ML20133A626

Forwards SALP Rept 50-354/96-99 for Period 950423-961109. SALP Process Rates Licensees in Four Functional Areas:Maint, Operations,Engineering & Plant Support,Which Includes Fire, Security,Ep,Chemistry & Housekeeping

ML20133A626
Person / Time
Site:	Hope Creek
Issue date:	12/24/1996
From:	Miller H NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I)
To:	Eliason L Public Service Enterprise Group
Shared Package
ML20133A630	List: ML20133A626 ML20133A636
References
NUDOCS 9612310186
Download: ML20133A626 (5)

See also: IR 05000354/1996099

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December 24, 1996

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Mr. Leon Eliason

Chief Nuclear Officer & President

Nuclear Business Unit

Public Service Electric & Gas Company

Post Office Box 236

Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038

SUBJECT: SYSTEMATIC ASSESSMENT OF LICENSEE PERFORMANCE (SALP), HOPE

CREEK GENERATING STATION, REPORT NO. 50-354/96-99

Dear Mr. Eliason:

This letter forwards the Hope Creek Generating Station SALP report for the period April 23,

1995, to November 9,1996 (Enclosure 1). The SALP process rates licensees in four

functional areas: Operations, Maintenance, Engineering and Plant Support. The Plant

Support area includes: Radiological Controls, Security, Emergency Preparedness, Fire

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Protection, Chemistry and Housekeeping.

The NRC noted your overall performance at Hope Creek improved during the SALP period,

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after a significant decline in performance that occurred early in the period. The NRC

expressed concern regarding this decline in a lettor from the NRC Executive Director for

Operations, dated January 29,1996. Your actirns to address the areas of concern, once

identified, were comprehensive and generally e fective. These actions included significant

management changes in the organization, as we'l as a significant expansion of the scope

of the refueling outage to repair or modify plant e@ipment that previously challenged

operators. In addition, your operator intervention early l;. the period resulted in an overall

improvement in operator standards and ownership of the plant by the end of the period,

but also created a lack of depth in on-shift operator staffing that remains a current

challenge.

Self assessments and quality assurance audits were observed to be thorough and produced

important findings. Strong safety oversight was generally provided during the period by  !

the Station Operations Review Committee and the Nuclear Review Board; however, the  :

contribution from the Offsite Safety Review Group was minimal. Plant material condition j

improved over the period, although you are still challenged by a large corrective and J

preventive maintenance backlog. In addition, a backlog of pending revisions to operations

and maintenance procedures was indicative of procedural weaknesses that, on occasion,

challenged plant staff and contributed to events.

The threshold for identifying and correcting problems was significantly lowered across the  !

station. The implementation of a new deficiency reporting system contributed to a I

significant improvement in identifying discrepant plant conditions; however, the system

was not used as effectively by plant staff to identify and resolve human performance

problems. The quality of engineering support to plant operations was varied. Root cause  ;

evaluations improved over the period, but the corrective actions were sometimes not j

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9612310186 961224

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Mr. Leon Eliason 2

effective or timely, such as chronic problems that occurred over the period with Hiller

actuators, reactor building ventilation backdraft dampers and the reactor manual control

system. A comprehensive review of testing activities resulted in an improved surveillance

test program. However, some 10CFR 50.59 evaluations were inappropriate due to an

incomplete understanding of design margins associated with the system being changed or

evaluated.

The security access control program demonstrated deficiencies late in the assessment

period, raising concerns about security guard force performance, communications with

operations, and the effectiveness of oversight of the program by both station man::gement

and your independent oversight groups.

In summary, the functional areas of operations, maintenance and engineering were rated

Category 2. Improvements were noted in these areas with most of the improvement in

operations and maintenance occurring later in the period. The plant support area was rated

Category 2, a decline from the previous SALP rating due to problems principally with

security, ALARA, and emergency preparedness implementation. Weaknesses in

communications contributed to performance issues across the organization.

Enclosure 2 provides the schedule and basis for the NRC inspections of your facility

planned for the next year. We willinform you of any changes required to the attached

inspection schedule. The routine resident inspection effort is not included in this schedule.

We have scheduled a management meeting with you to discuss our assessrnent. The

meeting wili be held at 2 00 pm on January 7,1997, at the PSE&G Processing Center and

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will be open for public obs9rvation. At the meeting, you and your staff should be prepared

to discuss our assessment and any initiatives you plan to take to address the issues

identified in our assessment.

We appreciate your cooperation.

Sincerely,

ORIGINAL SIGNED BY:

Hubert J. Miller

Regional Administrator

Docket No. 50-354

Enclosures:

1. Systematic Assessment of Licensee Performance Report No.

50-354/96-99

2. 12-Month Inspection Plan

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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. E. Selover, Esquire i

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 j

Chairman Jackson i

Commissioner Rogers  !

Commissioner Dicus t

Commissioner Diaz .

Commissioner McGaffigan 1

Institute for Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) ,

D. Screnci, PAO (23)

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Distribution w/ encl:

Region i Docket Room (with concurmnces)

J. Taylor, EDO

J. Milhoan, DEDR

SALP Program Manager, NRR/lLPB (2)  !

H. Miller, RA  ;

K. Gallagher, DRP j

L. Nicholson, DRP i

S. Barber, DRP

R. Summers, DRP

PUBLIC ,

Distribution w/ encl: (Via E-Mail)

F. Miraglia, NRR i

W. Dean, OEDO l

J. Lieberman, OE (OEMAIL) l

D. Gamberoni, NRR

A. Thadani, NRR

D. Jaffe, Project Manager, NRR

J. Stolz, PDI-2, NRR

R. Correia, NRR  ;

R. Frahm, Jr., NRR l

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Distirubtion via E-Mail:

Region i Staff

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DOCUMENT NAME: g:\ branch 3\hesalp\rpt.rh i

To r.c.ive . copy of this docum.,ye. indicate in the box: c - copy without ett ment /enposure E = Copy with attachment / enclosure N = No copy

OFFICE RI:DRP / RI:DRPf ffjlr > RI:yFJA Rl:RA l

NAME LNichoflori RCoopff W W@e HMiller i

DATE 12/2/96

f 12/IN96 1// /$6 12/ /96

OFFICIA ECOF D COPY

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Mr. Leon Eliason 4

Distribution w/ encl:  !

Region 1 Docket Room (with concurrences) J

J. Taylor, EDO  :

J. Milhoan, DEDR

SALP Program Manager, NRR/lLPB (2)

H. Miller, RA

K. Gallagher, DRP  ;

L. Nicholson, DRP l

S. Barber, DRP

R. Summers, DRP

PUBLIC

Distribution w/ encl: (Via E-Mail)

F. Miraglia, NRR

W. Dean, OEDO

J. Lieberman, OE (OEMAIL)

D. Gamberoni, NRR

A. Thadani, NRR '

D. Jaffe, Project Manager, NRR

J. Stolz, PDI-2, NRR

R. Correia, NRR

R. Frahm, Jr., NRR

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Distirubtion via E-Mail:

Region i Staff

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DOCUMENT NAME: g:\ branch 3\hesalp\rpt.r7

Ta ,eceive e copy of this document, indicate in the box: 'C' = Copy without attachment /enclos re *E' = Copy with attachment / enclosure *N* = No copy

OFFICE Rl:DRP Rl:DRP RI:R/d Wl

NAME * LNicholson "RCooper HMjp Uf

DATE 12/ /96 12/ /96 12/p//96

OFFICIAL RECORD COPY  !

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