ML20203A043

Part 21 Rept Re Problem Which May Affect Operation of Model C Deluge Valve for Fire Protection Sys.Ie Info Notice 84-16 Issued on 840302 to Describe Failure of Valves to Operate. All Shipments of Model C Valves Stopped

ML20203A043
Person / Time
Site:	Grand Gulf
Issue date:	04/07/1986
From:	Gullo J AUTOMATIC SPRINKLER CORP. OF AMERICA, INC.
To:	NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE)
Shared Package
ML20203A048	List: ML20203A043 ML20203A075
References
REF-PT21-86, REF-PT21-86-173-000 IEIN-84-16, PT21-86-173, PT21-86-173-000, NUDOCS 8604160214
Download: ML20203A043 (2)

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/ G 1 ENERAL OFFICES C D R P O R A T 10 N OF AMER lCA l POST OFFICE BOX 180  :

1000 EAST EDGERTON ROAD l CLEVELAND,0Hl0 44147  !

PHONF: 216 526-9900 l TELEX: 098-5406 l U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission )

Washington, D.C. 20555 Attention: Director, Office of Inspection and Enforcement

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RE: Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 21, Reporting of Defects and ,

Noncompliances

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Dear Sir or Madam:

Recently we have received inquiries from NRC Region I and II about our Model "C" Deluge Valve notification program.

" Automatic" Sprinkler Corporation manufactures and sells a deluge valve for fire protection systems in sizes 2-1/2" and 6" that we call our Model "C" Deluge Valve. This valve is a commercial grade item that is used in some fire protection systems at some nuclear power plants.

We have become aware of a potentisl problem which may affect the operation of ,

the valve. We would like to point out that we do not believe that this problem l 1s a defect, a deviation, or a noncompliance. It is a condition that occurs after the valves are installed for a period of time. Regardless, we would like to advise you of our situation and to address to you a response to NRC Region I and II's inquiries.

The valve is listed by Underwriter's Laboratory and approved by Factory Mutual l Research Corporation, both independent approval organizations. Each valve is tested for operation at both 200 psi and 50 to 75 psi water pressure for release of the clapper and latch prior to shipment. Every valve functions prcperly when it ships from our plant.

Following is a chronology of events:

October 1983: We became aware of' a fire that occurred at Grand Gulf, Unit 1 Emergency Diesel Generator. NRC IE Information Notice No. 84-16, dated March 2,1984 describes this (copy enclosed). <

November 1983 thru June 1984: We investigated the incident at Grand Gulf and deduced that the operational failure was peculiar to that facility. Refer to a letter dated June 4, 1984 to NRC (copy enclosed).

8604160214 860407 PDR ADOCK 05000416 S PDR

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U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commisssion Page 2 April 7, 1986 November - December 1984: Upon further investigation of the situation, we decided to issue a notification letter to all users of our Model "C" valve. Enclosed please find a copy of our December 1, 1984 notification letter. We included in our mailitig campaign all utilities which have a license to operate or construct a nuclear power plant. We advised your office in a letter dated November 19, 1984 (copy enclosed) that we would be starting a mailing campaign and a list of the utilities we would notify.

December 1981:As a result of our continued evaluations, it was decided to issue another notification letter (copy attached) that supersedes our December 1984 letter. We advised a temporary solution to the situation and used the same mailing list used in 1984. A copy of our December 12, 1985 notification letter was sent to your office, attention Mary Wegner, via certified mail on January 16, 1986. We have a return receipt dated January 21, 1986 signed by N.W. Matovich. ,

We have stopped all shipments of our Model "C" valve. At present, wo intend to ,

change the material of the latch and latch arm. '

Once we havs finalized this program, we will instigate another mailing campaign.

o We will keep you advised of any further developments.

Sincerely, c

M , John J. Gullo, Jr.

Manager, Quality Assurance JJG/ cab cc: USNRC USNRC 631 Park Avenue 101 Marietta Street, Suite 3100 King of Prussia, PA 19406 Atlanta, GA 30303 Attn: Ari Krasotoulos Attn: Gerry Wiseman

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I r- $5 INS No.: 6835 IM 84-16 l # '

, UNITED STATES j

l NUCLEAR REGULATORY CC494ISSION i

[ [; MAR i 9 3 0FFICE OF INSPECTION AND ENFORCEMENT WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555 L [SYEx u j March 2, 1984 IE INFORMATION NOTICE NO. 84-16: FAILURE OF AUTOMATIC SPRINKLER SYSTEM VALVES TO OPERATE Addressees:

All nuclear power reactor facilities holding an operating license (OL) or a construction permit (CP).

Purpose:

This information notice provides notification of a problem involving the operational failure of deluge and pre-action fire protection water control valves, identified as Model C, manufactured by Automatic Sprinkler Corporation of America e' Cleveland, Ohio. It is expected that recipients will review this information notice for applicability to their facilities. No specific action or response is required.

Description of Circumstances:

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On September 4,1983, Mississippi Power and Light (MP&L) Company's Grand Gulf Unit 1 was performing an operational test of an emergency diesel generator when a fire involving the diesel engine occurred. The fire brigade arrived to find that the automatic deluge valve had not opened The manual release failed to open the valve. A mechanic opened the actuator box cover and struck the actuation weight, forcing the clapper latch to release, permitting water spray from the sprinkler system to extinguish 8MSee' Attachment the fire. I2.13he kl -

kic%"giiratiisn rn er'Cer alwe .was .e :6 . inch M>de1A' n%anufactured ty AutomafMdca0cfJ]evD "

During subsequent testing and examination, excessive friction was noted between the weight and the weight guide rod; bowing (0.005-inch) was observed in the weight guide rod; evidence of scoring was found in two locations on the rod's surface; the weight's upper guide collar had an inside diameter (10) of 0.637 inch rather than the manufacturer's recommended minimum of 0.647 inch; and scoring was noted on the enclosing box along the path that the weight guide bushing traces during actuation.

On December 5,1983, a Model C valve for a pre-action sprinkler system pro-tecting a diesel generator room failed to. operate during a test at Grand Gulf.

Similar roughness was found in its internals. A search of records uncovered l

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, IN 84-16 March 2, 1984 .

Page 2 of 2 E anotter event at Grand Gulf in which a Model C valve installed to protect a main transformer failed to open during a test in September 1979.

The valve manufacturer has been notified of these failures and is evaluating

! this problem to determine the action required.

o Tt)e licensee's preliminary investigation indicates that these failures may be p related to the surface condition of the latch which holds the water clapper in tt.e normally closed position. If the mating surfaces of the latch and clapper

! are not smooth, the latch may fail to disengage when the actuation weight hits the latch arm. If the normal water system pressure applied to the clapper i

valve exceeds 140 psig, the problem becomes more acute. The water pressure at

( Grand Gulf is maintained at 140 psig.

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[ MP&L has sanded and trued the guide rod; reworked the ID of the weight's upper

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guide collar; lubricated the rod, latch pin, clapper hinge pin, and the en-closed box along the path of the weight guide bushings; temporarily increased the testing frequency of the valves; and revised the surveillance procedures I

to visually verify that the clapper has lifted and locked open following the test under normal system pressure.

If you have any questions regarding this matter, contact the Regional Administrator of the appropriate NRC Regional Office, or this office.

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dwar Jordan [ Director Divisi n of Emergency Preparedness and gir.eering Response Office of Inspection and Enforcement Technical

Contact:

M. S. Wegner, IE (301) 492-4511 Attachments:

1. Drawing of Automatic Model C Valve

2. List of Recently Issued IE Information Notices W e e

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IN 84-16 March 2, 1984

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LIST OF RECENTLY ISSUE 0 I IE INFORMATION NOTICES

.i f Information Date of i Notice No. Subject Issue issued to 84-15 Reporting of Radiological 3/2/84 All power reactor Releases facilities holding

' an 0L or CP 84-14 Highlights of Recent Trans- 3/2/84 All NRC licensees port Regulatory Revisions by DOT and NRC 84-13 Potential Deficiency in 2/28/84 All power reactor Motor-Operated Valve Control facilities holding Circuits and Annunciation an OL or CP 84-12 Failure of Soft Seat Valve 2/27/84 All power reactor i Seals facilities holding

- an 0L or CP i 84-11 Training Program Deficienc- 2/24/84 All power reactor

. ies facilities holding i an 0L or CP

84-10 Motor-Operated Valve Torque 2/21/84 All power reactor Switches Set Below the facilities holding sanufacturer's Reconsnended an OL or CP

( Value S4-09 Lessons Learned from NRC 02/13/84 All power reactor Inspections of Fire Pro- facilities h'alding tection Safe Shutdown an OL or CP Systems (10 CFR 50, Appendix R) 83-63 Pontential Failures of 2/15/84 All power reactor Supp 1 Westinghouse Electric facilities holding Corporation Type SA-1 an OL Or CP ,

i 84-08 10 CFR 50.7, " Employee 2/14/84 All power reactor  !

Protection" facilities holding  !

an OL or CP; and NSSS & AE OL = Operating License , , , .

CP = Construction Permit d

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[ /[M O GENERAL OFFICES CORP 0 RATION OF AMERICA June 4, 1984 POST OFFICE 80X 180 ion,,33,goog,7o,,o,o CLEVELANO 0HIO 44147 PHONE: 216 526 9900 Mr. Richard C. DeYoung TELEX: 098-5406 Director, Office of Inspection m

& Enforcement eV ,m# b.

US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C. 20555

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Subject:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Infomation Notice 84-16, ...." /

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" Failure of Automatic Sprinkler System Yalves to Operate" {,, fi[N'<//2;[ .j'

Dear Mr. DeYoung:

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%9, .; ,, , ,, , y l' The following infomation is provided in response to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Infomation Notice 84-16 concerning operational failures of our Model C deluge valve at Grand Gulf Unit No.1 of the Mississippi Power and Light Company.

To obtain an indication of whether this problem existed at other installations, we tested a total of seventeen (17) 2-1/2" Model C deluge valves at eight (8) different locations and eight (8) 6" Model C deluge valves at three (3) different locations, using a special test' procedure (130.002SP), and found no operational failures. Two (2) additional six inchstandard the (6") Model testCprocedure.

deluge valves were tested at a fourth location without failure using The special test procedure required the weight on each valve to be dropped only one-half the normal distance so that only one-half the energy is generated to unlatch the valve under this special test condition.

given on Table I. A tabulation of the 2-1/2" and 6" valves tested is The results of our field tests do not indicate a problem with our valve design or manufacture.

We perfomed a number of tests in our laboratory on a 6" Model C deluge valve and found we could duplicate the type of operational failure experienced at the Grand Gulf facility if the latch and clapper nose mating surfaces were rough (approximately a 500 microinch finish or rougher).

We reviewed our drawings to detemine if any changes were made which could have caused the problem observed at the Grand Gulf facility. A drawing change was made in September of'1973 which changed the finish requirement on the clapper and latch mating surfaces from a 63 microinch to a 125 microinch finish.

Valves with serial numbers higher than 4586 for 2-1/2" valves and 6821 for 6" valves were manufactured after the September 1973 drawing change and, since the Grand Gulf Unit No.1 valve serial numbers were higher than those identifying the 1973 finish change, we required that the valves tested in the field to our special test procedure have serial numbers which indicate that they were produced after the surface finish change. As pre- -

viously stated, no operational failures were found on the valves tested which were produced after the surface finish change.

1 Although we did not find the Grand Gulf mode of failure at any other installation, we made two changes to increase the probability of successful valve operation. The surface g/d yT-f/J - giurcurric spa =ua coaecaare or autmca. 4 nccie surcanarionu coua.~va

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finish drawir.g requirement of the clapper nose and latch mating surfaces was chan G8a and G22a (copies enclosed) were changed to require and latch mating surfaces at each routine, periodic inspection.

With respect to the conditions nnted in Information Notice No. 84-16 regarding bow of the guideisrod information and the undersize I.D. of the upper guide' rod collar, the following offered.

The guide rod we install in our valves is purchased under ASTM B16, material C36000.

arc) in any 2 ft long portion.The ASTM B16 (Table 15) straightness requiremen guide rod used in our 6" Model C deluge valve easily meets the ASTil re The upper guide collar was stated to have an I.D. of 0.637 inch and our minimum I.D.

dimension was stated to be 0.647 inch. Our actual drawing minimum dimension for this I.D. isinches.~

0.003 0.640 so the collar was measured by the Grand Gulf people to be undersize by However, the ASTM B16 requirement for the guide rod is 0.625 0.002".

The minimum clearance for the guide rod in this undersize hole is 0.637-0.627 or 0.010 inches which is adequate to allow the weight to slide freely on the guide rod even if the guide collar I.D. was undersize as claimed.

valvcs; however, we revised the maintenance procedure and manufacturing existing Model C todeluge increase the probability of successful operation of both new and valves.

Wa further conclude the operational failures at Grand Gulf Unit #1 are peculiar to that facility.

Very truly yours, C -:/b/%_ &% ~

Charles B. Barnett, Manager Research and Development CBB/mn Attachment cc: W. H. Miller, Resident Inspector E. L. Jordan, Director of Engr. & 0.A.

J. P. O'Reilly, Regional Administrator bcc: C. Miner C. Hura J. Stout M. Hutchinson W &_:*. h_ b

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( TABLE I .

6" MODEL C DELUGE VALVE -

Serial No. Pressure (psi Trip Test Static Water ) -

_ Satisfactory Location 8429- 150 ,Yes

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Perth Amboy, NJ 8153 110 "

Omaha, NE 8106 93 "

Mankato, MN 8102 90 " " "

8077 175 "

Atlanta, GA 8082 " " " "

8078 " " " "

8094 " " " "

8095 " " " "

8096 " " " "

Total 10 valves at four (4) different locations.

2-1/2" MODEL C DELUGE VALVE 8200 130 Yes Carson City, CA 8183 132 " " "

8604 130 " " "

4878 125 " " "

8148 120 "

, Baytown, TX 8149 120- " " "

8293 150 "

Perth Amboy, NJ 8294 150 " " "

8291 150 " " "

8277 150 " "

5113 200 "

Nebraska City, NE SB204 77 "

Oakland, CA S8199 80 " " "

• 8276 115 "

McKeespcrt, PA 8190 100 "

Greensburg, PA 8188 110 " " "

S8215 100 "

Oes Moines, IA Total 17 valves at eight (8) different locations.

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