ML20133A626
| 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: |
| 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
Protection, Chemistry and Housekeeping.
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The NRC noted your overall performance at Hope Creek improved during the SALP period,
after a significant decline in performance that occurred early in the period. The NRC
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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
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improved over the period, although you are still challenged by a large corrective and
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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
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
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9612310186 961224
ADOCK 05000354
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Mr. Leon Eliason
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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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Mr. Leon Eliason
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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
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Atlantic Electric
M. Bezilla, General Manager - Hope Creek Operations
J. Benjamin, Director - Quality Assurance & Nuclear Safety Review
D. Powell, Manager - Licensing and Regulation
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R. Kankus, Joint Owner Affairs
A. C. Tapert, Program Administrator
R. E. Selover, Esquire
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M. J. Wetterhahn, Esquire
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Consumer Advocate, Office of Consumer Advocate
William Conklin, Public Safety Consultant, Lower Alloways Creek Township
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State of New Jersey
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State of Delaware
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Chairman Jackson
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Commissioner Rogers
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Commissioner Dicus
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Commissioner Diaz
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Commissioner McGaffigan
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Institute for Nuclear Power Operations (INPO)
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D. Screnci, PAO (23)
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Mr. Leon E!iason
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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
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L. Nicholson, DRP
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S. Barber, DRP
R. Summers, DRP
PUBLIC
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Distribution w/ encl: (Via E-Mail)
F. Miraglia, NRR
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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.rh
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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
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12/2/96
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12/ /96
DATE
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Mr. Leon Eliason
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Distribution w/ encl:
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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
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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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