ML20207F529
| ML20207F529 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 08/11/1988 |
| From: | Cowgill C NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I) |
| To: | Bettenhausen L NRC |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8808180306 | |
| Download: ML20207F529 (7) | |
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.4 AUG 1 1 WM6 Jocket Nos. 50-289; 50-320 MEMORI.NDUM FOR:
Lee H. Bettenhcusen, Chief, Proje:ts Branch No. 1, Division of Reactor Projects FROM:
Curtis J. Cowgill, Chief, Reactor Projects Section No lA, ORP
SUBJECT:
TMI STATUS REPORT FOR THE PERIOD JULY 9 - AUGUST 6,1988 Eiclosed is the IMI Resident Office monthly status report, which covers both TMI-1 and THI-2. This report is to provide NRC management and the public with highlights of significant events at TMI-1 and TMI-2 from an NRC regulatory perspectiva.
Criatw131sned By Curtis J. Cowgill, Chief Reactor Projects Section 1A
Enclosure:
As Stated cc w/ enclosure:
S. Varga, NP.R J. Stolz, NRR R. Hernan, NRR M. Matnik, NRR T. Martin, EDO J. Partlow, NRR J. Roe, NRR T. Gerusty, BRP/ DER, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Governor's Office of Policy, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania THI Alert Susquehanna Valley Alliacce Friends & Family of TMI
- 0. Davenport L. Drey E. Harzler A, Herman H. Hucker J. Johnsrud P. Smith H. Spinelli C. Wolfe Concerned Mothers and Women Public Document Room Local Public Document Room 0FFICIAL RECORD COPY TM! MONTHLY STATUS REPORT -
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W. Baunack, RI C. Cowgill, RI J. Wechselberger, RI J. Bell, NRR Region I 00cket hoom (wA:ncurrences)
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ENCLOSURE TMI-1 AND TMI-2 STATUS REPORT FOR THE PERIOD JULY 9 - AUGUST 6, 1988 1.
TMI-1 a.
Facility Operations Summary During the report period, the licensee maintained the plant in a cold shutdown condition.
Various refueling / outage activities were conducted or completed as discussed below. As of August 6, 1988, the TMI-1 reactor was in cold shutdown at approximately 130 F and reactor vessel level at the reactor vessel cold leg nozzles.
b.
Items of Special Interest Once-1.. rough Steam Generator Eddy Current Testing The licensee completed Once-Through Steam Generator (OTSG) eddy current testing (ECT) on July 11, 1988, which resulted in plegging of twenty-one tubes; thirteen in the "A" OTSG and eight in the "B" OTSG.
The total number of plugged tubes was increased to 1,627 (1,260 "A" OTSG and 367 "B" 0TSG), which is still below the limit of 2,000 tubes evaluated by the licensee and NRC staff.
Approximately 4,000 tubes were examined in both OTSG's out of a total of approximately 31,000 total tubes.
The initial technical specification required a 3 percent sample in both OTSG's; this was expanded to an ad-ditional 6 percent sample in both OTSG's. One failed tube (more than 40% throughwall) in the "B" and two fa.ed tubes in the "A" OTSG identi-fied in the initial 3 percent sample 1,ecessitated the additional 6 per-cent sample. No failed tubes were identified in the second sample test.
The other tubes that were plugged were identif'.d from testing of pre-viously identified tubes that were o.ily slightly degraded.
The ECT results will be reported to the NRC in a report due twelve enths after completion of testing. A preliminary review by an NRC inspector was conducted on site; no deficiencies were noted.
Outage-Activities Other items completed during the outage included refueling activities.
The licensee installed seventy-sty new fuel a.semblies in the reactor.
These new fuel assemblies have a greater enrichment of uranium than was previously used and will result in a longer operating cycle for cycle 7; approximately sixteen months.
2 The licensee also completed cleaning of both OTSG secondary sides, using a technique called "water slap" to remove corrosion deposits on the heat transfer surfaces.
This should result in lower OTSG operating levels, which have limited plant power in the past when too high.
Borated Water Storage Tank Vortexing The resident inspectors completed a review of a licensee safety evalu-ation (50.59), whic was completed to document a change to the lo-lo level alarm for the borated water storage tank (BWST).
The licensee had previously identified a potential problem,
level in the BWST at which manual action is taken to switch from th. injection to recirculation mode following large Break I.oss of Coolant Accident (LBLOCA).
The level, 3 feet above the bottom of the tank, could result in loss of suction for the lower pressure injection (LPI), high pressure injection (HPI), and building spray (BS) pumps.
The alarm was raised to 6 feet 4 inches to preclude this problem.
This new level resulted in a lower net positive suction head (NPSH) ( 2 actor building (RB) sump level), which required an emergency operating procedure chacge to direct throttling of the BS pumps following switch over to the recirculation mode.
This lower level flow rate was also evaluated for impact on iodine removal, sump pH, and RB temperature.
The licensee is also planning to update the appropriate sections of the Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR).
Management Changes On Friday, June 29, 1988, the !icensee announced that George A. Kuehn, Radiological Controls and Industrial Safety Director at TMI-1, was selected as the Site Operations Director for TMI-2.
Roger P. Shaw, Radiological Engineering Manager, TMI-1, was assigned to Mr. Kuehn's former position.
Both changes were effective August 1, 1988.
2.
TMI-2 a.
Facility Activities Summary During this reporting period, the upper flow distributor (UFD) was re-moved from the reactor vessel. The UFD is the second of five plates that comprise the Lower Core Support Assembly (LCSA) that is to be removed to provide access for defueling the Iower head of the reactor vessel.
Decontamination of external surfaces and plant systems continues.
One plant area has been isolated and placed in an interim Post Defueling Monitored Storage (PCMS) status.
Seven other plant areas are in the process of being verified to meeting the interim PDMS isolation criteria.
OFFICIAL RECORD COPY TMI MONTHLY STATUS REPORT -
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3 b.
Items of Special Interest Defueling Operations Defueling crews completed removing the UFD from the reactor vessel and placing it in storage in a modified core flood tank. The UFD is the second of five sections that comprises the Lower Core Support Assembly (LCSA) that has been cut into pieces, using the plasma arc technique, and removed from the vessel.
In preparation for cutting the next plate, the grid forging, defueling crews are clearing debris from the top and flow holes of the forging. This debris contains a significant amount of chips and dross material created by the drilling and cutting opera-tions, respectively, in addition to short length fuel rods. Manual pick-and place techniques were initiated to clear rods from the forging.
Then, airlift operation = were conducted to clear vacuumable debris from in and around the forging. Once the forging is cleaned, plasma arc equipment is to be installed and cutting operations will resume.
The licensee is conducting surveys to determine fuel quantities in other portiens of the primary system.
In parallel with these surveys, various defueling techniques are being evaluated should fuel be found to be present.
No shipments of casks containing core debris have been made durir.o this reporting period.
Decontamination / Dose Reduction Activities Scabbling, steam cleaning, and hands-on decontamination continue ia the auxiliary and fuel handling buildings. To date, 119 of 143 cubicles have been decontaminated to end point criteria, with three cubicles presently undergoing evaluation to assess their status. The remaining cubicles contain contaminated plant systems that first must be cleaned before the cubicle is decontaminated.
Flushes of these systems are being performed to lower dose rates in these cubicles.
Filling and draining of the block wall in the reactor building (RB) l basement is ongoing. As a result of the low concentration of contamina-tion in the flush water, the RB sump water is being processed through the EPICOR II water clean-up system, in lieu of the Submerged Demineral-izer System (SDS). An evaluation is being performed to determine the ef fectiseness of the fill-and-drain operation.
Attempts to transfer highly contaminated resins from the "A" and "B" make-up demineralizers have been unsue 7ssful.
Preparations are being made to install a hydrolance in the "A" demineralizer discharge piping in an effort to break up the material, using high pressure water, to permit sluicing to a receiver tank. A delumper is also being installed l
in the recirculation flowpath of the receiver tank to increase the l
- sluicability of the discharged material.
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0FFICIAL RECORD COPY TMI MONTHLY STATUS REPORT -
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4 The licensee implemented the initial phase of assessing specific plant areas for placement of these areas into a PDMS condition.
Following its assessment, the seal return cooler /filtar room is the first area to be isolated from routine access to assure that it would not become re-con-taminated, nor be impacted by other plant operations.
Seven other areas are currently scheduled for verification and should also be isolated from the balance of plant.
Yard Engine and Railcar Orift on Site At approximately 1:30 p.m.
July 26, 1988, a railcar carryirg a loaded shipping cask and its unmanned yard engine drif ted for approximately 60 yards on the site tracks.
The engine and railcar came to a final rest as a result of an increase in the natural grade of the rails.
Prior to this occurrence, workers were preparing the cask for shipment off sise, but they had stopped work cecause of a severe electrical storm.
In their haste, they failed to set the engine's hand brake.
Following their departure, the engine's air brake slowly bled off, which released the air brake and resulted in the engine and railcar slowly drif ting.
The engine struck a portable traffic sign that was in its path before coming to rest.
No damage occurred to the engine, railcar, or shipping cask.
The shipping cask contained seven cans of core debris.
No release of radioactive materials occurred. No persor.nel wers injured.
Site inspectors are reviewing the actions taken by the licensee to preclude a recurrence.
Management Actions as a Result of Licensee Investigation of Operator Sleeping Issue On July 20, 1988, the licensee announceu the completion of its indepen-dent investigation into management response to allegations that a shift supervisor at TMI-2 had slept while ca shif t.
The report was received by GPU Nuclear Corporation and forwarded to the Nuclear Regulatory Com-mission.
The independent investigation was conducted for GPU Nuclear by Edwin H. Stier, former director of the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice.
In November 1987, Stier confirmed that the shift supervisor had slept on a number of occasions or been Inattentive to his job. The individual was subsequently fired.
In the second phase of the investigation, Mr. Stier was critical of site management's handling of the allegations concerning the behavior of the shift supervisor.
As a result of the completion of the investigation, the licensee took a number of disciplinary actions affecting TMI-2 site management.
These actions included a dismissal, reassignments to lower level positions not involving supervision of licensed operators at TMI-2, and formal reprimands.
' !ll...
5 3.
NRC Staff Activities The NRC staff a: signed on site consisted of the senior resident inspector, three resident inspectors, a liaison engineer (for THI-2), and a secretary.
During this period, Region I issued the following inspection reports.
TMI-1 (50-289) 88-05 on July 14, 1988, on routine operational activities. No.iolations were identified.
TMI-2 (50-320) 88-08 on June 23, 1988, on TMI-2 defueling/ decontamination.v'ivities.
No violations were identified.
88-10 on August 2, 1988, on TMI-2 defueling/decontaminat,on activities.
This report provides a summary of a management meeting held with the licensee on July 1,1988, concerning events which were attributable to human performance cases.
4.
Public Meetings On July 14, 1988, the Advisory Panel for the decontamination of TMI-2 met in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Post-Defueling Monitored Storage, decommissioning, and the financing needed to achieve these plant conditions were discussed, t
The next Advisory Panel meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, September 7,1988, at 7:00 p.m.
The meeting location is tentatively planned te be in the Holiday Inn Center City, 23 South Second Street, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
l OFFICIAL RECORD COPi TMI MONTHLY STATUS REPORT -
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