ML20198H988

Discusses Apparent Violation of NRC Requirements Identified at Plant Re 10CFR50.9, Completeness & Accuracy of Info, Which Requires That Info Provided to Commission Be Complete & Accurate in All Matl Respects.Nrc OI Rept 3-96-023 Encl

ML20198H988
Person / Time
Site:	Dresden
Issue date:	09/17/1997
From:	Grobe J NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION III)
To:	Jamila Perry COMMONWEALTH EDISON CO.
References
EA-97-266, NUDOCS 9709230057
Download: ML20198H988 (6)

Text

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l Q O 'O t

September 17, 1997 i

EA 97 266 i

l Mr. J. S. Perry Site Vice President s Dresden Nuclear Power Station i Commonwealth Edison Company

6500 North Oresden Road Morris,IL (0450

SUBJECT:

APPARENT VIOLATION OF 10 CFR 50.9 (OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS REPORT NO. 3-96-023)

Dear Mr. Perry:

This is in reference to an apparent violation of NRC requirements identified at the Dresden Station. The apparent violation pertains to 10 CFR 50.9," Completeness and Accuracy of Information," which requires that information provided to the Commission be complete and accurate in all material respects. The apparent violation involves inaccurate information provided to the NRC in an attachment to a March 4,19% letter regarding the corner room p structural steel configuration on Unit 3.

i

/ The NRC Office of Investigations (01) conducted investigations of this matter. In their report

- dated May 30,1997,01 concluded that inaccurate and misleading information was provided to

' the NRC. A copy of the synopsis of this report is enclosed for your review (reference item 1).

The other five items included in the synopsis pertain to the Quad Cities Station and are discussed in a letter to that facility.

' This apparent violation is being considered for escalated enforcement action in accordance with the " General Statement of Policy and Procedures for NRC Enforcement Actions"(Enforcement Policy), NUREG 1600. Accordingly, no Notice of Violation is preseatly being issued.

A closed, transcribed, pre-decisional enforcement conference with Comed to discuss the apparent violation will be scheduled for the near future. You are requested to attend this pre-decisional enforcement conference to present any information relevant to this issue. The decision to hold a pre-decisional enforcement conference does not mean that the NRC has determineo that a violation has occurred or that enforcement action will be taken. This conference is being held to obtain information to enable the NRC to make an enforcement decision. Consequently, you should be prepared to discuss your understanding of the facts, root causes, and significance of the issues and the need for corrective action. You will be i advised by separate correspondence

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7 t J. S. Perry 2 September 17, 1997 of the results of our deliberations on this matter. No response regarding this apparent violation is required at this time.

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.790 of the NRC's " Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter and its enclosure will be placed in the NRC Public Document Room.

Sincerely.

Original Signed by John A. Grobe John A. Grobe, Acting Director Division of Reactor Safety Docket Nos. 50 10,50-237, 50-249 License Nos. DPR-02, DPR-19, DPR-25 Enclosure; NRC 01 Report No. 3-96-023 (synopsis only)

See Attached Distribution SEE PREVIOUS CONCURRENCES DOCUMENT NAME: G:\DRS\DRE09177.DR To rsesive a copy of this document, indicate in the box: "C" = Copy w/o attachment /enclosu.e "E" = Copy with attachment / enclosure "N" = No copy OFFICE filli:D,RRAb l Rlll:DSQ,jll Rlll:DRP l Rlll:EICS l Rill:DRS n,W NAME r @unbe#fi46 .4RingC/N Kropp Clayton Jacobsop(/JM DATE ji O9/lf/97 f 09/;$97 09/ /97 09/ /97 09/ Qp97

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OFFICIAL RECORD COPY i

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4 1 , .$ 'e J. S. Perry 2 deliberations on this matter No response regarding this apparent violation is required at this time.

1 in accordance with 10 CFR 2.790 of the NRC's " Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter and its enclosure will be placed in the NRC Public Document Room (PDR).

Sincerely, 5

John A. Grobe, Acting Director Division of Reactor Safety Docket Nos. 50-10, 50-237, 50-249 License Nos. DPR-02, DPR-19, DPR-25

Enclosure:

NRC 01 Report No. 3-96-023 (synopsis only) j cc w/ encl: T. J. Maiman, Senior Vice President, Nuclear Operations Division D. A. Sager, Vice President, Generation Support H. W. Keiser, Chief Nuclear Operating Officer T. Nauman, Station Manager, Unit 1 M. Hoffley, Station Manager, Units 2 and 3 F. Spangenberg, Regulatory Assurance Supervisor

1. Johnson, Acting Nuclear Regulatory Services Manager Document Control Desk - Licensing Richard Hubbard Nathan Schloss, Economist, Office of the Attorney General State Liaison Officer Chairman, Illinois Commerce Commission DOCUMENT NAME: G:\DRS\DRE09 7.DRS To receive a copy of this document, indicate in the box: "C" = Copy without attachment / enclosure "E" = Copy with attachment / enclosure "N" = No copy OFFICE Rlll h Rlli Rlli 6 Rlli NAME EDuncan:jp [ WKropp{ h BClayton [C JGrobe DATE 09/} /97 09/d /97 09/f /97 09/ /97 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY

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• l J. S. Perry 3 September 17, 1997 cc w/ encl: R. J. Manning, Executive Vice President, Generation M. Wallace, Senior Vice President, I Corporate Services E. Kraft, Vice President, BWR Operations  !

Liaison Officer, NOC-BOD D. A. Sager, Vice President, Generation Support D. Farrar, Nuclear Regulatory Services Manager

1. Johnson, Licensing Operations Manager Document Control Desk - Licensing T. Nauman, Station Manager, Unit 1 M. Heffley, Station Manager, Units 2 and 3 F. Spangenberg, Regulatory Assurance Manager Richard Hubbard Nathan Schloss, Economist, Office of the Attorney General State Liaison Officer Chairman, Illinois Commerce Commission Distribution:

Docket File w/ encl C. Pederson, Rlll w/enci CAA1 w/enci PUBLIC IE-01 w/enct LPM, NRR w/enci DOCDESK w/enci OC/LFDCB w/ encl A. B. Beach, Rlli w/enci J. Lieberman, OE w/enci DRP w/enci J. L. Caldwell, Rill w/enci J. Goldberg, OGC w/enci DRS w/enci Rlll Enf. Coordinator w/ enc! R. Zimmerman, NRR w/enel Rlli PRR w/enci R. A. Capra, NRR w/enct SRI, Dresden w/enci TSS w/enct

SYNOPSIS This investigation was initiated by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Office of Investigations (01) Region III (RIII), on May 13, 1996, to determine whether the NRC was provided material false statements in various meetings and in licensee reports, in relation to Commonwealth Edison's (Comed)

Dresden Nuclear Power Station (DNPS) and Quad Cities Station's (OCS)

Structural Steel Issues.

Allegation No. 1: Alleged material false statement found in an attachment to a March 4. 1996 letter from the DNPS Site Vice President to the NRC, which stated, "In unit 3 the connections are conventional clip angle connections (i.e. the beams are located within the boundary of the embcdded plates)."

Based on the evidence developed during the investigation, it is concluded that a ONPS engineer willfully provided false or misleading information to the NRC '

through the attachment to the March 4.1996 letter.

Allegation No. 2: Alleged material false statement found in an Operability Determination Checklist of OCS which stated, "The beams and connections checked had functionality interaction coefficients (FIC) less than 1.0".

Based on the evidence developed during the investigation, it is concluded that QCS engineers and a Comed corporate engineer, willfully provided false or misleading information to the NRC through the Operability Determination Checklist provided to a QCS Plant Operations Review Committee (PORC) on August 25, 1995.

Alleqation No. 3: Alleged material false statement through omission to the NRC on April 11. 1996 when a OCS representative, during a meeting, failed to advise the NRC of steel coupon testing results which would have contradicted information provided to the NRC by Comed in a previous April 1, 1996 Comed response to the NRC.

Based on the evidence developed during the investigation, it is concluded that a QCS comed supervisor engineer made a deliberate material false statement through omission when the engineer choose not to inform the NRC of steel coupon testing which would have revealed one sample of five exhibiting a yield strength of less than 110% overstress, contradicting Comed's April 1, 1996 response to the NRC.

Allegation No. 4: Alleged material false statement by a CoaEd otricial during a public meeting with the NRC held on March 5. 1996, regarding the DNPS. The alleged material false statement was as follows "no detailed calculations had been completed. However, if a detailed structural analysis was completed. the detailed calculations would show that allowable Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) limits were not exceeded in the corner room steel" It is concluded that the evidence developed during this investigation did not substantiate the allegation that Comed /DNPS officials made a material false statement to NRC:RIII on March 5. 1996, during a public meeting, NOT FOR PUBLIC OISCLOSURE WITHOUT APPROVAL OF FIELD OFFICE DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS REGION 111 Case No. 3-96-023 1

4 AlleJLation No. 5: Alleged material false statements to the NRC on May 14. 1996 and May 15, 1996, when Comed personnel stated to NRC officials tha; .netal panels lost off.of the OCS Reactor Building (RB) during high winds on May 10, 1996 had no effect on RB structural integrity, and were only provided for aesthetics and protection from the elements.

Based on the evidence developed during the investigation, it is concluded that on May 14, 1996, a QCS engineer supervisor made a willful material false statement to an NRC inspector. It was further determined that on May 15, 1996, I the Station Manager, QCS, made a willful material false statement to NRC officials. The statement was that metal panals lost off of the QCS RB during high winds on May_10, 1996 had no effect on RB structural integrity, and were only provided for aesthetics an1 protection from the elements.

Allegation No. 6: Alleged material false statement to the NRC on May 1,1996 during a Predecisional Enforcement Conference regarding QCS structural steel.

The alleged statement was that no action was taken to reconcile pipe support loads on corner room structural steel before March,1994.

It is concluded that the evidence developed during this investigation did not substantiate the allegation that comments were made during a May 1,1996 NRC Predecisional Enforcement Conference stating that no action was taken to reconcile pipe support loads on corner room structural steel before March, 1994.

NOT FOR PUBLIC DISCLOSURE WITHOUT APPROVAL OF FIELD OFFICE DIRECTOR OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIONS. REGION Ill x

Case No. 3 96-023 N 2