ML20154Q711

Discusses Insps During 860816-870925 Re Environ Qualification & Forwards Notice of Violation & Proposed Imposition of Civil Penalty in Amount of $75,000.Advises That 25% Mitigation Warranted

ML20154Q711
Person / Time
Site:	Indian Point, Farley
Issue date:	09/21/1988
From:	Russell W NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I)
To:	Brons J POWER AUTHORITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK (NEW YORK
Shared Package
ML20154Q717	List: ML20154Q711 ML20154Q723
References
CIVP-A-088, CIVP-A-88, EA-88-148, GL-88-07, GL-88-7, NUDOCS 8810040044
Download: ML20154Q711 (6)

Text

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8 September 21, 1988 Docket No. 50-286 License No. OPR-64 EA 88-148 l

Power Authority of the State of New York Indian Point 3 Nuclear Power Plant ATTN: Mr. John C. Brons Senior Vice President Nuclear Generation 123 Main Street White Plains, New York 10601 Gentlemen:

Subject:

NOTICE OF VIOLATION AND PROPOSED IMPOSITION OF CIVIL PENALTY (NRC INSPECTION REPORTS NOS. 50-286/86-10; 50-286/85-24; 50-286/87-20; and 50-286/87-22)

This refers *.o several NRC inspections conducted between August 16, 1986 and September 25,19S7 to review the p,'ogram for the environmental qualification (EQ) of equipment at Indian Point 3. The inspection reports were sent to you on May 30, 1986, February 10, 1907, September 22, 1987 and January 7, 1988.

During the inspections, violations of NRC requirements were identified involving the lack of qualification of certain items of electric equipment used at the facility. Furthermore, the inspectors also reviewed other EQ violations identified by your staff. On July 19. 1988, an enforcement conference was conducted with you and members of your staff to (1) discuss the extent and significance of the violations, causes of the violation, and the corrective actions taken or planned, and (2) discuss several other factors in light of the l Modified Enforcemnt Policy for EQ requirements which is described in the enclosure to NRC Generic letter 88-07.

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The violations, which are described in the enclosed Notice of Violation and Proposed Imposition of Civil Penalty (Notice), included the failure to maintain, '

i for certain items of electric equipment, sufficient records to demonstrate that the items were qualified to perform their intended function (s) during the postulated environmental conditicns, and/or the failure to ensure that the

. equipment was installed in a qualified configuration. These items, the tsajority

! of which were identified by your staff, included a cable connector assembly for l

High Range Radiation Monitors, Marathon Terminal Blocks, 480 volt motor lead 3 splices, and Lewis Thermocouple cable.

i These deficiencies clearly should have been known by you prior to November 30, 1985, the deadline for being in compliance with EQ requirements, because it was i reasonable to assume that (1) licensees would perform adequate field verifica- '

tion to ensure that qualified equipment was used at the facility and was  ;

CERTIFIED MAIL  !

REf0RPTRECt!Pt _REQUES_TED I l

1 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY GG10040044 880921 CP PKG INDIAN POINT 3 9/16 - 0001.0.0 09/16/83 {

PDR ADOCK 05000286 O PDC  !

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Power Authority of the State 2 of New York installed in a manner that maintained its qualification, and (2) adequate documentation existed in the qualification files to support the qualifications.

In the case of the High Range Radiation Monitor cable connector assembly, which was installed in an unqualified configuration, you clearly should have known of this condition because your equipment qualification documentation recognized the need for heat shrink tubing at the coaxial cable connection to the radiation monitor. Witn respect to the Marathon Terminal Blocks, which were not qualifiable for inside containment use, you clearly should have known of the deficiency because the installation instructions specifically identified the type of terminal block that was to be installed. You clearly should have known of the deficiency with the 480 volt motor lead splices because the need to perform an evaluation to establish differences between installed and tested configurations and to perform an analysis of the effect on qualification for these differences is a basic requirement of any environmental qualification program. Finally, with respect to the Lewis Thermocouple cable, you clearly should have known that the similarity analysis between the tested and the installed cable was inadequate because the differences in the cable materials was great and the extrapolation of test data too large to reasonably justify qualification by similarity analysis.

The violations described in this Notice of Violation and Proposed Imposition of Civil Penalty (Enclosure 1) demonstrate that Power Authority of the State of New York's management did not provide sufficient attention to the EQ program at Indian Point 3 to assure that the program was completely in compliance with NRC requirements as of November 30, 1985. Accordingly, I have been authorized, after consultation with the Director of Enforcement and the Deputy Executive Director for Regional Operations, to issue a civil penalty in the amount of Seventy Five Thousand Dollars ($75,000) for Violation I described in the enclosed Notice of Violation and Proposed Imposition of Civil Penalty. In accordance with the "Modified Enforcement Policy Relating to 10 CFR 50.49,"

contained in Generic Letter 88-07 (Enclosure 2), the extent of the problem described in Violation I of the enclosed Notice has been determined to be moderate and to have affected some systems and components, and therefore is considered to be an EQ Category 5 violation. The base value of a civil penalty for an EQ Category B violation is $150,000.

In determining the civil penalty amount, the NRC considered the four factors set forth in the "Modified Enforcement Policy Relating to 10 CFR 50.49",

for escalation and mitigation of the base civil penalty amount. These factors consist of (1) identification and prompt reporting of the EQ defi-

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ciencies ( 50's); (2) best ef forts to ccmplete EQ within the deadlino ( 50*4);

(3) corrective actions to result in full compliance (150*.); and (4) duration )

of a violation which is significantly below 100 days (-50*4). l 1

With respect to the first f actor, 25's nitigation is warranted since a majority of the items in the Notice were identified by your staff. However, full 50*

mitigation based on this factor is act warranted since some of the items (the 480V motor splices and the Lewis Thermocouple cable) were identified by the NRC.

With respect to the second factor, although the NRC recognizes efforts were rade by the Power Authority of the State of New York to comply with the EQ OFFICIAL RECORD COPY CP PKG INDIAN POINT 3 9/16 - 0002.0.0 09/16/88 l

Power Authority of the State 3 of New York 4

rule within the deadline a number of EQ files were found to be incomplete with missing documentation needed to establish qualification; difficulty was encountered by the NRC in auditing the EQ files and there was indication at the time of the inspection of last minute reviews and approval signatures for EQ files; therefore, these efforts form no basis for escalation or mitigation of the civil penalty. With respect to the third factor, 25% mitigation is warranted for your corrective actions because you quickly corrected the quali-  ;

fication deficiencies associated with the HRRM cable connector assembly and the Marathan Terminal Blocks. However, full 50% mitigation based on this factor is inappropriate since at the time the 480 volt motor lead splice deficiencies were identified by the NRC, aggressive resolution of this issue by your staff was not initiated. In addition, numerous deficiencies identified by your EQ audits in January 1985 and August 1987 took an excessive time to be resolved.

With respect to the fourth factor, mitigation is inappropriate since.these EQ violations existed in excess of 100 days. Therefore, on balance a 50% reduction to the base civil penalty amount is appropriate.

Certain items of unqualified equipment were able to be qualified during the inspection, or shortly thereaf ter and these items constitute a separate violation which is classified at Severity Level IV in accordance with the "General State-

. ment of Policy and Procedure for NRC Enforcement Action,10 CFR 2 Appendix C

(Enforcement Policy) (1988) and is set forth in Section II of the enclosed Notice. L Though not the subject of a Notice, as mentioned above, the NRC staff is concerned that at the time of the inspections, numerous EQ files were incomplete and file auditability was poor even though the files had been significantly improved in the weeks immediately preceding the inspection.

You are required to respond to this letter and should follow the instructions specified in the enclosed Notice when preparing your response. In your response, you should document the specific actions taken and any additional l actions you plan to prevent recurrence. After reviewing your response to this l Notice, including your proposed corrective actions and the results of future inspections, the NRC will determine whether further NRC enforcement action is necessary to ensure compliance with NRC regulatory requirements.

In accordance with Section 2.790 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice," Part 2, Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations, a copy of this letter and its enclosure will be placed in the NRC Public Document Room.

The responses directed by this letter and the enclosed Notice are not subject to the clearance procedures of the Office of Management and Budget, otnerwise required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1930, Pub. L. No.96-511.

Sincerely, 1

Original Sign 9d By WILL;LJ T. RUd3ZLL William T. Russell Regional Administrator OFFICIAL RECORD COPY CP PKG INDIAN POINT 3 9/16 - 0003.0.0 l 09/16/83

,i

Power Authority of the State 4 of New York

Enclosures:

1. Notice of Violation and Proposed Imposition of Civil Penalty

2. Generic Letter 88-07 cc w/encls:

J. Phillip Bayne, President J. C. Brons, Executive Vice President - Nuclear Generation Gerald C. Goldstein, Assistant General Counsel A. Klausmann, Senior Vice President, Appraisal and Compliance Services F. X. Pindar, Quality Assurance Superintendent G. M. Wilverding, Chairman, Safety Review Committee Jude G. Del Percio, Manager, Regulatory Affairs R. E. Beedle, Vice President Nuclear Support R. Burns, Vice President Nuclear Operations S. S. Zulla, Vice President Nuclear Engineering P. Kokolakis, Director Nuclear Licensing - PWR Dept. of Public Service, State of New York Licensing Project Manager, NRR State of New York, Department of Law Public Document Room (POR) local Public Document Room (LPOR)

Nuclear Safety Information Center (NSIC) -

NRC Resident Inspector State of New York 0FFICIAL RECORD COPY CP PKG INDIAN POINT 3 9/16 - 0004.0.0 09/16/88

Power Authority of the State 4 of New York

Enclosures:

1. Notice of Violation and Proposed Imposition of Civil Penalty

2. Generic Letter 88-07 ,

cc w/encis:

J. Phillip Bayne, President J. C. Brons, Executive Vice President - Nuclear Generation Gerald C. Goldstein, Assistant General Counsel A. Klausmann, Senior Vice President, Appraisal and Compliance Services F. X. Pindar, Quality Assurance Superintendent G. M. Wilverding, Chairman, Safety Review Committee Jude G. Del Percio, Manager, Regulatory Affairs R. E. Beedle, Vice President Nuclear Support R. Burns. Vice President Nuclear Operations S. S. Zulla, Vice President Nuclear Engineering P. Kokolakis, Director Nuclear Licensing - PWR ,

Dept. of Public Service, State of New York '

Licensing Project Manager, NRR State of New York, Department of Law Public Document Room (POR) local Public Document Room (LPOR)

Nuclear Safety Information Center (NSIC)

NRC Resident Inspector State of New York  ;

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OFFICIAL RECORD COPY CP PKG INDIAN POINT 3 9/16 - 0004.0.0 09/16/88

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bec w/encis: i Region 1 Docket Room (with concurrences)

Management Assistant, DRMA (w/o enc 1) l i

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SECY J. Taylor, DE00 4 J. Lieberman, OE i J. Luehman, OE W. Russell, RI .

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8. Hayes, 01 S. Connelly, OIA  !

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