ML20210N376

Informs About Meeting on 960513 to Brief Chairman Jackson on Comed Response to Deregulation

ML20210N376
Person / Time
Site:	Dresden, Byron, Braidwood, Quad Cities, Zion, LaSalle
Issue date:	08/12/1996
From:	Chris Miller NRC
To:	Shirley Ann Jackson, The Chairman NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
Shared Package
ML20210N181	List: ML20210N177 ML20210N268 ML20210N295 ML20210N338 ML20210N376 ML20210N427
References
FOIA-97-178 NUDOCS 9708250200
Download: ML20210N376 (3)

Text

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)A August 12, 1996 (h3/g NOTE TO: Chairman Jackson FROM: Christopher G. Miller

. COORDINATED WITH: Annette/Marylee })

SUBJECT:

August 13 Drop-In, Comed executives

VISITORS

Jamas O'Connor - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Michael Wallace - Senior Vice President Nuclear Strategic Services PLANTS: Six Operating BWRs (Dresden 2&3, LaSalle 1&2. Quad Cities 1&2) and Six 03erating PWRs (Braidwood 1&2, Byron 1&2 Zion 1&2) with One 3WR in SAFSTOR (Dresden 1)

SUMMARY

• The meeting is for Comed to brief Chairman Jackson on Comed response to deregulation, in response to Chairman Jackson's questions about deregulation from the May 13, 1996 meeting, Briefing notes from the M[/y p

" last 2 courtesy visits with Comed are included and highlighted. Other potential topics would be decommissioning costs. Dresden performance, f and use of mixed oxide fuel (in concert with Duke Power).

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• News clippings attached give insight into Mr. O'Connor's position of p slow careful movement into deregulation, potential Comed restructuring options, and other history of the Comed utility. News so far has indicated that Comed was not planning any mergers, but only discussing options, PERFORMANCE:

• Since the May 13. 1996 visit Dresden has had 2 additional Diesel Generator starts and Engineered Safety Feature actuations due to human

. error (for a total of 3 since February 96), a reactor scram and unusual event due to feedwater regulating valve problems (one valve out of service for t.aintenance and the other valve failed closed) and 23 safety related 4160 volt breakers in both units in need of repairs after a breaker failure pointed to weaknesses in maintaining t1ese breakers, o Many performance problems have been identified recently at 5 of 6 Comed sites. All 3 BWR plants have corrective action, work control and engineering difficulties. Zion has also shared many of these problems and has been slow to correct them since the 1990 DET, Braidwood has recently been noted to have let material condition degrade, with poor engir.eeri nd corrective action. Only Byron has remained a good r.

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/a PARADIS97-178 PDR I

t e SALP scores are tabbed with yellow for the six plants, and range from all is at Byron to two 2s and two 3s at Dresden and LaSalle.

e LaSalle was forced to shut down both units due to a fouling of service water strainers in both plants. The fouling was due to poor contractor control of concrete sealant injection activities. Identification was 4 hindered by poor initial root cause efforts.

MANAGEMENT CHANGES:

e In April 1996. Thomas Maiman replaced Michael Wallace as the Senior Vice President in charge of nuclear operations. Mr Wallace now has charge of nuclear fuel procurement, radioactive waste storage, decommissioning, and other nuclear services.

e Mr Harold Keiser (formerly of Entergy) joined Comed in December 1995 and is now the Chief Nuclear Operating Officer with oversight of all six nuclear stations, i

e Site Vice President changes recently include Mr Steve Perry (formerly l Senior Vice president for BWR Operations) assuming full time Site Vice President of Dresden: Mr. H. Gene Stanley (formerly Site Vice President l for Nuclear Operations at Susquehanna) taking over at Braidwood; and Mr.

John Mueller (formerly Chief Nuclear Officer at Cooper) leading the way at Zion. In addition. Mr David Sager (formerly Vice President at St Lucie) joined Comed in June 1996 as Vice President for Generation Stpport. That function oversees functions in support of plant operations including maintenance support, regulatory assurance and health physics.

c 00EST10NS:

Hof is deregulation going to affect your abilities to maintoin a safe nuclear pragram, as you cut costs to be competitive?

We are both aware that you have the biggest commercial nuclear program in this country. - What do you feel your role should be in setting standards of safety and performance for other nuclear utilities?

It will be hard to be competitive if your plants continue to struggle with operability issues due to design basis discrepancies (structural steel at Dresden/ Quad, degraded voltage issues at Quad etc.) - How confident are you of your control of design basis documents such as the FSAR, realizing that most of your plants are moving towards improved standard TS, which will move requirements to the outside of TS arena?

The last time we met, you indicated Dresden performance was improving. -

Since that time, materiel condition problems surfaced such as 23 safety related 4160 volt breakers which had inadequate maintenance, and with feedwater regulating valves which caused a scram and unusual event, and 2 more engineered safety feature actuations of Diesel Generators occurred due to human error. - At this point where do you see Dresden performance heading?

We believe that implementation of the Maintenance Rula will provide useful information in determining how well important systems are functioning in accordance with their intended design. - What is the status of Comed maintenance rule implementation? - What have been the benefits / disadvantages of the maintenance rule for your sites so far?

What has been your progress to date on potential use of mixed oxide fuel?

What lessons did you learn from the recent shutdown of LaSalle due to fouled service water strainers? - Were the poor root cause and contractor control lessons shared with other sites?

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