted'the 24 performance improvement plan that we asked for.in-Junej 25 of - 1992.
~ The plan-addressed the short-term actions?
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that must be taken before the units can be. restarted:
2 and the corrective actions for long-term which-include 3
corporate improvement plan.l The ~ NRC-staff has 4
reviewed and concurred-in the short-term plan and we 5
are in the process of reviewing the long-term plan..
6 The physical plant is undergoing 7
substantial change.
The structural ' deficiencies in 8
the diesel generator building walls have been fully 9
identified.
They've been corrected..
Extensive 10 maintenance has been performed on the diesel 11 generators and at the present time with the.last data 12 I had, three of the four diesels had been declared-13 operable with the fourth in the process o f.
final 14 maintenance stages.
15 The review and -walk down of. station 16 structural steel has - been essentially. completed and 17 repairs made as appropriate.
Good progress-has been 18 made on the restoration of plant' areas that exhibited-19 excessive corrosion 'and these are pretty-auch s
20 corrected.
The' instrument racks have-been replacedf 21 with stainless steel racks.
Electrical. and piping 22 supports have been repaired and ' replaced and the 23 service water building has been essentially recovered.
-24 The-overall material condition of : the=
25 plant is much improved-and several model rooms have:
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-1 been established to convey standards to the staff of.
2 what they expectLthe a*ation_to11ook'like.
A good-3 example is feedwater pump and feedwater heater rooms.
4 Both have been completely refurbished and they really-5 are good examples of high standards.
6 Progress has been made on the backlogs 7
that existed at the time _of
- shutdown, but the 8
walkdowns and reviews have -identified-so much 1
9 additional work that the backlogs now are greater than 10 they were at the time of shutdown.
The licensee has-11 instituted a screening and prioritization process to 12 deal with the backlog.
13 The NRC has three resident inspectors on 14 site and these are supplemented almost weekly by 15 regional specialists and NRR specialists.
We have 16 established an oversight group chaired by an.SESer to c
17 provida oversight and directionLto the staff, and we 18 conducted a
systematic assessment:
ofL licensee, 19 perf ormance which was presented in January.1993.
The 20 SALP scores were essentially the. same-as the previous -
21 SALP.
They received -two category 3s 'in the-22 maintenance surveillance and safety assessment quality.
23 verification functional areas.
All other functional-i 24 areas were-rated as category 2.
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~.
b 19 1
restart is presently scheduled for-restart on. March
'l 2
21st,1993 with the Unit 1-restart scheduled.for early.
3 June of 1993,- Restart requires the concurrence of the 4
NRC staff and will not commence until both NRC and the 5
licensee have conducted
-operational assessment 6
reviews.
7 Brunswick Units 1 and.2 remain on the-8 problem plant list as a category 2.
9 Any questions?.
10 CHAIRMAN SELIN:
If you came into that 11
. plant today and it weren't on the watch list, would 12 you put it on the watch list?
13 MR. EBNETER:
Probably, yes.
14 CIUsIRMAN SELIN:
So, it's not just a-15 question of you want to'see the progress for a longer 16 time, they're not in absolute-terms where you'd say 17 their performance is acceptable?
18 MR.
EBNETER:
Well, -it certainly- - has 19 improved.
Material ' condition is far superior than 20 what it was.
So,-I think if you looked around the' 21 plant and based your opinion on what you're seeing'of~
22
-the physical pl' ant, you might not say it's a category-
~
'~
like' the-23 2 - plant.
Some of the hidden features, 1-24 backlogs and the management - interaction and those 25 things have improved.
I was there about three' weeks'
- NENL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS -
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20 1_
ago and dropped in unannounced at an outage meeting.
2 It - was by ~ far the best meeting I've attended - at' 3
Brunswick. There was good team interaction. There is 4
a new outage manager that they brought in from Harris.
5 It was well under control.
No excuses for poor
)
6 performance. They weren't doing it, the managers told 7
themselves.
8 So, -those are more important to me -
9 actually than looking at the new paint and things.
10 So, there has been good progress made in there, but 11 still a ways to go.
12 CHAIRMAN SELIN:
Have-you seen any effect 13 of -- have the resources that are at Brunswick been 14 shifted from Harris or Robinson?
15 MR.
EBNETER:
.No,
I haven't seen any 16 impact.
Certainly ther o _has been some transfers.
17 Particularly there was ~. at least one _ gentleman from 18-Robinson who was transferred,-_a number of people from-19 Harris.
Harris' recent SALP'showed a slight decline 20 in one functional area, but generally - they ' were 21 maintaining their performance levels.
Robinson' 22 actually has been improving in performance and now has 23 several 1 categories-with a one in_ operations, which 24 is good.
So, I have not seen any dilution of1 the 25 other two stations.
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1 COMMISSIONER REMICK: Stu, if there was an' 2'
independent observer were to go to the NRC and to the 3
licensee and ask the question, "Does the NRC and the 4
licensee fully understand what are the requirements of-5 the operational readiness review. and start-up 6
criteria?" would the answer be they both' understand-7 and they're in agreement?
8 MR. EBNETER:
Well, I would have to say 9
no, neither of us understand and neither of us are in 10 agreement.
We have requested a start-up-profile.in' 11 schedule..
Doctor Murley's staff was down there last 12 week with us trying to develop.what we want to do for 13 the operational readiness.
The licensee still-needs 14 to give us some quantitative material on certain 15 aspects of backlogs that_we will accept ' the - prior.
16 start-up and things in that nature.
17 I think we agree in general-because of the-18 start-up plans that we have accepted, but the' details,.
19 no.
I would say that Gene Imbro on Tom's staff and 20 John Johnson on my staff can give-you.a pretty good ~
21 generic overview.
But the real meat of. start-ap we 22-have not coordinated yet.
23 COMMISSIONER REMICK: - The reason I ask the 24 question, for years at least the allegations that once -
25 down it's very difficult to know what it takes to get NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N W.
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~
22-1 permission to restart.
It's kind of bring rte another 2
rock and I'll tell-you-when you_ bring me enough:of 3
them and'are the right kind.
I'm just wondering if' 4
that is the situation.
I realize some of these things
^
5 are subjective, but do we have'any kind' of a method to z try to d( ~;ine so people know reasonably well' what it i
6 7
is they have to do and can plan on.it.
8 MR. EBNETER:
I think'we know reasonably 9
well in all areas with exception of the backlog.
It's 10 very confusing.
It can be categorized and-11 characterized in almost an infinite number of-ways and 12 I can tell you the last meeting-I was at I had a great 13 deal cf problem trying to decipher what they were 14 saying.
We told them we have to get that quantified.
15 MR. TAYLOR:
I'd like to-add that when r
16 some of the management talked to_us just recently, 17-clearly they weren't doing this. They were not really _
18 organizing the backlog and this new management has put 19 a great deal of effort to do just what you're saying.
20 They are categorizing and calling:tha shots of_those-21 things that really require fixing ~ as - part ? of the-22 restart effort.
I. think the staff then.will conclude 23 their review and be sure that they've captured --
24 MR. EBNETER:
We should have that pretty:
25 much defined by March 1st, which is our_next meeting.
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33 l
1 Tom's operational readiness assessment team is working 2
with us on that.
They did give us a sort of a general.
3 profile with two hold points on it and we said two 4
hold points are not enough.
We need'one down in a 5
lower area.
So, those are the types of things that 6
we're trying to define.
7 COMMISSIONER REMICK:
But when we look at 8
backlog, do we look at number of work orders or do we 9
look at say the safety significance of what needs to 10 be done?
11 MR. EBNETER:
Safety significance.
They 12 have five categories.
When you talk about backlogs, 13 there's probably three or four different backlogs.
14 There's one on temporary conditions and there's one on 15 work request.
The work request, a general figure 16 would be around 1800 the last time I talked with them.
17 That's total.
Of that there's about 700, 750 that 18 reside in category 1, 2,
3 and 4.
Those will all be 19 completed before strrt-up.
The others are in - a 20 category 5 which is a fix-as-you-can, not a-safety-21 related issue.
But our objective is to get that down 22 as low as we can also and not have a huge inventory of 23 items to finish.
So, it is categorized.
24 COMMISSIONER REMICK:
If we went from 25 region to region would the expectations for restart of NEAL. R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHOOE ISLAND AVENUE, N W.
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24
~
1 facilities like-this be somewhat comfortable?
=2 MR. EBNETER:. Absolutely.
3 MR. T. MARTIN:
Commissioner, Fitzpatrick 4
was a little further along in the process, and.so 5
we've actually done our -readiness. assessment team 6
inspection. What we did, we wcat through every one of 7
the backlog items.
Thay told us which ones they were 8
going to defer until after start-up and which.ones 9
they were going to be done before. We looked at their 10 process as new ones emerge which category-they would 11 go in.
One, we found their process-was a good.one,-
12 and two, we agreed with the ones they were deferring, 13 that they were not something that needed to-be.done 14 for start-up. We did the same thing with control room.
15 deficiencies.
We did the same thing with temporary 16 modification.
So, Region.I was a little further. along -
17 in that our plant was ready to start up.
18 But that.was the part'of the readiness 19 team inspection that makes sure-that we are 20 comfortable with their plants.
21 DOCTOR MURLEY:
I had-a. thought._ 'We do--
22 work, of course, with each of the l regions and-the 23 problems are difforent at every plant.
Several years 24 ago I reminded the Commission of. Tolstoy'r opening-i 25 remarks in Anna Karenina that all happy families.are~
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHOOE ISLAND AVENUE, N W.
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25-1-
alike, but each unhappy family-is-unhappy inuits_own 2
way.
That-remark-. applies to the plants here.
You can't really compare Brunswick and its problems with(
-3 4
Fitzpatrick.
But we do keep an eye onsit~and_wo do 5
try to issue a confirmatory action: letter which lays 6
out the major concerns 1that we have at each site and-7 I think there is such a letter now-on Brunswick.
8 COMMISSIONER REMICK: ~ Those are admittedly e
9 very general?
O 10 DOCTOR MURLEY:
They are very general,;
11 yes.
But at least it lays out - the ' high.- level) 12.
contiderations that we have at these plants.-
r 13 COMMISSIONER de PLANQUEt Can I follow:up,
I' 14 on that a minute?
Is there any _, general. ; problem-15 associated with how the backlogs -are characterized or' 16 how the accounting-is done?! Is there a great' deal if 17 discrepancy and does that cause 'a problem?!
18 MR. EDNETER:, No, we don't have'_a problem:
19 with that in this case, 20 COMMISSIONER de PLANQUE:
Okay..
21 CHAIRMAN SELIN:
There's a great' deal of 22 discrepancy, but it ' doesn't necessarily cause a.
23
_ problem.
24 COMMISSIONER de PLANQUE:
But it's'not--a-'
25 problem in this case.
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i-3 t.
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CHAIRMAN SELIN:
I-menn from one plant'to-
?!
i 1-
-2 aiother there's.an' enormous difference.
~
'3 MR.
EBNETER:.
Ycss,
it's' different.1 4
Absolutely.
5 Well, just one further - comment.
' Tom's 6
staff 'will be doing-the operational readiness 7
assessment-team, which-is independent of the_-region,__
8 and they will be independently-looking at the backlog 9
in parallel with my staff.
10 COMMISSIONER REMICK:
Okay. ~Thank you.-
11 DOCTOR-MURLEY If there are no~further
~
12 questions, the.Bert Davis will-talk about --
13 MR. EBNETER:
I-have Browns Ferry.
14 DOCTOR MURLEY:
Oh, I'm sorry.- Yes.
15 MR. EBNETER:- You're just.trying to_ turn:
16 me off here.
17 CHAIRMAN SELIN:
You can give 1him:: the 18 microphone-but expect to get it back.-
19 MP. EBNETER: Well, maybe we don't want 'to 20 discuss Browns Ferry.
'21 MR. TAYLOR:'
Go ahead,-Stu.
22 MR. 'EBNETER:.
Browns Ferry.
This!.is 23 short.
Browns Ferry Nuclear. Plant' is a three unitl 24 boiling water reactor station owned by the Tennessee 25 Valley Authority.
Browns Ferry was placed on.-- the :
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i.
'(
FJ s
-l' u
eq 1-
. problem - plant-list Ein - October 1986. -
Unit 2-was :
p-2 restarted in May of 1991 and because of Lsustained g'ood 3
performance was classified-as category 1 at the-June 4
1992 senior management meeting.
Unit 2_is presently-5 in a scheduled outage.
Units 1 and 3 were retained on.
6 the list as category-3 and they remain shutdown and 7
defueled.
8 The TVA Board chairman-left TVA and was-9 replaced in June 1992 by an ' existing - board.nember -
g 10 This has had - no noticeable impact on the nuclear 11 organization and the Board continues to be involved in U
12 nuclear matters as evidenced by their attend'ance _at?
13' SALP and-other-meetings.
14 The position of senior _ vice : president,-
15 Nuclear Operations remains vacant - and Lthere <is: an-
-16 executive search' ongoing for an executive to: fill this,
17 position.
TVA has-'focusedL. attention i on-the-18 restoration of. Unit 3 which has: extensive engirieeringl 19 and modification work that must be<. accomplished.before 20-the unit can return to service.
TVA over the last few 21 years has ' transitioned ' from doing emajor-engineering -
and construction work with their in-house staffdto:
22 23-
- contracting:outifor-these services.
'r 24 Browns Ferry has encountered considerable 25
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7
m-
?
g L
2 8 ~-
y.
l 1
lout. _ Interface control; problems between contrcctors 2'
_and:-inadequate TVA oversight of the contractor work 3
products have led to delays in recovery of the unit j
4 and has been very -
5 CHAIRMAN SELIN:'lAre'you talking about-3 6
now or are ycu talking about the whole site?
l 7
MR. EBNETER:
Unit 3.-
In conclusion with 8
that, there has been very little progress on Unit =3, 9
CHAIRMAN SELIN:-
But 1: hasn't affected-10 the progress on-2?
11 MR.
EBNETER:
No, 2 is their --highest 12 priority.
Unit 2 is in.an outage and~much of the-13 resources that were used for Unit 3 -are working.on-the 14 outage.-
It's about 120 - day ' outage, very,. _ very -
l 15 ambitious.
So, Unit 2 has not suffered from - any i
16 divergence.
17 Back to' Unit 3,~
the design cales vork:
.18 -
. plans have been delayed and field work 'has: fallen 19-behind.
Some progress, but not a' great deal has been 20 made in _ piping replacement, condenser retubing. and j
I 21 drywell steel.
'22 As a result of these, TVA' reorganized the 23 Browns Ferry project and placed the responsibility fur '
- j 24 the entire site,. this is all three units now, under -
'j 25
.the site vice president of operations. Previously the NEAL R. GROSS -
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1 29 1-Units 1--and 3 were reported throughc the engineering.
2
-organization.
The project is undergoing a-complete-3-
' review and will-be rebaselined with a new schedule for
'4 4-fuel load to be developed in May of 1993.
j i
5 The project management of Unit 3 has been J
6 reassigned to site engineering -and _ modifications
-l I
7 manager who has taken action to__ overview contractor _
l 8
effort. The ef fort on Unit 3 has been further delayed 9
by utilization of these resources 'to - support ~ the' 10 extended outage of Unit 2.
11 With regard to Unit-1, there has been 12 almost no activity, just some minor walkdowns and the 13 installation of the hardened-vent which is applicable -
14 to all three units.
15 Because of the extensive rework remaining
~
16 to be donc, the current schedule of January - 1994 17-restart of Unit-3 is' optimistic at best.
TVA expects s
18
.to. provide a -revised schedule for Un' it 3 - in May.
19 There is no' restart estimate for Unit 1 and Drowns 20 Ferry Units 1 and 3 remain on the problem plant l'ist 21
-as category 3 units.
22 DOCTOR MURLEY:
.Okay.
Bert - Davis from
~
. 23 Region lIII will talk aboutiZion und-Dresden sites.
2+
24' MR. DAVIS:- Good' afternoon, Mr. Chairman-25 and. Commissioners.
-In today's discussion'I plan to-NEAL R. GROSS S
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_. _. _ -. _ ~.... _ _ _ _. _ _ -. -
l 30 cor orate 1
discuss several
- topico, the status of 9
1 2
initiatives to improve performance across the,
ear t
3 operations Division of commonwealth Edison company,
'i 4
the 2, ion station improvement status, and the Dresden
~
5 station improvement status.
i r
As you
- know, Commonwoalth contracted-7 outsido organizations to assist and advise them in 8
improving their organization and performence.
Those 9
ovaluations have boon. completed, tho - comy. yf has 10 reviewed and ovaluated the results and they concluded 11 the need for a number of changos.
For examplo, they.
i 12 found that they noodod to improvo management 13 effectivanosa.
They nood to have clearer roles and 14 responsibilities to defino'for practically all levels 15 in the organization.
There needed to-bo incroNed 16 personal accountability.
There needed to be clearer 17 performanco expectations and improved planning within.
18 the division.
19 As a
- result, Commonwealth
.i s in the 20 process of making what they call' fundamental changes.
21 in the Nuclear Operations Division structure and'the 22 management processes.
.The. company has. developed;an 23 integrated management action : plant to guide.themLin 24 making'. those changes to the -organization, the.
25 attitudes of the people,.. communications -and the NEAL R GROSS COURT REPOS4TERS AND TRANfiCAlotRS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENVE, N W -
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~
1 31 I
I management processos. This management action plan and 2
its supporting work pachegos provide the detailed 3
plans and proceduros to guido them through the 4
changos.
5 At this time they havo defined their now organization 6
structure at both corporate and the six stations and 7
have filled most of the hoy management positions.
8 13riefly lot no givo you como highlights of 9
the organization.
There is a senior vice president 10 who is the chief nuc1cir operations officor.
This is 11 Cordell Itood. 110 is responsible for overall operation 12 of the division, llo also has responsibility for 13 fossil generation.
There's a vico prooldont who is 14 the chief nucinar operating officar.
This in-Miko 15 Wallaco.
11 0 is totally responsible and accountablo 16 f or the operation and management of all six stations.
37 There are six site vice presidents, one at 18 each station.
These vico presidents havo 19 responsibility for the-overall businous and technical 20-manager ant of sito activition.
They are accountable-21 for the safe, dependable and economic operation of the 22 stations.
23-Thoro arrethen six station managora, ona 24 at each uite. They are accountable for the day to day.
-o 25'
-safe reliable an-3 officient operation of.the station.
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--g 4
y
L.
32 1
They have reporting to them operations, technical 2
services, maintenanco and planning.
These positions 3
have been filled and the transition to the now 4
4 organizat.ional structuro and management systems are 4
5 underway.
6 Bofore I move on to Zion, are there any 7
questions with respect to what I've covered?
8 COMMISSIONER REMICK: Berc, how sit,ilar if 9
you go from station to station the subgroups in 10 organization?
You montioned they had a site VP and a g
11 manager and then they have elements underneath.
Are 12 those commor, so that they can make a comparison how 13 operations at one plant might be compared or are tho-14 functions different at each one so it's a little 15 difficult to make cross station comparisons?
16 MR. DAVIS:
The organizational structuro 17 is essentially the samo at all the stations.
The la chief nuclear operating officer and his site vice 19 presidonts are in the process of defining what needs 20 to be done similarly and what' doesn't with respect to 21 the individual stations.
The last time =I talked to 22 them, which was a = couple weeks. ago, they had not 23 completed yet that determination.
But-they do.
24 recognize some differences among the-stations, among 25 the personalities at the stations perhaps and they are NEAL R. GROSS CoVRT REPORTER!t AND TRANSCRIBER $
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going to allow for some differences, but they are 2
going to define that and control it.
3 COMMISSIONER RT. MICK Thank you.
4 DOCTOR HURLEY:
If I
could
- add, 5
Commissioner, from my visits there and my discassion 6
with the company, my sense is that there's going to be 7
a lot more control, if control is the right word, from 8
their headquarters.
For example, the six vice 9
presidents, I'm told, meet together with Mr. Wallace 10 once a week, one day a week.
So, I think there's 11 going to be a lot more coherence and a lot more 12 uniformity and even peer pressuro, as a matter of 13 fact, that we'll see in the future.
14 I don't know, Dort, if you --
15 MR. DAVIS That's exactly right, peer 16 pressure and perhaps some healthy peer competition.
17 DOCTOR MURLEY:
You.
18 MR. DAVIS Moving on to Zion station, 19 Zion was placed on the watch list in January of 1991.
20 At our last senior management meeting we recognized 21 that performance improvement continued in a number of 22
- areas, llowever,.come rather significant weaknesses 23 existed.
71n most notable were poor dierel generator 24 performance and a loss of RHR cooling and containment 25 spray due to personnel error and poor work control.
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34 1-We also felt a sustainod period of good 2-perfornance was needed to demonstrate the 3
offoetiveness of their improvement programs.
As a 4
result, Zion was kept on the watch list.
5 Tet me talk now about performance today.
6 Performance continues to inprovo at an acceptabic 7
rate.
Improvements continue in planning and 8
scheduling, radiological
. protection, management 9
actions, shutdown risk and material condition. Let an 10 give you some examplos of the improved performance.
11 Material condition has improved. Progress i
f 12 is very good in the auxiliary building.
They plan to l
13 continue this improvoment in other areas of the plant.
l l-14 Pin.nning-and scheduling has improved.
It in good for 15 work plan for the next 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br />.
It is also' good for,
16 a three day rolling schedulo and it is good for-l-
17 unanticipated forced outages.
18 They are currently in a refueling outage'.
19 They were better prepared for the current Unit 2 20 refueling outage than we have soon in the past.
As a 21 result, on day 90, - which was.today,- of a 105 day 22 outage, they are four days ahead of schedule.
23 Now, in talking to the senior resident
.24 inspector this morning, he told me that it's not only 25 the management and the NRC staff that recognizes this, l
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRfBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE N W.
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'(202)2344 4 3-
h 35 1
but in being out in the plant and talking to tho i
2 workers, they are also saying, "This is the best 3
outage at Zion that wo have soon in years and years 4
and years."
So, that's a good sign.
-e 4
5 Radiological protection has improved-in 6
the current outage.
Af ter rather poor performanco in 7
the last major outago, they mado improvements that 8
appear to be offectivo.
9
)dcwagement actions.
You may roca11 that 10 Zion han a No wnnagement action plan to improve-11 their performanco.
Based on our review, the action 12 plan items aro= generally being tracked, completed on 13 schedul'c and being integrated into l proceduros once 34 they have boon completed.
15-Shutdown risk. _ They have a good shutdown 16 risk program that is based on INPO guidelinos and they-17 plan to improvo it more in the futuro.
It is prepared la at the station'and it's reviewed at corporato.
- Also, 19 both units havo had reasonably good operating runs in 20
'the last six months.
Unit 1 hadL104 day run, Unit 2 21 had a_146 day run.
22 How,- in spito of ovarything I'vo.said, 23 there have boon como equipment problems.. Thore have.
i 24 boon problems that detract from tho positive progress 25
.that I've described.
Let mo give you. a ' couple of NEAL R. GROSS COUnf ntPORTERS AND TRANSCfilBERS 1323 MODE ISLAND AVENUC, N W,
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i 36 q
1 examples.
In September, Unit 1 shut down duo.to.a 2
f ailed auxiliary feed pump.
A nut was left in tho 3
pump during a previous repair.
In October, an-4 auxiliary foodwater pump dischargo valve was locked 5
partially closed versus being locked open.
This was
{
6 found by an operator when he was doing a valve line-up 7
check after testing another aux.-foodwater pump.
8 A failure to follow proceduros caused a t
9 water hammer in the turbino driven auxiliary feedwater lo pump steamlino.
Operators closed a valve to do some 11 work. They thought it would not be closed long enough 12 to got condensation in the lino.
They were w* tong.
13 So, when they opened the steam valvo, they got a water -
14 hammer.
15 In October, a control room operator found-16 that the high hand cold log safety injection valve was 17 closed.
A mechanic had gone insido containment and la had inadvertently closed the valve.
There's-bad new 19 and good news for this.
Bad news, he closed the 20 valvet good news that the operator picked it up within 21 55 minutes, being observant to tho control. room 22 instrumentation.'
23
. Management has focused on those errors and.
24 has corrected them.
25
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37 1
February and we'll soon have our SALP meeting with the I
2 licensee.
The results have improved from the last 3
timo.
They have category 1 ratings in the functional 4
areas of emergoney preparedness and security, and 5
category 2 ratings in all other functional areas.
6 Diesel generator status.
As I stated 7
carlier, the performance of the diesel generators was 8
a factor in kooping Zion on the watch list at the last 9
senior management mooting. The performance since then 10 han improved, which - indicates that the corrective 11 actions are reasonably offective.
12 In conclusion, Zion has improved enough to 13 be taken off the watch list.
It is our view that the 14 improvement will continue.
I do not believe our 15 decision to take them off the watch list will result 16 in their relaxing from their improvement efforts.
17 This concludes my remarks on Zion.
Are la there any questions before I go to Dresden?
19 Dresden'was placed on the watch list at' 20 our January 1992 senior management meeting.
It had' 21 previously been on the. Watch list from June of '87 22 through August-of
'88.
In ' January ' 92, - they. were 23 placed.on-the watch list-as a result of weaknesses 24
.that became apparent in a refueling outage in _ late 25
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problems that began to occur in mid-1991 that caused 2
us to analyze about 40 ovents or errors to determine 3
what the problem was. We met with licensee management 4
to discuss the results of our review.
5 As a result of this performance decline, 6
Commonwealth undertook a number of initiatives. These 7
included independent assessments of porformance by a
Commonwealth itself and by contractors and other 9
outside organizations, the development and 10 implementation of an improvement plan, personnel 11 changes at the plant, increased resources, increased 12 engineering support and increased corporate overview.
13 At the last cenior management we concluded that 14 although actions were underway to improve performance, 15 they were in the early stages.
It was too early to 16 predict whether they would be sufficient to affect 17 sustained improvement.
la Now, let me talk about. performance today.
19 Progress is being made in a variety of areas, but much
[
{
20 still remains to be'done.
In view of -the work ynt to 21 be done in the identified program-areas, the need to 22 demonstrate-that they can implement the new programs 23 that they have developed, the potential. impact of the L
24 organization and management changes that they're 25 making, the errors still being made and the material i-NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISL.AND AVENUE, N W.
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condition, it is still too early to prodict when wo i
2 can return our overview of Drosden to normal levels.
i 3
Let me givo you nome examples related to 4
this current performanco.
Material condition is 5
improving.
Housekooping and the condition of some 6
hardware is gotting better.
Inside the
- plant, 7
cleanlinoss has improved.
Outside the plant, thero 8
were significant improvements in overall station performanco and in getting rid of a lot of radioactive -
9 r
10 matorial.
There is a relatively large backlog of.
11 maintenance activitios ponding modifications and' i
12 equipment rollability issues.
Adequato resources are 13 being applied to Dresden.
Mr. O'Connor, the CEO, 14 continues to assure no that the necessary resources.
15 will continue to be allocated to the Nuclear-16 operations Division. So8re watching the performance 17
.of the plants closely to - determine that all needed 1B work is being_- performed lan required and on an 19 appropriate schedule.
20 The licensee has.made a
number of 21 personnol changes'at Dresden.
In general, welthink
.ere-appropriate and-needad.-
22-these changes w
23 Communications betwoon management-and-staff Jand:
24 between - departments ' continues to improve.
-This is --
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changes that are being made thora.
2 Planning continuos to improvo. A now work 3
control procons wan implemented.
I'll claborato on 4
that a little bit, because I-think it's important.
5 The procono clopoly couples plannora and schedulars.
6 Schedulou now better reflect planned activitios. Work l
7 packages are more complete, including sparo parts, proceduren, radiation work permits and out of service 8
9 tags, and many arc ready to be performed the Wook 10
-before the work is ochedulod.
But, the system in 11 still in its early stages.
12 Thin improved planning was a f actor in the 13 well-conducted recent dional gonorator overhaul, a
14 down-power to replace a recire, pump-soal, und a 15 forced outage in August.
But we'ro not yet ready to 16 say that their planning has natured to the level that 17 it'can handle a refueling outago well.
The ongc.ing-18 refueling outage which bogan about three wooks ago is 19 progressing reanonably well. The l'iconoco bolloves it'-
20 was bottor prepared for this outago than they. have 4
i 21 boon -in the past..and.vo agroo, but.wo nood to ano 22 demonstrated performance throughout the outage beforo 23 we reach a conclusion on their ability to carry out an-24 offective refueling outage.
g 25 Enhancements of the
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organization are positivo.
Unnecessary activities 2
have boon removed from the control room.
The role of 3
the shift engincor, which is the senior man in charge 4
of the shift operation at commonwealth, has been f
5 emphasized with respect to his being the person who is 6
in control of activities during the shift.
Operator 7
attentiveness at the panels is acceptable.
There was 8
an exception to this in n control rod misposition 9
event that I'll discuss in a minute.
10 Maintenance is improving.
Management--
11 expectations have been established and communicated to 12 the various levels of maintenance management and 13 supervision at the plant. Improvements have been made 14 in the modification program.
This has been a concern 15 in the past that they had a lot of plan modifications 16 that they weren't getting around to doing.
A program 17 to review all of these outstanding. modifications was 18 conducted.
They have scheduled them and they are s
19 being scheduled for this refueling outage,-for-non-20 outage time and for the next two refueling outages,- so 21 they are making some progress and; they ?have future 22 ones scheduled. Procedures are being' improved and the 23 backlog has been reduced.
=.
24
'Now that!s all been pretty positiva.
Let 25 me give-you como of the problems and concerns that wo NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTI.RS AND TRANSCRIBERS
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have.
1 2
1:rrors and hardware problems continue at 3
too high a rate, in my opinion.
Some examples are, in 4
September there was an error in a
movement.
From a safety standpoint it vias not 6
significant in that no nuclear limits were challenged, 7
however there were some significant issues related to 8
the event.
Control room personnel contrived to cover 9
up the event.
The reactor operator took direction 10 from a non-licensed nuclear engineer.
The nuclear 11 engineer was not experienced in the-manipulations 12 being performed. There was inadequate coverage of the 13 control boards when the involved people went behind 14 the boards to discuss the event.
15 The licensee took strong actions as a.
16 result of this event.
Four of the five individuals 17 involved were discharge.- The fifth, a relatively new 18
- employee, was given time off without ' pay. and 19 counseled.
20 In August, Unit 2 had a forced outage Ldue 21 to a recire. pump seal'_ : leakage.
They returned to 22 power on' August 5th, but pump vibrations occurred due -
23 to misalignment;-of pump and motor.
on August 22nd, 24 they went into a-forced outage to rebalance the' pump g
25 motor..
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In July they had an unusual event due to 2
a spill of 500 gallons of diesel generator fuel oil in 3
the diesel generator room.
4 In July, diosol generator pump batteries 4
5 were found to be dirty and covered with acid by our 6
inspectors.
7 In October, a Unit 3 acram due to a failed 8
condensate booster pump due to poor past maintenance.
9 In December, thoro were a
couple of 10 instances where maintenance people did not properly 11 adhere to radiological protection procedures and 12 standards.
13 I
provide these examples of recent 14 problems to point out that, in spite of the ongoing 15 improvements, further improvements are needed at 16 Dresden Station.
17 SALP results for the period covering 18 August of 1991 through July of 1992, there were four 19 functional areas that had category 3 ratings.
These 20 were in operations, radiological protection, 21 engineering and technical
- support, and safety 22 assessment and quality verification.
23 In conclusion, progress is being made in 4
24 a number of areas but much remains to be done.
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equipment condition.
Adequate resources hav4: been 2
provided. Needed personnel additions and changes have 3
been made.
Progress is being raade on the itnprovement 4
program.
Communications between management and staf f 5
are improving. Planning and scheduling are' improving, 6
including shutdown risk considerations, and the -
7 station has had reasonable operating performance in 8
1992.
9 Problems continue, -however, as I've 10 indicated with equipment failures and personnel 11 errors. The recent attempt at cover-up of the control 12 rod mismanipulation is considered to be significant.
13 Further improvement and demonstration that completed 14 improvements can be sustained are needed. The current 15 refueling outage will be a good determinant of the 16 effectiveness of many of the licensee's programs and 17 the ability to implement them.
Based on these 18 considerations, it was determined that Dresden's Unit-19 2 and 3 would remain on the-NRC watch list.
20 That concludes my comments on Dresden.
21 Any questions?
22 COMMISSIONER REMICK:
I have several-23 questions, Burt. -What is your overall assessment of 24 the success oi' the SCRE or shift control room engineer 25 at Dresden 2 and 3.
It must be in effect-now six, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W, (202) 2344433 W ASHINGTON, D C. 20005 (202) 2344433 -
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49 1
eight years I would guous.
Has it been.a successful 2
initiative to have a shift control room engineer?
3 MR.
DAVIS:
I would not have that 4
organizational set-up if I
were operating-the 4
5 Commonwealth plants.
I think the inodified control 6
room organization that they have now adopted at Zion 7
and Braidwood are superior where they have unit a
supervisors, a supervisor for each unit and then the 9
normal complement of reactor operators.
I think-10 that's better. And then the shift engineer or another 11 licensed SRO can come in and assume the function of 12 the engineer if you have an event.
I think that's i
13 working better.
4 14 COMMISSIONER REMICK Okay.
A site-15 related question.
What's the status of Dresden 17 16 I've lost track of that.
17 MR. DAVIS:
Well, it's still there.-
ItL 18 has not been decommissioned. -
I don't believe the 19 decommissioning plan has been approved yet for Dresden 20 1.
They have been paying some attention to shipping 21 off the radioactive waste.
They had a large amount of 22 radioactive liquid waste that was stored there from 23
.some de'monstrations on cleaning which they shipped off 24 within the last year or'so.
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but--
2 COMMISSIONER REMICK
- Okay, t
3 DOCTOR MUR12Y:
We'll give you a written 4
report on that, because that's a good question.
I 5
don't know the details myself.
6 COMMISSIONER REMICKt Okay.
Fine.
7 And a near sito-related question,_what's 8
the status of GE Morris?
I assume that's completely 9
filled and just being monitorod?
i 10 MR. DAVIS: They're not receiving any moro 11 fuel.
We've boon in discussions with GE Morris over 12 the last six or eight months regarding the adequacy of 13 their monitoring program.
They have. wells that 14 monitor the groundwater for radioactivo -leakago and 15 I'm not totally familiar with the; details,. but my 16 inspector raised some questions'and'we had one of thc 17 people from NMSS who understands that botter perhaps
~
18 than' the regional people do como out and meet with up 19 and General Electric on the proper monitoring, so 20 we're keeping an oyo on it.
21 COMMISSIONER REMICK S o' you do - have -
1 22 inspectors go from timo to time?
23 MR. DAVIS:. Yes. -
24 COMMISSIONER REMICKt Do you know are the-25 pools filled?
I-forget if --
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47-1 MR. DAVISt Yes.
They are not rocoiving 2
any nere.
The last shipments I bo11ovo enme from 3
Monticello and I believe that filled them.
4 COMMISSIONER RCHICK:
I son.
Thank you.
i 5
Cl! AIRMAN SELIN:
I'd like to ask you a 6
couple af broador questions, Mr. Davis.
i 7
Although progrens in neither of thoso plants is quito as fast as you might like it, they are 8
both going in a positivo -- both'sitos are going in a 9
10 positivo direction.
What kind of trend do you soo at 11 the other four Commonwealth Edison sitos?-
_j 12 MR.
DAVIS:
Byron performs very woll.
13 They just completed a long run, closo_to.400 days, I 14 believo it was.
They i. ave SALP 1 ratings in all 15 functional areas except one'.-
I can't remember which 16 one that is.
I think it's radiological protection.
17 So, they're doing well.
18 Braidwood is improving.-
_I think they're 19.
attempting to compoto with Byron, which I like to see, 20 and they're ma);ing a concerted effort to improvo in
-21 the functional areas whero they are rated category 2.
22 They havo.no 3s.
23 LaSallo is a good ~ performer.
We think s
24 it's above average._
-I don't'think it's quite'as good 25 as Braidwood and Dyron, but I think Commonwealth might NEAL R. GROSS.
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arguo that it is.
They think, in my view, that 2
LaSalle is a little better then we do.
They might be-
~
3 right.
I'm not sure.
But, it's a good performer.
4-Quad Cities, we did send an overview team 5
to Quad Cities as a result of questions that you had 6
asked regarding Commonwealth old plants compared to 7
Commonwealth new plants. The team we sont was made up 8
of members that are both on the Zion review team and 9
the Dresden overview team to try to give us some 10 uniformity in looking at them.
The team was rather e
11 positive in their feedback.
1 12 Quad Cities is not, I don't think, yet i
I 13 quite as good as some of the other plants that I've 14 just mentioned, but they've got an effective 15 imprevement program. And the thing that we found most 16 interesting, I
- think, was that that improvement 17 program was being accepted by the-workers and they 18 were behind it and cooperating with it.
So, I think-19 Quad Cities 'made some heroic efforts to improve 20 whenever they knew that we were beginning to.be 21 concerned about their performance.
22 CHAIRMAN SELIN:
In that case, you know, it seems _ pretty clear that the 23_
it's hard _to 24 Commonwealth management has pulled of f quite a coup 'in-P 25
'the last year.
You're describing a_ situation where-NEAL R. GROSS CoVRT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHOOE ISLAND AVENUE N W.
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thoro's boon some major reorganization at the in other 2
corporate level and, in spite of that l
3
- words, while this change is going on at the-4 operational lovel, every single one of the six sitos 5
han either kept up a high level or improved the 6
performanco a long way.
That seems to be quite an 7
unusual achievement, even though we'd like to soo 8
bottor performance at at 1< east two of the sitos.
9 Thatis pretty close to a hat trick.
10 And then when you cafle that with the P
11 other distractions that they've had at the corporate 12 levol, their financial problems and the reduction in 13 ctaff, that's either very impressive or we've got to 14 koop looking pretty ' hard to make sure that nothina J
15 slips.
But, compared to-a year ago when the prognosis the situation was poor and getting worse, 16 was 17 that's really quite an extraordinary turn-around.
18 MR. DAVIS I think they've spent a lot of 19 time in figuring out how they would transition to tho 20 new organization and not af fect the performance. They-21 did all right.
One of the reasons, I think, is that:
22 the plant managers hava done.a protty good job.; The 23 plant manager -- station manager, I should: say, = at 4
24 Byron is very good.
He's been appointed as one of the 25 site vice presidents, incidentally.
The station-NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBLRS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N.W.
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manager at Quad cities is a good solid performer, as 2
are the ones at LaSalle and Braidwood.
3 Clit.lRMAN CELIN:
- Well, that's a very 4
encouraging overall picture and quito a contrast to 5
where we stood a year, a year and a half ago.
6 Any other -- thank you.
7 MR.
TAYLOR:
We'll now continue with a
material facilities.
9 Mr. Arlotto?
10 MR.
ARLOTTO:
Mr. -Chairman, General 11 Atomics' Sequoyah Fuels continues to warrant priority 12 attention and Mr. Hilhoan will discuss it.-
- However, 13 before he does, I wanted to say that there was 14 discussion among the senior managers to limit 15 consideration for priority attention generally to the l
16 larger operating facilities and not include 17 decommissioning cases, the reason beirg that the 18 primary focus of the senior-management meating is'on 19 operational safety, and I just wanted to observe that 20 we plan to use this guidance in the future.
21 MR. MILJiOAN:
Good afternoon.
22 On December 21st, the Commission met with 23 senior representatives o f G e n e r a l u. A t o m i c s. a n d its 24 subsidiary Sequoyah Fuels Corporation. At the time of 25 the briefing, a UF, plant and the DUF, plants were NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N W.-
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uhut down and Sequoyah Fueln was awaiting NRC staff plant.
2 concurrence to restart the DUF4 3
During the December 21st Commission 4
- meeting, you wore briefed on the circumstancou 5
surrounding the November 17th event in which Sequoyah 6
Fuels experienced a release of nitrogen dioxide from 7
the facility.
You were also briefed on the dociolon 8
to immediately place the U F, plant in a long-term 9
standby modo and the plans to operate the DUP, plant 10 until its contractual obligations were fulfilled, 11 which were estimated to be by June of 1993.
12 Representatives from General Atomics discussed its 13 joint venture with Allied Signal to establish 14 Cunverdyn, which senior GA managers stated would 15 provide adequate funds for Sequoyah's decommissioning.
16 At the time of the December 21st meeting, 17 decisions regarding long-term plans for the Sequoyah la facility had not been made and the licensee had 19 previously requested a 60 day period to evaluato its 20 business options.
At the end of the 60 day period, 21 Sequoyah Fuels planned to meet with the NRC staff to 22 discuss its long-term plans for the site, site-related 23 licensing
- issues, decommissioning
- issues, and 24 decommissioning funding. The staff plans to meet with 25 Sequoyah Fuels representatives tomorrow morning to NEAL R GROSS COURT REPORTER $ AND TRANSCatBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVENUE, N W.
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discuss these items.
i 2
The December 21st commission meeting was-3 beneficial in that the discussions clarified some 4
matters, however, because of the decisions regarding I
5 the status of the sequoyah facility and uncertainties 6
with respect to funding assurance for site 7
remediation, the staff issued a demand for.information s
8 letter to General Atomics and its subsidiary, Sequoyah -
9 Fuels Corporation, on December 29th, 10 The demand for information required 11 General Atomics and Sequoyah Fuels Corporation to 12 provide information regarding two itemst first, a plan 13 including a
schedule for decontamination and' 14 decommissioning the Sequoyah facility;
- second, n'
15 decommissioning funding plan that contains
- a. cost 16 estimate for decommissioning and a description of the 17 method of assuring f ur.J s for decommissioning 18 consistent-with NRC requirements. This information -is 19 to be provided to the NRC on or before February 16th.
20 on December 23rd, the NRC staff determined 21 that the necessary corrective, actions related:to the 22 November 17th event necessary for restart of the DUF4 23 plant had'been completed and authorized restart of the 24-DUF plant through-issuance of a confirmatory action.
4 25 letter.
The letter also formalized the understandingi
/
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that the UF, plant would romain in a standby modo for 2
an indofinito period of time unless the licennee 3
receives NRC concurrence to resume operations.
In 4
addition, the letter formalized the undorntanding that 4
5 sufficient staffing will be maintained to support 6
planned activition including DUP.
operations, 7
concurrent shutdown of the UF,
- plant, and the 8
contingency responso plan.
9 Due to the Chrintmas holidays,nd lator 10 minor aquipment problems, start-up-of the DUP plant 11 did not occur until December 30th.
Region IV 12 conducted a two wook inspection at that time to 13 observoactivitionrelatedtotherestartoftheDUFI i
14 plant as well as ongoing clean-out activities at the 15 U F, plant.
In general, the licensco adoquately 16 reviewed activities before start of any work.
17 Equipment problems woro promptly identified to-18 management..Further, plant staf fing was adequate for 19 the activities performed and-overall. management 20 oversight was appropriate.
21 The inspection during that. time was also 22 conducted to evaluato the AIT findings!rogarding-.the 23-November 17th roloaso of nitrogen dioxide to determine-41
~24 whether any violations of regulatory requirements 25 occurred
' Dased on the results of tho' inspection, six -
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apparent violations wore identified and ' are being
[
2 considered for escalated enforcement.
An enforcement 3
conference to discuss those apparent violations han 4
been scheduled for March the 2nd in the Region IV 5
office.
The enforcement conference will bo open for i
6 public observation.
7 The licensco has continued to furlough some personnel and has experienced some resignations
- e 8
i 9
of workers, engineers, and managers.
While Sequoyah 10 has lost some of its experienced people, it-is 11 nevertheless maintaining personnel with appropriate 12 plant.
Knowledge.
- Further, Sequoyah recently 13 implemented a reorganization of its supervisory and ~
14 management staff and han submitted a license amendment ~
15 reflecting the now organization.
_.As the work. force 16 has decreased, so has the number of activities'at the 17 site,. and Sequoyah is meeting its commitment to 18 maintain - adequate staffing.,
Management- _ oversight 19 appears adequate given the limited activities at the 20 site.
21 That concludes my presentation.
22 CHAIRMAN SELIN:-
.Following ~ up on Mr..
23'
- Arlotto'w comment,. are we basically'looking at this as.
124 a ' decontamination and - decommissioning issue ratherL 25 than a safe operations. issue?'
Are thero still
+
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f 1
safety --
2 MR. MIL 110AN:
We are still conducting 3
inspections of the DUF, plant because of the continued J
4 operation of that facility.
We're particularly 5
concerned with making suro that adequate staffing la 6
maintained to safely oporato the DUF plant.
At the 4
7 same time we're monitoring the ongoing cleanup 8
octivities to the site.
9 CHAIRMAN SELIN:
Well, to-put it in-a 10 different way, somewhat hypothetically, if the only 11 issue wore the DUF safety issue, would this be a 4
12 facility gotting unusual lovels of attention at this
~
13 point?
Would it be on this list?
14 MR.
MILHOAN:
Based on-our recent-i 15 inspections, no, it would not if thatiwere the=only But the combination of the staf fing ' decrease, 16 roanon.
17 we would not be having that staffing. decreasing 18 either.
a 19 CHAIRMAN SELIN:
Okay.
20 COMMISSIONER REMICK:
Can 'I assLmo the 21 fact that the onforcement conference'is; going to be, 22
.open and that it's following Commission guidance on 23 the randomness of such?
[
t 24
' MR. MILHOAN!
There is two factors in it.
t 25 There l's the randomness and this did happen!.to-neet
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the randomness criteria, and in addition there is'a 2
hearing on this.
I think there were previous 3
commitments that the enforcement conference wottid be 4
open due to that intervention.
5 MR. TAYLORt That.is correct.
The second 6
feature is the predominant feature.
7 COMMISSIONER REMICK:
Okay.
8 MR.
TAYLORt That cencludes our i
9 presentation, sir.
Further questions?
10 CHAIRMMI SELINt You're not going to lot 11 Jack Martin talk about his good plant or anything?
4 12 rine.
13 Well, in that case, once again this has 14 been a very worthwhile and useful session.
It's very 15 good to have these periodic meetings.
It's really 16 quite irnpressive in some ways what the changes are and 17 this overall change of Commonwealth Edison, I think, 18 is notAceable.
From what I understand a few years 19 ago, the idea-that a senior manager from Pilgrim could 20 be spared to go down and run another plant would have 21 been considered quite unusual.
.I hope that these are 22 secular improvements. and not 'just. cycles back: and 23 forth, and so the overall-view rather than just the.
24-individual view is very important to keep'in mind.
25 But I think-that-this was.a.very us'eful-r NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRf8ERS.
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I session and we're looking forward to the other results 2
of the senior management mooting, particularly the 3
discussion of SALP and other topics that wo expect to 4
bo briefod on in April.
4 5
Do any of the Commissioners have any 6
other --
7 COMMISSIONER REMICK I havo ano question.
8 In reading the background information, I son that 9
thoro will be a diagnostic evaluation at South Texas.
10 Is that correct?
31 MR. TAYLOR:
Yes.
Wo woron't prepared to 12 announce that at this stage, but that's the caso.
13 COMMISSIONER REMICK:
Forgot that I: paid 14 it.
+
15 It's a general' comment I.have and I medo 16 the comment at a previous nocting I thiak with AEOD.
17 In comments I've heard about diagnostic ovaluatirme is i
18 that sometimes the-findings and recommendations are 19 not-c3carly identifiod as being. safety or regulatory 20 tied in, that thoro's sometimes some objectivo.
I 21 would hope: -that in-performing-any-diagnostici 22 ovaluation, whatever facility, that the staff would
^
23 certainly tako-into.-account thoso' comments.
a' 24
.Tho.other things that'I have heard were 25 sometimes people participating,will mako a-finding.in-NEA'L R. GROS'S (X) ORT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AvfNUEi N W.
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. communicating with'4 licensee before exit.
The t
2
. licensee will provide information to basically refute L
3 that, yet the finding will still be in the report.
So-4 4
the licensee then has to go through.the process of-5 developing a response and ;go through his - various 6
channels, reviews, send it onLto the - staf f.
They 7
respond and that goes through our channels of review-8 and the not effect is it's zerced out.-
The question 9
is why wasn't that zeioed out' when the staf f first had 10 that informaticn at the site?
11 liow true these comments are, I don't know, 12 but I have heard inem..If there are DETs' coming up,
'n mind.
i 13 I'd.just ask that you-keep-those comments s
14 Whother they're true or not, I don't Know.
15 MR. TAYLORt All of them at various times 16 through the years we've run these, we haven't hadLone i
17 in awhile, but those comments are. understood.. We ve; 18 tried to make it leaner and more-to the point.s Same:
19 subjective values do enter ' and. then thew 11censee ;
20 certainly has + tat as a-basis'to either accept the 21 view or challenge it.
22 COMMISSIONER REMICK:-
Right.
Because I 4
23 think licensees appreciate even those, but if they're a
24 identified as observations 'or something andinot in. a j
25 finding that'they have--to respond to --
NEAL R. GROSS:
COURT RCPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS O23 RHODE ISUNO AVENUE. PtW.
(2T) 7344433
, W ASRNGTON. D C. 2005 (202; 234 4 0 3 '
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TAYLOR
- We!11. try. to koop M those.
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comraents, some-of which we've heard,-but.:in carrying.
i 3-Lout-:this next.one.
l 4'
CHAIRMAN ~ SELIN:
Okay.
Thank - you very-5 much.
G (Whereupon, at 3:44 p. m. _,
the above-7 entitled matter was concluded.)
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'NEAL R. GROSS S
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CERTIFICATE OF TRANSCRIBER This is to certify that the attached events of a meeting of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission entitled:
TITLE OF MEETING:
PERIODIC BRIEFING ON OPERATING REACTORS AND FUEL FACILITIES PLACE OF MEETING:
ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND DATE OF MEETING:
FEBRUARY 9, 1993 were transcribed by me. I further certify that said transcription is accurate and complete. to the best of my ability, and that the transcript is a true and accurate record of the foregoing events.
OA fat {
A Reporter's name:
PETER LYNCH 4
NEAL R. GROSS CCMtY RIPotTik$ AND TRAliSCRl81A5 1323 RHOOt ISLAMO AVINUI. H W.
W ASHlWGT O H. 0.C.
2(40$
(202) 232 4 600 (202) 234 4433
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PERIODIC BRIEFING ON OPERATING REACTORS AND MATERIAL FACILITIES February 9,1993 J. Taylor T. Murley R. Bernero.
Regional Administrators..
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CATEGORY 1
(
1 PLANTS REMOVED FROM THE L
LIST OF PROBLEM FACILITIES f
Plants in this. category have taken effective action to correct identified problems and to imp.lement programs.for improved performance.
No'further.NRC special attention is necessary beyond the regional office's. current level of monitoring toLensure improvement continues.
ZION 1&2-
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31 CATEGORY 2 PLANTS AUTHORIZED TO OPERATE THAT THE. NRC LWILL MONITOR CLOSELY Plants in this category are having or have had
. weaknesses that warrant increased NRC attention from-both. headquarters and thel regional office.
A; plant will remain in this category until the licensee demonstrates a. period of improved performance.
? ^
' BRUNSWICK 1L& 2 3
DRESDEN 2 & 3 7l FITZPATRICK l
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1 CATEGORY 3 SHUTDOWN PLANTS REQUIRING NRC j
L AUTHORIZATION TO OPERATE AND WHICH i
i
.THE NRC;WILL' MONITOR CLOSELY i
k Plants in this category are having or have had i
significant weaknesses that warrant maintaining l
the4 plant in -a: shutdown condition until the licensee can. demonstrate to the NRC.that adequate programs have both:been established and implemented to l
4 ensure substantial improvement.
3 BROWNS FERRY 1 & 3 t
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I PRIORITY MATERIAL FACILITIES GENERAL ATOMICS - SEQUOYAH F.UELS - GORE, OK 2
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PLANTS WITH SUSTAINED HIGH LEVEL OF L
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DIABLO! CANYON 1 & 2 ST. LUCIE 1 &.2 I
SUMMER i
SUSQUEHANNAL1 & 2
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