ML20236S753

Forwards Facility Biweekly Status Rept for Period 871105-18. Eight Members of NRC Augmented Insp Team Onsite to Review Sequence of Events & Licensee Response to Loss of Offsite Power Incident on 871112

ML20236S753
Person / Time
Site:	Pilgrim
Issue date:	11/24/1987
From:	Blough A NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I)
To:	Wiggins J NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION I)
References
NUDOCS 8711300076
Download: ML20236S753 (7)

Text

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24 NOV 1987 Docket No. 50-293 MEMORANDUM FOR: James T. Wiggins, Chief Projects Branch No. 3 FROM: Allen R. Blough, Chief Reactor Projects Section 3B

SUBJECT:

PILGRIM STATUS REPORT FOR THE PERIOD NOVEMBER 5 - 18, 1987 l

I Enclosed is the Pilgrim bi-weekly status report from the NRC Resident Office at Pilgrim. The resident inspectors, two Region I Section Chiefs and two )

visiting resident inspectors monitored activities at the plant during the j report period. In addition, eight members of the NRC Augmented Inspection Team '

are onsite to review the sequence of events and the licensee's response to the loss of offsite power incident on November 12, 1987. 1 These status reports are intended to provide NRC management and the public with an overview of plant activities and NRC ins'pection activities. Subsequent inspecticn reports will address many of these topics in more detail.  !

[DsjiiKS'icned Db Allen R. Blough, Chief Reactor Projects Section 3B

Enclosure:

As stated w:

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1 0FFICIAL RECORD COPY PIL WEEKLY STATUS RPT 11/20 - 0001.0.0 11/24/87 b

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- Memorandum for James T Wiggins

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W. Russell, RI W. Kane, RI W. Johnston, RI T. Martin, El S. Collins, RI T. Murley, NRR I

R. Starostecki, NRR F. Miraglia, NRR S. Varga, NRR B. Boger, NRR D. Crutchfield, NRR J. Partlow, NRR t' C. Rossi, NRR I

L. Shao, NRR F. Congel, NRR R. Wessman, NRR l- W. D. Paton, OGC, NRC l R. Bird, Senior Vice President-Nuclear, BECo l 'K. Roberts, Station Manager, BECo Paul Levy, Chairman, Department of Public Utilities Chairman, Board of Selectmen, Plymouth Chairman, Board of Selectmen, Carver Chairman, Board of' Selectmen, Duxbury Chairman, Board of Selectmen, Marshfield Chairman, Board of Selectmen, Kingston J. D. Keyes R. Boulay Plymouth Civil Defense Director Senator Edward P. Kirby Representative Peter Forman S. M. Pollard M. Conyngham M. R. Jeka K. k. Anderson The Honorable E. J. Markey M. D. Ernst, Committee on Energy, Commonwealth of Massachusetts Public Document Room (PDR)

Local Public Document Room (LPDR)

Nuclear Safety Information Center (NSIC)

NRC Resident Inspector Commonwealth of Massachusetts (2) 0FFICIAL RECORD COPY PIL WEEKLY STATUS RPT 11/20 - 0002.0.0 11/24/87

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Memorandum for James T. Wiggins 3 24.NOV 1987 bcc w/ encl:

Region I Docket Room (with. concurrences)

R. Blough,-ORP

' L. Doerflein, DRP R.-Fuhrmeister, ORP K. Abrahami PA0 (2) i i

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.11/lj/87 11/M'87 0FFICIAL RECORD COPY PIL WEEKLY STATUS RPT 11/20 - 0003.0.0 11/24/87

ENCLOSURE PILGRIM STATUS REPORT FOR THE PERIOD NOVEMBER 5 - 18, 1987 1.0 Plant Status As of 9:00 a.m. on November 18, 1987, the plant was in the ccid shutdown  !

mode with all 580 fuel assemblies in the reactor vessel. The reactor i moderator temperature was about 171 degrees Fahrenheit.

2.0 Facility Operations Summary The plant has been shutdown for maintenance and to make program improve-ments since April 12, 1986. The reactor core was completely defueled on February 13, 1987 to facilitate extensive maintenance and modification of plant equipment. The licensee completed fuel reload on October 14, 1987.

Reinstallation of the reactor vessel internal . components and the vessel head was also subsequently completed.

On November 9, 1987, the licensee decided to stop work at the Pilgrim-facility, as described below.

3.0 Items of Special Interest  !

Site Work Stoppage On November 9, 1987, licensee senior management decided to stop work at i the Pilgrim facility to allow site management the opportunity to review the causes of severai problems which occurred onsite on November 7-8, 1987. l These problems principally involved the adequacy of controlling maintenance i work and onsite radiological work practices. In one instance, on November 8, the normally locked high radiation barrier gate leading to the refueling floor was found with its locking mechanism taped-over. Although the licensee's radiation surveys indicated that there existed no actual radiological conditions warranting the establishment of a high radiation barrier, keeping the gate locked is a current site administrative requirement. In addition, there we re several radioactive spills which occurred on November 7-8, 1987 as an apparent result of incomplete maintenance or modification work activities. The contamination levels l resulting from the above spills were relatively low, however, several people received clothing contamination and detectable shoe contamination which were easily removed onsite. Also, unrelated to the problems which 1 led to the work stoppage, a maintenance worker received skin contamination  !

while working in the reactor cavity area on November 7, 1987. l l

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J Enclosure 2 The licensee is currently investigating the causes of these problems and formulating corrective actions. In the interim, the licensee has developed work authorization criteria to allow relatively simple outage work tasks to resume with the station manager's approval. The licensee senior management stated that until completion of their investigation and until appropriate corrective actions are in place, total work will not resume.

Loss of Offsite Power Event During periods of reactor shutdown, electrical power is supplied to the station from two normal and one alternate offsite source. Also, as a backup to the offsite power sources, two redundant onsite emergency gener-ators driven by diesel engines are available to supply power to important station equipment. On November 12, 1987 at about 2:10 a.m. the normal offsite power sources were lost, apparently due to the severe weather con-ditions. The alternate offsite source was already out-of-service for planned maintenance involving the new diesel generator tie-in. Both emergency diesel generators automatically started to restore power. All safety systems functioned as designed following the loss of power and the plant remained in a stable condition. The reactor shutdown cooling system was restored in approximately 20 minutes; however, it was not needed due to very low decay heat loads. Reactor coolant temperature remained between 170-185 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the event. The licensee notified the NRC of the incident at 2:55 a.m. and an open telecommunications line between the NRC and the site was established. The resident inspector arrived in the control room at about 4:15 a.m. The NRC Region I Incident Response Center was partially staffed at 4:40 a.m. to provide technical guidance to the resident inspectors.

During the event, "B" emergency diesel generator was manually secured to repair a current transformer on the generator output. Removing the "B" diesel generator from service resulted in the loss of the station instru-ment air system. The station instrument air system was regained when off-site power was re-established. It was also noted that ground water intru-sion into the turbine building caused the floor drain sump to overflow and  !

the water was backed up through the floor drains located in the south end of the radsaste building corridor. The licensee used portable pumps to transfer the water to th9 chemical waste tanks. The radwaste building corridor was subsequently decontaminated.

Offsite electrical power was re-established at 11:15 p.m. on November 12, 1987. The NRC resident inspectors were onsite and in the control room during the power loss. In addition, two Region I section chiefs and two additional resident inspectors were dispatched to Pilgrim. Also, in response to the loss of power event, the NRC dispatched an Augmented Inspection Team to Pilgrim station. I l

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4 Enclosure

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3 NRC Augmented Inspection Team at Pilgrim In response to the loss of offsite power event on November 12, 1987 the NRC Region I dispatched an Augmented Inspection Team (AIT) to Pilgrim station on November 15, 1987. The AIT is led by Mr. Jacque Durr, Acting Deputy Director of the Division of Reactor Safety, and the team consists of seven systems specialists from NRC Region I, the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulations, and the Office for Analysis and Evaluation of Opera-tional Data. The inspection will focus on the sequence of events and the licensee's response to the loss of offsite power. The AIT will also assess if a vulnerability exists in the Pilgrim station design to loss of offsite power events. The team held an entrance meeting with the licensee management at 7:30 a.m. on November 16, 1987. The team is expected to.be onsite until November 20, 1987.

As part of the process in implementing the AIT, NRC Region I issued a Confirmatory Action Letter 87-16 on November 13, 1987 to confirm that prior to the arrival of the NRC Augmented Inspection Team on November 15, 1987 the following actions would be taken by the licensee:

All records, logs and notes concerning this event and BECO's response to the event would be collected and maintained and, To the extent possible, photographic records of any repairs under-taken prior to the arrival of the AIT onsite would be maintained and any parts replaced whether broken or not, during these repairs would be retained.

Institute of Nuclear Power Operations Site Visit The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) is an organization composed of, and supported by, electric utilities utilizing nuclear power for the generation of electrical energy. INP0 assists utilities in improving programs and performance at their nuclear facilities. An eight-member INP0 inspection team including four peer evaluators from other utilities was onsite at Pilgrim during the week of November 9,1987 for a routine inspection visit, covering the areas of plant operations, maintenance, and radiological controls.

4.0 Emergency Notification System (ENS) Report During this period, the licensee made the following ENS reports to the NRC pursuant to 10 CFR 50.72 and 10 CFR 73.71:

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En' closure 4 r

On Novemoer 7, 1987, the licensee reported that the dedicated ENS phone line was out of service. The NRC duty officer was notified via commercial phone line of the ENS phone line problem. The duty officer contacted AT&T to repair the ENS line.

Certain sections of the plant are designated as security vital areas.

Stringent access control measures are imposed on these locations. On-November 8,1987, licensee security personnel identified a degraded security barrier. The barrier in question was promptly secured and other barriers were inspected. The NRC was notified on November 9, 1987. There was no indication of any unauthorized entry into the vital area.

On November 12, 1987, at approximately 2:55 a.m., the licensee reported loss of offsite power, as described above. A telecommunica-tion line remained open until 4:00 a.m. on November 13, 1987 between the NRC and the site.

5.0 NRC Staff Status During the Period The inspection staff at Pilgrim during the report period consisted of the following:

Clay Warren ---

Senior Resident Inspector Jeffrey Lyash ---

Resident Inspector Tae Kim --- Resident Inspector On November 12-13, 1987, the chief of the Reactor Projects Section 3C (Region I), the Senior Resident Inspector from the Yankee Rowe facility, and the Resident Inspector from the Seabrook facility were onsite to .

assist the resident inspectors during the loss of offsite power event at Pilgrim.

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Mr. Allen R. Blough, the chief of the Reactor Projects Section 3B (Region I), was onsite during November 13-14, 1987. Mr. Blough toured the plant with the resident inspectors and met with the senior licensee management to discuss the loss of offsite power event. j l

On November 16, 1987, Mr. Clay Warren assumed the responsibility as the Senior Resident Inspector at Pilgrim Station. Mr. Warren's prior assignment was the Senior Resident Inspector at Shoreham station.  !

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