ML20206S385

Summary of 980729 Open ACRS Joint Meeting of Subcommittees on Plant Operations & Fire Protection in Atlanta,Ga Re Region II Activities & Other Items of Mutual Interest, Including Significant Operating Events & Fire Protection

ML20206S385
Person / Time
Issue date:	09/03/1998
From:	Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards
To:	Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards
References
ACRS-3122, NUDOCS 9905210118
Download: ML20206S385 (8)

Text

h $ $ " N A <A fSR 4

CERTIFIED BY:

ISSUED: 9/3/98 John Barton - 9/4/98 ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REACTOR SAFEGUARDS MINUTES OF THE JOINT MEETING OF THE ACRS SUBCOMMITTEES ON PLANT OPERATIONS AND ON FIRE PROTECTION JULY 29,1998 ATLANTA, GEORGIA INTRODUCTION The Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) Subcommittees on Plant Operations and on Fire Protection held a joint meeting on July 29,1998, at the Region 11 office,61 Forsyth Street, S.W.,

Suite 23 T85, Atlanta, Georgia, to discuss Region 11 l

activities and other items of mutual interest, including significant operating events and fire protection issues. The entire meeting was open to the public. Mr. Amarjit Singh was the cognizant ACRS staff engineer for this meeting. The meeting was convened at 8:50 a.m.

and adjoumed at 4:30 p.m.

ATTENDEES ACRS s

J. Barton, Chairman, Plant Operations

]

Subcommittee D. Powers, Co-Chairman J. Larkins, ACRS Staff 4

D. Miller, Member A. Singh, ACRS Staff T. Kress, Member R. Uhrig, Member W. Shack, Member G. Wallis, Member G. Apostolakis, Member R. Seale, Chairman, ACRS C

NRC Staff

D O \\

04 p'l J. Mitchell, EDO Staff KPs3 i

g 52 g e 98o903 7

3122 PDR,

A a

V U

a w g, g

l Plant Ops. & Fire Prot. -

July 29,1998

Joint Subete. Minutes Principal NRC Region ll Speakers EJ. Johnson, Deputy Administrator L Plisco, Director, Division of Reactor Projects (DRP)

J. Jaudon, Director, Division of Reactor Safety (DRS)

B. Mallett, Deputy Director, DRS R. Bomhard, Senior Reactor Ana;yst(SRA)

W. Rogers, SRA A. Christner, Personnel Officer No written comments or requests for time to make oral statements were received from members of the public. A complete list of meeting attendees is kept in the ACRS Office File and will be made available upon request. The presentation slides and handouts used

- during the meeting are attached to the office copy of these minutes.

Chairrnan's Opening Remarks

. Mr. John J. Barton, Chairman, Plant Operations Subcommittee, convened the meetirg at 8:30 a.m. He stated that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss Region 11 activities and other items of mutual interest, including significant operating events and fire protection issues..

Region ll Presentations lntroduction Mr. Jon R. Johnson, Deputy Regional Administrator of Region 11, discussed his philosophy.

- for directing Region'11 activities. One of his primary goals was to establish good communications between Region ll 'and NRC Headquarters, and betweer) region.al inspectors and the licensees. He stated that Region 11 contains eight contiguous states.

He has emphasized the significance of having frequent and vigorous communication i

between regional and Headquarters counterparts. He holds weekly discussions with the resident inspectors and arranges quaiterly meetings with the licensees to discuss topies of interest. These communications are intended to obtain timely feedback on areas of concem before big problems arise.

Region ll Organization and Responalbilities j

)

Mr. Johnson also addressed organization, allocation of resources, supervisory and management development within the region, and activities for maintaining uniformity

e Plant Ops, & Fire Prot. July 29,1998 Joint Subete. Minutes among the regions. He noted that Region _ll has the responsibility for overseeing 33 operating reactors, 5 fuel facilities, and 900 byproduct material licenses.

Overall, Region ll is organized into four divisions: the Division of Reactor Projects (DRP),

the Division of Reactor Safety (DRS), the Division of Nuclear Material Safety (DNMS), and 4

the Division of Resources Management and Administration (DRMA. Region 11 has four principal responsibilities: ' inspection, enforcement, licensing activities, end incident i

response.

Additionally, the regional administrator's staff also is responsible for coordinating activities of enforcement staff, State and govemment affairs, the regional

-incident response program and center, public affairs, and work of the regional counsel.

ACRS memberc were provided a tour and briefing of the regional incident response center.

Activities for Wlaintaining Uniformity Among the Regions. Including the Proposed Amendment to 10 CFR Part 55 Mr. Mallet, discussed the activities regarding maintaining uniformity among the four regions, rotational assignments in and out of the regions, and frequent coordination and contact throughout the NRC. He stated that there are three key processes that lead to i

uniformity among the regions and the within the region.itself. First, establish the expectations with a specific standard or training process; second, monitor the implementation of the established standard; and third, enforce the established standard.

Uniformity must be maintained in the following areas: enforcement, inspection program response to events, and the SALP assessment program. He also discussed the following phases of the inspection programs: training and development programs for new and qualified inspectors; organization, composition, and planning considerations; and current j

topics for team inspections. He presented examples of recent management meeting j

topics, SALP board evaluation techniques, and inspection findings.

' Mr. Mallet also discussed initiatives for improving uniformity among the regions in the area of licensee preparation of operator license examinations under the amended 10 CFR Part 55 rule.

Region 11 Staff Training and Development Ms. Christner presented the Region ll staff training and development program and specifically focused on a typicaljoumeyman level inspector training program. The training committee in Region ll comprises a chairperson, (the Deputy Regional Administrator) and the Division Directors (including the two Human Resources staff members). Following are the specific requirements and guidance for the Region ll staff:

Reactor Training Program - NRC Inspection Manual Chapter 1245

v e

Plant Ops. & Fire Prot. July 29,1998

. Joint Subete. Minutes Examiner Qualification Training - NRR Branch Manual Chapter 0170 Materials Training Program - NRC Inspection Manual Chapter 1248 Supervisory / Managerial Training - NRC Management Direchve 10.77 Ms. Christner stated that the qualification and training requirements are dictated by the requirements mentioned above. The training provider is the Technical Training Center (TTC) in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The TTC provides most of the training for our reactor training program, as well as some of the training for the materials program. Region ll also makes use of vendors (such as the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-

Graduate. School and Management Concepts Inc. She stated that Region ll provides training in eight different speciality areas. The first part of the training is the completion of the qualification joumal. The joumal contains a series of various activities that are performed in the regional office and also on site, along with signature cards on which the branch chief is required to sign off after completion of the activities. In addition, the required training includes both self-study and the required courses that are provided by TTC. She also stated that an average amount of the training would require more than 200 hours0.00231 days <br />0.0556 hours <br />3.306878e-4 weeks <br />7.61e-5 months <br /> annually. At the completion of the certification board, the qualification joumal, and the required training, the employee's supervisor recommends certification to the Regional Administrator. The Regional Administrator is the only person who can grant certification.

It is written certification and is kept in the individual's permanent files.

Intsraction With the institute of NWr Power Onorations flNPO)

Mr. Jaudon briefly discussed Region ll's interaction with INPO. He stated that most of the

' interaction with INPO is with the Headquartens staff, not with the regional staff. Often the Regional Administrator addresses one of the.INPO training sessions. The Division Directors and their deputies are normally expected to attend their accreditation board meetings once a year. As a general rule, the region does not conduct team inspections

- when INPO is on site.

Fira Protaction laansa Mr. Jaudon also presented briefly the results of Individual Plant Examinations of Extemal Events (IPEEEs) analysis of the Region 11 plant and Fire Protection Functional Inspection (FPFI).- He stated that the Region ll licensees used two primary methods for detecting fire vulnerabilities in their submittals: (1) fire-induced vulnerability evaluation (FIVE); and (2) probabilistic risk analysis. For example, he stated that the Duke Power. Company integrated fire and seismic studies with its intemal events study to assess plant risk. Watts I

i A

s'

. Plant Ops. & Fire Prot. July 29,1998 Joint Subete. Minutes i

Bar employed the FIVE methodology. He concluded that the IPEEEs may not provide the

' insights and that plant-to-plant numerical comparisons should not be made.

He also briefly provided the results of the FPFI inspection conducted by the NRR staff at i

St. Lucio. The scope of the inspection included the corrective actions taken by the

' licensee for thermo-lag fire barrier material and a review of the Appendix R Post-Fire Safe-Shutdown analysis. The team noted some positive findings and some areas of concem st St. Lucie. The licensee uses administrative procedures to control combustibles. The surveillance of the fire protection components was very good. - The licensee has performed good in-depth quality assurance audits at St. Lucie. The areas of concem included program ownership. Licensee management acknowledged that the program ownership was the major single problem it had in the area of fire protection. There was.very poor implementation of transient combustibles. The team also found weaknesses in the area of training and fire protection features for safe-shutdown capability.

Senior Reactor Analyst Program Mr. Mallett discussed the objectives of the Senior Reactor Analyst SRA) program and the responsibilities of the SRAs.

He stated that Region ll has two SRAs. They are responsible for reviewing NUREG-1560,

" Individual Plant Examination Program: Perspectives on Reactor Safety and Plant Performance." The SRAs also are responsible for gathering developing comprehensive information for. the Region 11 staff that will include the licensee's probabilistic risk assessments (PRAs), IPEs, IPEEEs, technical staff evaluation reports, risk-informed pilot programs, and background information. The SRAs have the capability to perform independent risk assessments, as needed, using the NRC risk' assessment tool, the integrated reliability and risk analysis system (IRRAS). The SRAs will also provide the operator licensing examiners with risk-significant operator actions that would be important in mitigating an accident or in minimizing the failure of components and systems. The SRAs will also provide their perspective in regulatory decisions for the enforcement actions.

Risk Associated With Online Maintenance Mr. Rogers discussed the reasons for conducting online maintenance and the risk assessment tools for online maintenance. He stated that the reasons for performing online maintenance are the following: (1) it balances the availability and reliability of the systems, structures, and components (SSCs) and (2) it also has economic benefits for shortened refueling and maintenance outages. Many regulations were developed during the period when industry's maintenance philosophy was to conduct significant maintenance activities

i L8' Plant Ops. & Fire Prot. July 29,1998 Joint Subete. Minutes -

during long outages. Mr. Rogers stated that risk assessments should be performed to determine the potential risk associated with online maintenance activities that affect the reliability and availability of SSCs.

SALP Ratings of Region ll Plants Mr. Plisco discussed the SALP program in Region ll. He stated that Region ll has implemented the SALP program in accordance with the management directive that was revised in June 1996. The SALP Board membership and definitions of the functional areas have been significantly changed since the SALP process was implemented in 1980.

Currently, the SALP process involves three board members and four functional areas, and the assessment frequency is between 12 arid 24 months. The distribution of the SALP j

ratings varies from Category 1 to Category 2 ratings among the 18 sites. The Region ll sites do not have Category 3 ratings.

Resident inspector Program. Plant Performance Review Program. and Views on improvement to the Senior Management Process, including Integrated Assessment of the Plant Review Process Mr. Plisco also discussed the Region ll resident inspector program and peiformance review program, and gave his views on improving the senior management process, including integrated assessment of the plant review process.

4 The resident inspection program began in 1977, before the accident at Three Mile Island.

The purpose of the resident inspection program is to provide continuing NRC onsite coverage at each nuclear power plant in the country, to provide for a rapid NRC response to plant events, and to increase inspection time and direct observation of the licensee's activities at the plant. This program gives the regions a better knowledge of the conditions at licensed facilities and a better basis for making regulatory decisions. The resident inspector requirements are divided into six inspection categories: daily, biweekly, monthly, tri-monthly, semiannually, and during outages. The region-based inspection is conducted by regional inspectors who typically have a more specialized expertise than the resident inspectors.

The purpose of the plant performance review program is to assess licensee performance periodically. This process is used during the SALP period focusing on the activities occurred during the last six months of the SALP period. The Plant Issues Matrix program is a' new addition to the region's inspection program.

This program compiles a chronological listing of all of the key issues for each plant in the region. The chronological listing of issues is collected from inspection reports, licensee event reports, and event

c a

Plant Ops. & Fire Prot. July 29,1998 s

Joint Subete. Minutes nobfications that licensees have to NRC Headquarters Operations Center. This program is a valuable tool that is used as part of both the performance review and as input to the senior management meetings. This program also identifies each of the items as either a strength of the licensee's program or a weakness. The most recent plant performance review that Region il had at the last senior management meeting included the self-assessment process and to saving NRC resources. He also stated that the process is a redundant one.

Closing Remarks On behalf of the subcommittees, Mr. Barton and Dr. Powers thanked Mr. Johnson and members of his staff for the very informative briefing on Region 11 activities and the professional manner in which it was presented.

Plant Ops. & Fire Prot. July 29,1998 Joint Suty:te. Minutes Future ACRS 4 tion The Subcommittees did not specify any further action in regard to this meeting.

1

. = = = = = = =..

NOTE:

Additional details of this meeting can be obtained from a transcript of this meeting available in the NRC Public Document Room,2120 L Street, N.W.,

Washington, D.C. 20006, (202) 634-3274, or can be purchased from Ann Riley & Associates, LTD.1250 l Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005, (202) 842-0034.

1 l