ML20129D061

Forwards Insp Rept 50-354/96-07 on 960804-0921 & NOV

ML20129D061
Person / Time
Site:	Hope Creek
Issue date:	10/18/1996
From:	Larry Nicholson NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I)
To:	Eliason L Public Service Enterprise Group
Shared Package
ML20129D067	List: ML20129D061 ML20129D084 ML20129D089
References
NUDOCS 9610240189
Download: ML20129D061 (3)

See also: IR 05000354/1996007

Text

. . . __. _ _ _ _

% *

..

$ $

!

i

! October 18, 1996

<

Mr. Leon R. Eliason

4

President and Chief Nuclear Officer

Nuclear Business Unit

,

Public Service Electric and Gas Company

Post Office Box 236 i

Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038 i

j SUBJECT: NRC INTEGRATED INSPECTION REPORT 50-354/96-07 l

NOTICE OF VIOLATION ,

I

4

Dear Mr. Eliason- I

l

i

On September 21,1996, the NRC completed an inspection at your Hope Creek reactor

facility. The enclosed report presents the results of that inspection. In addition to the

normal resident inspector findings that are described in the enclosed report, several

!

'

specialist inspections were conducted during the inspection period, the results of which are

also enclosed, including: a region-based inspections of emergency preparedness and

) follow up of prior inspection findings; and, an inspection of the 50.59 process by the

Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Hope Creek project manager.

,

During the 7-week period covered by this inspection period, your conduct of activities at

the Hope Creek facility was generally characterized by safety-conscious operations, sound

engineering and maintenance practices, and careful radiological work controls. Uneventful

operations has continued since unit restart in March 1996. The recent initiative to have

SORC review operability determinations continued to be viewed as a positive effort.

Performance of maintenance was good; however, two personnel errors during testing

activities occurred. Better work week schedule adherence was noted during this

inspection period, which is an improvement over previous performance. However, ,

corrective maintenance backlogs continued to be high, and we are concerned that the

aggregate affect of the backlogged work does not hinder safe operations. Generally good

performance was noted in radiation protection, fire protection and emergency preparedness

activities. However, several problems occurred during the inspection involving physical ,

'

protection activities. The NRC conducted a separate specialinspection of these issues,

details of which are contained in NRC Inspection Report 50-272/96-14, 50-311/96-14 and

50-354/96-08.

We reviewed your 50.59 safety evaluation program and found it to be generally good.

However, several activities were noted during the inspection period that indicated poor

' implementation of this program and resulted in two violations of NRC requirements, in the

first instance, inadequate safety evaluations for design changes to the plant were noted. 4\

in the second instance, the technical specification required reviews of design change

safety evaluations by the Offsite Safety Review group were not always being performed.

' \

• '

9610240189 961018

PDR ADOCK 05000354

G PDR

--_

.

. .

.

Mr. L. Eliason 2

These violations are cited in the enclosed Notice of Violation, and the circumstances

surrounding the violations are described in detailin the enclosed report. Please note that

you are required to respond to this !etter and should follow the instructions specified in the

enclosed Notice when preparing your response. The NRC will use your response, in part,

to determine whether further enforcement action is necessary to ensure compliance with

regulatory requirements.

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.790 of the NRC's " Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter

and its enclosures will be placed in the NRC Public Document Room (PDR).

Sincerely,

ORIGINAL SIGNED BY:

Larry E. Nicholson, Chief

Projects Branch 3

Division of Reactor Projects

Docket No.: 50-354

License No: NPF-57

Enclosures: Notice of Violation

Inspection Report 50-354/96-07

cc w/ encl:

L. Storz, Senior Vice President - Nuclear Operations

E. Simpson, Senior Vice President - Nuclear Engineering

E. Salowitz, Director - Nuclear Business Support

C. Schaefer, External Operations - Nuclear, Delmarva Power & Light Co.

P. MacFarland Goelz, Manager, Joint Generation

Atlantic Electric

M. Bezilla, General Manager - Hope Creek Operations

J. Benjamin, Director - Quality Assurance & Nuclear Safety Review

D. Powell, Manager - Licensing and Regulation

R. Kankus, Joint Owner Affairs

A. C. Tapert, Program Administrator

R. Fryling, Jr., Esquire

M. J. Wetterhahn, Esquire

Consumer Advocate, Office of Consumer Advocate

William Conklin, Public Safety Consultant, Lower Alloways Creek Township

State of New Jersey

State of Delaware

_- . _ _ - _ - - . _ - _ .-

_. -

. _

=

.,

d

.

3

Distribution w/ encl:

Region I Docket Room (with concurrences)

K. Gallagher

D. Screnci, PAO

Nuclear Safety information Center (NSIC)

NRC Resident inspector

PUBLIC

Distribution w/ encl: (Via E-Mail)

W. Dean, OEDO

D. Jaffe, Project Manager, NRR

J. Stolz, PDI-2, NRR

inspection Program Branch, NRR (IPAS)

R. Correia, NRR

R. Frahm, Jr., NRR

1

1

j

!

r

,

/

,

l

DOCUMENT NAME: a:9607.rev l

Te ne.sv. . copy of thi. docurrwent. indic.i. in th. box: c - copy without ttachment/ enclosure "E' = Copy with attachment / enclosure *N' = No copy

OFFICE Rl:DRP,/ /

NAME LNicp6!sbfi

DATE 10/p/96

OFFICIAL RECORD COPY

l

50/