ML20205N499
| ML20205N499 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Seabrook  |
| Issue date: | 04/08/1999 |
| From: | Blough A NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I) |
| To: | Feigenbaum T NORTH ATLANTIC ENERGY SERVICE CORP. (NAESCO) |
| References | |
| EA-98-165, NUDOCS 9904160297 | |
| Download: ML20205N499 (4) | |
Text
1, I
April 8, 1999 EA 98-165 Mr. T. C. Feigenbaum Executive Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer Seabrook Station North Atlantic Energy Service Corporation c/o Mr. James Peschel P. O. Box 300 Seabrook, NH 03874 i
SUBJECT:
RESPONSE TO LETTER DATED MARCH 19,1999
Dear Mr. Feigenbaum:
This letter is in response to your March 19,1999 letter, in which you requested a copy of Office of Investigation Report 1-1998-005, or in the alternative a summary of the investigation report.
You stated that you were requesting the investigation report in order to help you prepare for a predecisional enforcement conference. At this time, we are providing yot a summary of the facts that led the NRC staff to conclude that violations of regulatory requirements may have ocurred. Your request for a copy of the investigation report, however, is being denied at this timo because the NRC staff has not yet made a final enforcement decision in the matters described below. Investigation reports are considered predecisional until the NRC staff makes a final enforcement decision, and they are not normally made available to licensees and the public until after the NRC staff has taken fcrmal enforcement action, if action is warranted.
We identified three apparent violations in our March 16,1999 letter to you. These apparent violations involve: (1) Williams Power Company (WPC) employees creating an inaccurate record regarding the as-left configuration of certain cable terminations for the Seabrook Station control building air-conditioning (CP ^ ' ~vstem, in apparent violation of 10 CFR Part 50.9; (2)
WPC management laying-off a WF trician for raising a safety concern about the quality of the work performed on the CBA sy_
m, in apparent violation of 10 CFR Pan c3.7; and (3)
WPC employees failing to promptty arrect the incorrectly terminated cables of the CBA system, a condition adverse to quality, in apparent violation of 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix B, Criterion XVI. Each of these three apparent violations is discussed below.
1 Facts Related to the First Acoarent Violation:
g Per Work Request No. 97 WOO 1282, the WPC electrician was to make changes to the Seabrook Station CBA system. During pre-fabrication work in late December 1997 or early January 1998, the electrician noticed that two electrical conductors in panel CP-177, at device D7F, that were to be lifted and terminated as part of the work request were terminated opposite that shown in the applicable design documents. The electrician expressed a concern about the as-found configuration o' two electrical conductors to his foreman, also a WPC employee. The l
9904160297 990408
'M PDR ADOCK 05000443 G
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OFFICIAL RECORD COPY IE:01-
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T. C. Feigenbaum 2
foreman acknowledged the electrician's concern at that time by telling the electrician he would look into the matter.
Later, on January 7,1998, while preparing to terminate the electrical conductors upon completion of the work, the electrician apparently questioned the foreman about whether he
{
. should terminate the two electrical conductors according to the design documents. The l
foreman told the electrician that he was to terminate the cables in accordance with their as-found configuration. As instructed by the foreman, the electrician terminated the electrical conductors opposite the configuration specified in the applicable design documents. After terminating the electrical conductors, the electrician initialed and signed the work package cable termination document indicating that he had terminated the electrical conductors according to the applicable design documents. The electrician's foreman initialed and signed the work package cable termination document indicating that he had verified that the electrical conductors were terminated according to the applicable design documents. This is an apparent violation of 10 CFR Part 50.9.
Facts Related to the Second Aooarent Violation:
On January 7,1998, after the two electrical conductors in panel CP-177, at device D7F, had been terminated in a configuration opposite that required by the appropriate design documents, the WPC electrician brought the discrepancy to the attention of a NAESCo senior quality control (OC) inspector. On January 8,1998, the senior quality control inspector discussed the wiring discrepancy with the electrician's WPC foreman. On January 9,1998, the senior quality control inspector informed certain NAESCo and WPC managers at the Seabrook Station in an E-Mail message about the wiring incident described above and indicated that there appeared to be an aversion among some contract workers to identify conditions adverse to quality.
j i
On January 9,1998, there was a meeting between the WPC electrician and his foreman, at which the E-mail message sent by the QC inspector was discussed. At this meeting, the foreman apparently threatened to lay-off the electrician. On January 16,1998, the WPC fcreman laid-off the electrician. On January 20,1998, the electrician's lay-off was suspended because the reason given by the WPC foreman for laying-off the electrician (i.e., tardiness) was not supported by appropriate documentation. It appears that the true reason why the electrician was laid-off by the WPC foreman is because the electrician raised a safety concern to the QC inspector. This is an apparent violation of 10 CFR Part 50.7.
Facts Related to the Third Aooarent Vioiation:
In late December 1997 or early Jano?y 1998, both the WPC electrician and his foreman knew that there was a discrepancy with." as-found configuration of the wiring of the CBA system.
At that time no action was taken to resolve this discrepancy, such as initiating an adverse I
cond tion report. The discrepancy was caly revealed after the electrician told the senior quality control inspector on January 7,1998, that he had wired the CBA system opposite that depicted in the appropriate Seabrook Station design documents. Although the electrician raised his concern to his foreman again on January 7,1998, the leads were terminated in the as-found condition and the foreman did not take any action to resolve the discrepancy until after the discrepancy had been brought to the attention of the QC inspector. This failure to promptly identify and correct the CBA system wiring discrepancy is an apparent violation of 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix B, Criterion XVI.
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T. C. Feigenbaum 3
l The above factual summary should be sufficient for you to prepare for the predecisional enforcement conference. During the conference, if you are not prepared to answer a question because it relates to a matter for which you were not g!ven notice, or for any other reason, then you may provide a written response subsequent to the conference in order to supplement the l
record.
Sincerely, Original Signed by:
A. Randolph Blough, Director I
Division of Reactor Projects Docket No.
50-443 cc:
B. D. Kenyon, President - Nuclear Group J. S. Streeter, Recovery Officer - Nuclear Oversight W. A. DiProfio, Station Director - Seabrook Station R. E. Hickok, Nuclear Training Manager - Seabrook Station D. E. Carriere, Director, Production Services L. M. Cuoco, Senior Nuclear Counsel i
W. Fogg, Director, New Hampshire Office of Emergency Management l
D. C. McElhinney, RAC Chairman, FEMA Rl, Boston, Mass.
R. Backus, Esquire, Backus, Meyer and Solomon, New Hampshire D. Brown-Couture, Director, Nuclear Safety, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency F. W. Getman, Jr., Vice President and General Counsel - Great Bay Power Corporation R. Hallisey, Director, Dept. of Public Health, Commonwealth of Massachusetts Seacoast Anti-Pollution League D. Tefft, Administrator, Bureau of Radiological Health, State of New Hampshire S. Comley, Executive Director, We the People of the United States W. Meinert, Nuclear Engineer
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T. C. Feigenbaum 4
Distribution:
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PUBLIC Nuclear Safety information Center (NSIC)
NRC Resident inspector RI-98-A-0012 l
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