ML20154R617

Insp Rept 70-1151/88-11 on 880822-26.No Violations or Deviations Noted.Major Areas Inspected:Mgt Controls, Training,Nuclear Criticality Safety,Operations Review & Previously Identified Violations & Followup Items

ML20154R617
Person / Time
Site:	Westinghouse
Issue date:	09/20/1988
From:	Mcalpine E, Troup G NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION II)
To:
Shared Package
ML20154R614	List: ML20154R609 ML20154R617
References
70-1151-88-11, NUDOCS 8810040309
Download: ML20154R617 (8)

Text

gaueeg

1. • *. UNITEC STATES j .)*"

} NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION REGION 11 af o,

101 MARIETTA ST., N.W.

'g 'e , , , , j ATLANT A. GEORGIA 30323 SEP 201988 Report No.: 70-1151/88-11 Licensee: Westinghouse Electric Corporation Commercial Nuclear fuel Division Columbia, SC 29250 Docket No.: 70-1151 License No.: SNM-1107 Facility Name: Westinghouse Electric Corporation Inspection Conducted: Au st 22 26, 1988 j

Inspector: _A u G. L. Troup, fuel Facflities Project Inspector 9!? Y Date 51gned Approved by: NW M E. J. McAlpine, Chief \

9/20/if Date Signed Material Control and Accountability Section Nuclear Materials Safety and Safeguards Branch Division of Radiation Safety and Safeguards SUMARY Scope:

This routine, training nuc lear criticalityunannounced safet inspection operations involved review, and management

, previouslyidentifiedviolationsandfo,llowupitems.

Results: Within the scope of the inspection, no violations or deviations were identified.

I 1

l 4

i j!A1888MPJggi

REPORT DETAILS

1. Persons Contacted Licensee Employees

• J. B. Allen, Manager, Technical Services W. H. Condo Hanager, Waste Recovery & Disposal W.L.GoodwIn M J.W. Heath,3r.anager,RegulatoryAffairs

, Mana

• E. E. Keelen Manager,ger, Health Physics Operations Manufacturing E. P. Loch kl E.K.Reitler,antManagerManager, Radiological and Environmental Engineering 80, F. Sanders, Manager, Nuclear Materials Management and Product Records

Other licensee employees contacted during this inspection included engineers, technicians, foremen and operators, as well as contract security employees.

• Attended exit interview

2. Licensee Action on Previous Enforcement Matters (92702)

(0 pen) Unresolved Item 88-02-01, Engineered Controla Program for Nuclear criticality Safety.

The licensee's Engineered Criticality Team report identified fourteen profects for the correction or elimination of identified problems. These pro'ects were reviewed and approved at the Regulatory Compliance Committee meeting of July 22, 1938. Target implementation dates have been establishedforeachproject.

This item will remain open pending review of the completion of the projects.

3. Management Organization and Controls (88005)

a. Organizational Structure The inspector reviewed the facility organizational structure and {

compared it with Section 3 of the Ifeense application. No changes in the safety management organization have been made.

No violations or deviatic'1s were identified, i

i i

_.__..___.__m

j f

i

b. Safety Committees The Regulatory Compliance Committee (RCC) performs the function of the Safet The RCC was appointed by letter from the Plant Manager,dated y Committee.

July 8,1987, and the RCC charter was reissued at the i

same time. The inspector reviewed the minutes of the committee  ;

meetings since February 1 1988, and determined that the meetings were held at (or exceedin ) the required frequency with the required i membership present. The nspector also determined that the agenda  ;

for items reviewed were in accordance with the charter, j No violations or deviations were identified.  !

l

4. Nuclear Criticality Safety (88015) *

a. Facility Changes and Modifications  !

The inspector examined one nuclear criticality safety review request and the associated analysis. The inspector verified that approved evaluation methods were used and that the calculations and analyses were checked by a second inoividual.

No violations or deviations were identified.

b. Nuclear Safety Analyses The inspector discussed the methods used to perform nuclear safety calculations with the cognizant individuals and verified that the methods used were in accordance with the license requirements. No changes in the calculational methods have been made since the last inspection.

No violations or deviations were identified.

5. Audits (88005, 88015, 88020)

The inspector reviewed the monthly criticality audit reports for the period of January July 1988, and verified that the audits were conducted at the required frequency and in accordance with a plan, as recuired by the license. The reports identified problems to be rectifiec, the responsible individuals, and an action date. Correction of identified items and the close-out date were documented. The adequacy of corrective actions was also reviewea and documented in subsequent licensee audits.

No violations or deviations were identified.

6. Procedures (88005,88015,88025)

a. The inspector verified that procedural controls are in place establishing the Regulatory Affairs procedere system (RA-001 and RA-110), the training of Regulatory Af fairs personnel (RA-105), the

. l

. . f

[

3  !

I i

performance and review of nuclear criticality safety analyses [

f (RA300)ItA-304).and system ( Othercontrol and testing procedures exist forof the nuclearcontrols management criticality andalarm i assignment of responsibilities. The inspector reviewed selected l procedures and verified that they were reviewed and approved as  !

required by internal procedures and the license. '

No violations or deviations were identified.

f

b. The inspector reviewed one new procedure and revisions to three  !

other procedures. All of the procedures had been reviewed and i approved in accordance with the internal procedures and the license. l The scope of changes were consistent with the regulations and the t Itcense.  ;

No violations or deviations were identified. f

7. Training (88010)  !

I

a.  !

During the inspection, being given to a admin istrative employee.the inspector The inspector observed new em!

reviewed the employee's check-off sheet for conformance to Section 3.1.5 of t the license application and 10 CFR 19.12.

No violations or deviations were identified, t i

b. The inspector also discussed the refresher training for workers, which will be scheduled later in the year. Licensee personnel are revising the lesson plans ano hand-outs, and updating the video tapes  !

which are used in the training. Refresher training will be reviewed i during subsequent inspections, i No violations or deviations were identified.

8. OperationsReview(88020)

a. Tours During the inspection, tours were made of the various work areas to observe operations. Items reviewed or verified included:

(1) Special nuclear material was stored in arrays on carts, and in designated storage locations in accordance with posted instructions.

(2) Housekeeping in all areas was acceptable. New floor coatings had been applied in the scrap processing area.

(3) Differential pressure readings in filters and enclosures were within the authorized limits.

4 4

i No violation; or deviations were identified.

! b. Fuel Handling and Storage Ouring tours of the production areas, the inspector observed the  !

and fuel assemblies. All observed ,

handling activities were of pellets, fuel rods,ith in accordance w posted safety limits and storage I

reqvirements. Completed assemblies were stored in permanent ,

fixturas, ftorage and transport of completed rods were in accordance '

j with the license requirements for slab thickness and unit t se,Nratiuns. ,

L i

No violetions or deviations were identified,

c. Plant Evacuation 1

On August one of the plant feeder breakers had a short-to-This resu producing 24,1988,lted a station black-out. inEmergency the main power electrical breaku ope l ground. i a sources activate .

1 The plant evacuation alarm and warning 'ights were manually  ;

i initiated, and the production areas evacuated. -

l j The inspector observed the evacuation of the controlled area, which i

was handled in a timely and orderly manner. Response personnel responded to establish control over the equipment, collect air samples, conduc'. contamination surveys and seal up potential sources t ofcontaminationwhenventilationwaslost.

2 t i The inspector verified that the criticality and radiation monitoring i i system continued to o>erate on emergency power. The security alarm l j station also continuec to operate normally, j l The licensee identified that the emergency lighting in several plant [

areas was inadequate. These areas were identified by plant personnel j j for corrective action.  ;

I

Power was restored to all areas on the midnight shif t on August 25.

l The delay was due to the performance of inspections and maintenance j on the electrical system prior to starting up rather than just replacing the breaker. j 1

9. Review of the Operational Safety Assessment Findings (92701)  ;

L

4. An Operations Safety Assessment was conducted by the NRC at the I licensee's facility in January 1987. Findings of the assessment were  ;

reported in Inspection Report 70 1151/87-01. By letter dated May 21, l j 1987, the licensee responded to the assessment findings and described  !

I the corrective actions being taken on the identified weaknesses and i j the improvement items. l f

I  !

f.. -

5

b. The following IFIs identified in the Operational Safety Assessment were reviewed during the inspection:

(1) (Closed) IFI 87-01-03, Control of Moderating Materials in Areas.

Training on the use of moderating materials was conducted in 1986. The procedure for controlling moderating materials (RA-303) was approved by the Plant Manager on June 21, 1988, and issued. Guidelines for specific areas were included as appendices to the procedure.

(2) (Closed) IFI 87-01-15, Fire Protectic Ecuipment Inspection and Maintenance Program. Procedures for tie inspection and maintenance program have included in the Safety Manual as SY-3XX series procedures. In addition Weekly Safety Checklists have beei established for the conver,sion and waste recovery areas whi:h cover chemical, industr'il and fire safety inspections.

(3) (0 pen) IFI 87-01-23, Adequacy of Color Coding of Chemical service Piping. This item has not been completed, especially in the MAP area, where piping, electrical conduit and supports are either unmarked or are all painted on flat black. Additional attention is required on this item.

(4) (Closed) IFI 87-01-34, Complete Modifications Identified by the Risk Assessment Committee. All of the modifications identified by the Risk Assessment Committee have been installed; however, the installation of two sets of monitors in the uranyl nitrate discharge lines to the storage tanks are not functional because of instrument problems. Modification / repair requests have been initiated.

The inspector informed licensee management representctives that IFI 87-01-34 was closcJ for records pur30ses, and a new IFI, 88-11-01 was opened for the mNificat< ons of the process instruments.

(5) (Closed) IFI 87-01-36, Risk Associated with Three AcciLent Scenarios. This item dealt with accident scenarios at three different plant locations.

The licensee has planned to reduce the risk to service piping from UFs cylinder handling by installing a barrier between the cylinderloadingconveyorandtheservicepiping. This is part of the licensee s fire protection / prevention program, and will be further reviewed under IFI 87-01-08.

The licensee concluded that floor-level oxygen monitors in welding areas where Argon is used as an inert atmosphere are not required because of the size of the areas, the ventilation available, as well as the construction of the Argon system.

As an additional safeguard, an excess flow valve was installed

6 in the Argon supply line downstream of the flow throttle valve.

This will preclude the discharge of large volumes of inert gas into the building in the event of a line failure.

The third scenario involved two tanks in the wastewater building, both of which were piaed to receive acid and caustic.

The licensee modified the supp'y pipina by disconnecting and capping one line to one tank and installing a blank in one line to another tank. This resulted in only acid being supplied to one tank and only caustic being supplied to the other tank.

During a plant tour, the inspector observed that the :austic line appeared to have been connected to both tanks.

Investigation revealed that one tank had both the acid and caustic lines connected. This had been done during the arocessing of similar waste in both tanks but the caustic line lad not been disconnected after the processing was completed.

Licensee management representatives acknowledged that the supply lines should be under more positive control to prevent an accident. A modification was discussed during the inspection which would provide positive control over the supply lines; a modification request was initiatea to accomplish this change.

This modification will be reviewed during subsequent inspections, and tracked as IFI 88-11-02, and IFI 87-01-36 is closed for record purposes.

(6) (Closed) IFI 87-01-37, Risks Associated with Chemical Operations. This item dealt with potential accident scer.3rios for solvent extraction, hydrogen and propane storage, dissolver corrosion; and UFs cylinder heating.

The propane storage tanks have been emptied and an inert atmosphere established. This was previously reviewed as part of IFI 87-01-21.

Flow limiting and excess flow valves have been installed in the hydrogen system. Additional evaluations of the hydrogen system are included as part of IFI 87-01-08.

The new dissolvers are in service in the scrap recovery area.

These dissolvers are constructed of corrosion resistant materials which are compatible with process enemicals.

The inspector reviewed the solvent extraction organic and uranyl nitrate (UN) recovery system operating procedures and parameter sheet and verified that the concentra+ ions specified operating temperaturerangesarebelowthetemperatureofconcernfor"red 011'. The procedure for operating the organic wash columns also included provisions for replacing solutions to prevent carry over of organics to the UN concentrations.

7 Additional actions taken by the licensee to reduce the accident potential in the scrap recovery area have been the installation of enclosures around the glass process columns and the reduction of combustible materials staged for the incinerator.

The licensee has established a task group to review the UFs cylinder heating and vaporization system. The group has developed some modifications (cylinder pressure sensors and stea:: interlocks) and is considering further modifications.

These efforts were described in the licensee's response as a study of the system which will be completed in phases. The modifications to the system will be inspected during subsequer.t inspections as IFI 88-11-03, and IFI 87-01-37 is closed for record purposes.

10. Information Notices NRC Information Notice 87-64, "Conviction for Falsification of Security Training Records." The inspector determined that this notice had been had been reviewed for a)plicability to the facility received (no action requ individuals forby the licensee}

and hadred)i been routec to the appropriate their informat on.

No violations or deviaticas were identified.

11. Exit Interview The inspection scope and findings were summarized on August 26, 1988, with those persons indicated in paragraph 1.

The inspector pointed out the lack of progress on the color coding of process piping, and the chemical safety problem due to the piping modification in waste water treatment as two items which required management attention. These were acknowledged by the managers present.

The inspector identified three new Inspector Follow-up Items, which cover specific items formerly tracked as part of other IFIs:

88-11-01: Complete modification / repair of UN discharge monitors 88-11-02: Modification of acid and caustic piping in waste water treatment.

88-11-03: Modifications of ufo heating system.

No dissenting comments were received frcm the licensee. Proprietary materials were reviewed during the inspection but no proprietary material is discussed in this report.