ML20237G497

Safety Insp Rept 70-0754/87-03 on 870728-30.No Violations or Deviations Identified.Major Areas Inspected:Mgt Organization & Controls,Operator Training,Criticality Safety,Operations Review,Radiation Protection & Emergency Preparedness

ML20237G497
Person / Time
Site:	07000754
Issue date:	08/27/1987
From:	Brock B, Thomas R NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION V)
To:
Shared Package
ML20237G494	List: ML20237G492 ML20237G497
References
70-0754-87-03, 70-754-87-3, NUDOCS 8709020278
Download: ML20237G497 (8)

Text

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U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION REGION V Report No. 70-754/87-03 Docket No.70-754 License No. SNM-960 Safeguards Group: V Licensee: General _ Electric Company-Vallecitos Nuclear Center-P. O. Box 460 '

Pleasanton, California 91304 Facility Name: Vallecitos Nuclear Center Inspection at: Pleasanton, California Inspection Conducted: July 28-30,1987 Inspector:

3. L. Brock, Fuel Facilities Inspector N ,

Dat Sidned Approved  : p /

R. D. Thomas, Chief ate / Signed Nuclear Materials Safety Section -

Summary:

Inspection on July 28-30, 1987 (Report No. 70-754/87-03)

Areas Inspected: A routine unannounced safety inspection was conducted of management organization and controls, operator training and retraining; criticality safety; operations review; radiation protection; and emergency preparedness.

During this inspection, Inspection Procedures, 88005, 88010, 88015, 88020, 83822, and 88050 were covered.

Results: No violations or deviations were identified in the areas inspected.

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8709020270 070827 PDR ADOCK 07000754 +

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DETAILS

1. Persons Contacted A. Licensee Employees:

• R. W. Darmitzel, Manager, Irradiation Processing

• J. H. Cherb, Manager, Nuclear Safety

• G. E. Cunningham, Senior Licensing Engineer J. I. Tenorio, Manager, Remote Handling Operations R. Ehrlich, Manager, Nuclear Safety Assurance J. E. Lewis, Specialist, Materials Characterization R. F. Begley,' Supervisor, Remote Handling E. J. Strain, Compliance-Engineer j D..C. Bowden, Senior Engineer, Nuclear Safety j F. A. Arlt, Supervisor, Maintenance and Carpentry R. Jones, Product Manager, Sealed Sources H. K. Hammond, Irradiation Technician H. R. Williams, Meta 11ographer

• Denotes those attending the exit meeting B. Offsite Contacts:

Valley Memorial Hospital West Hills:

E. J. Colona, Chief Engineer California Division of Forestry:

1 S. O'Brien, Engineer

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2. Management Organization and Controls The license is authorized to use Special Nuclear Material (SNM) Under

' license SNM-960 in accordance with representations and conditions contained in Appendix A, " License Conditions for the Vallecitos Nuclear Center," of the licensee's submittal dated April 20, 1984, except as modified by the conditions of this license.

A. Organizational Structure Section 4 of Appendix A of License SNM-960 requires that the functions of the criticality safety component and the radiation-safety component shall exclude direct responsibility for operations involving the manufacture of nuclear products of processing' nuclear materials.

The licensee's organizational structure maintains the independence of the criticality and radiation safety components from the manufacturing of nuclear products or the processing of nuclear materials.

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g B. Safety Committee Section 4.4 of the license conditions states that the functions of the Vallecitos Technological Safety Council (VTSC) shall include _  ;

responsibility for reviews of reportable incidents, new facilities or major changes to facilities, and for contributing professional advice and counsel on criticality and radiation safety policy. The VTSC shall review annually the site safety and compliance program performance to include effluent releases and occupational exposures in terms of ALARA and focus on trends'for corrective action if necessary.

The licensee increased the sensitivity of the hand and foot i counters at the Radioactive Materials Laboratory (RML). -This_ '

completion of action recommended by the VTSC closes item l (86-02-01). The inspector's review of the non-reportable incidents found the license conducted appropriate investigations and . 'J follow-up corrective action. The inspector reviewed the minutes of 4 the VTSC and noted they reflected a VTSC opinion that,the current' safety organization staffing level appeared adequate. NRC previously noted the minimal staffing level (Inspection Report 70-754/86-02) and encouraged the license to continue to assess safety staffing adequacy.

No violations were identified.

3. Operator Training and Retraining Section 5.8 of Appendix A requires Area Managers assure that new '

employees receive instruction in criticality safety, plant operating and emergency procedures prior to working with special nuclear materials.

The criticality safety training may be conducted with the radiation safety training. A written test shall be completed, evaluated and the j results forwarded to the appropriate area manager. '

A. The licensee is training an employee with fifteen years experience as an operator to become a Radiation Monitor. The Senior Engineer i Nuclear Safety, who supervises the monitors, is filling in as a monitor while the new monitor is being trained. _ Additionally, a new operator is being trained to run the Waste Evaporator Plant (WEP).

l B. The licensee held a safety meeting directed towards precluding recurrence of the kinds of problems previously identified where the proper procedures were not being followed. The licensee's ,

follow-up safety meeting closes item (87-01-01).

No violations were identified.

4. Criticality Safety Sections 5.0 and 6.0 of Appendix A to License SNM-960 require assurance of criticality safety through both administrative, technical and analytical requirements.

3 A. Nuclear Criticality Safety Analysis Section.5.5 of Appendix A requires that the manager of the criticality safety component shall assure that the analyses in which an error in an analysis could lead to conditions that do not fulfill the double contingency policy are identified and reviewed.

The Radiological Engineer who functions.as the Criticality Safety Analyst was off site during the inspection and will therefore be interviewed during the next inspection.

B. Audits Section 5.7 of Appendix A requires that the radiation safety and the criticality safety component conduct inspections respective l to compliance with criticality control procedures and verification that operations conform to the physical situations on which the calculations of criticality limits were based. Operations routinely processing more than one safe batch of fissionable

! material shall be inspected on a quarterly basis. All operations shall be inspected on an annual basis.

The NRC inspector reviewed the licensee's internal inspections.

lhere were no problems identified.

5. Operations Review Section 2.2 of the license applicaticq states that the licensee's policy is to protect the employees, the public, and the environs from potential industrial, radiation, and ntclear hazards that could occur through activities conducted in each component's facilities. Responsibility for implementing this basic policy has been delegated through line managers-to the manager and supervisor of each activity in which radioactive materials are handled, used, or stored.

Conduct of Operations A. Radioactive Materials Laboratory (RML)

Cleanup of Cell 1 was completed and it was returned to routine l operation. Co-60 sources were again being prepared and the operation was facilitated by the very clear refurbished windows which were recently insi alled.

Cell 2 is used for analyses involving the Scanning Electron Microscope.

Cell 3 is still being used for fuel examinations. The examinations '

are principally nondestructive. The examinations involve the preparation of metallographic samples. Sectioning the fuel by i sawing generates small quantities of fines of UO2 and Zr. The  ;

licensee's metallographer had been a party in the review process to l assure the operation design had considered and properly addressed i the zirconium fines instability.  ;

4 Cell 4 contains the alpha glovebox designed for plutonium work, j The licensee hopes to be able to undertake cleanup of this cell next. Removal of the alpha glovebox would be a significant task but would free the cell for other work not requiring a'glovebox. ]

The planned additian of a shredder'in the dry waste handling room, 'l l

with appropriate modifications of the ventilation system and air '

sampling. system, had not yet been undertaken.

l The inspector noted there was a need for additional housekeeping in the Radiochemistry Laboratory. .The licensee reported before the l end of the inspection that additional cleanup of the laboratory was '

being done.

B. Hillside Storage The licensee's cleanup effort removed the items that had been stored inside the fenced area around the horizontal storage tubes.

The licensee's continuing cleanup effort facilitated improving the arrangement of the stored containers. The licensee is using metal containers for waste shipments.

C. Waste Evaporator Plant The operation of the Waste Evaporator Plant (WEP) is still at a relatively low level. Additional rules have been prepared for this facility by the manager of remote handling operations because of a recent failure to monitor an item and detect contamination (15,000 cpm, smearable) on the item before it was removed from the plant office area. The licensee identified and adequately responded to this problem. The corrective action taken should preclude recurrence (see Section 6).

l D. Building 103 A new area manager was recently made responsible for the Building i

103 laboratories on a temporary basis. The inspector discussed incompatible storage of chemicals with the manager.

E. Building 400 The licensee had completed the cleanup and survey of Building 400.

The survey results had been submitted to the Region V office. The Oak Ridge Associated Universities (0RAU) survey team was scheduled to come to the site to do an independent overcheck for the NRC.

The overcheck was scheduled to start by August 7, 1987.

No poor health physics practices were noted during the operations review and no violations were identified.

6. Radiation Protection Protection against radiation hazards associated with licensed activities is required by 10 CFR Part 20.

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'The normal review of film badge, lung counts, and bioassays data will be conducted during the next inspection.

Non-reportable Incident Review Two non-reportable incidents occurred since the last inspection. )

Neither incident involveo NRC licensed materials. One incident l involved the removal of an item from an area without proper survey. l The second incident involved the detection of fixed contamination i on a piece of machinery (a punch press) outside of a radioactive i materials area in a cold machine shop, The licensee's

' investigation concluded the press came from the machine shop that had supported the operation of the two shut down Vallecitos Nuclear Center nuclear reactors (EVESR and V8WR) where it apparently had j been contaminated. The licensee took appropriate corrective action. Of special note is that other nonradioactive materials shop,, and laboratories where such machinery could have been taken i are being systematically surveyed in an effort to locate any other contaminated machinery. The licensee's surveys are to be completed by.early September 1987. The results of the licensee's surveys and the handling 67 any contaminated machinery will be reviewed during  !

the next inspection (87-03-01). l The corrective action for the non-reportable incident involving )

exposure to Cf-252 neutrons (Inspection Report 70-754/87-01)  ;

recommended development of a procedure improving Cf-252 controls. 3 A procedure was developed, appropriately reviewed and approved, and l issued since the last inspection. Additionally, appropriate '

revisions were made to related procedures. This action closes item (87-01-02).

The two violations identified by the licensee: (a) failure to follow the i monitoring procedures, and (b) failure to decontaminate an item before its release for use in an area not authorized to contain radioactive "

materials, were handled in a manner meeting the enforcement policy in 10 CFR Part 2. No violations were identified by the NRC inspector.

7. Emergency Preparedness l

l Section 4.9 of the license application addresses the plans for a prompt j response to various types of emergencies.

A. Tests and Drills The licensee conducted four drills since the last inspection. Two of the drills were fire drills, one was a criticality drill, and the other was a radiation emergency drill. The compliance engineer appropriately tracks and follows up the responses of the area managers to the recommendations resulting from the critiques of the drills.

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8. Pre-Plans The licensee completed the Pre-Plan for Building 102 since the last inspection, and is continuing to make progress on the remaining four. Item (85-02-03) will remain open pending completion of the remaining four plans. The associated open item (87-01-03) addressing the tour by the local responding fire fighting agency, the California Division of Forestry (CDF), also remains open because follow-up has not taken place.

C. Fire Protection The licensee's fire extinguisher inspection program is still effective. None of the thirty-two extinguishers observed by the NRC inspector had been missed during the licensee's monthly inspections. The licensee stated that hose testing at 125% of the rated capacity had also been completed. During monthly hose inspections the licensee also changes the crimp areas. The {

drawings of the distribution system for the water used for fire fighting was reviewed. The system uses eight inch transit lines l to distribute the water to the various groups of buildings. The water is then moved through six inch pipes within the groups of buildings (Building 102, however, has an eight-inch line through ([

its basement).

D. Medical Item (87-01-04) in the previous inspection report (70-754/87-01) addressed the need for improved interfacing between the Valley Memorial Hospital (VMH) and the licensee's staff. The lack of continued progress in this area is the basis for leaving this item open. The licensee agreed to give additional consideration to extending an invitation to VMH to participate in or observe one of the licensee's drills. VMH has a commitment from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to provide radiation monitors ,

i rs the event of an incident even if LLNL property or employees are not involved.

No violations were identified.

8. Exit Meeting The results of the inspection were discussed with the members of the licensee's staff identified in Section 1.

The topics included:

The areas inspected.

The decontamination status of Builaing 400 and the need to remove the small plywood panels from some of the walls.

The scheduled arrival of ORAU was known by the end of the inspection and was also addressed.

7 The updating of the list of emergency telephone numbers including home telephone numbers of various managers and' emergency personnel.

( The NRC cognizance of the VTSC awareness of the minimum staffing levels in the radiation safety area was noted.

L The improvements made in the Hillside Storage Area were acknowledged.

The status of the open items.

Closed I (86-02-01) Follow-up on the VTSC recommendation regarding i i

the installation of higher sensitivity hand and foot counters in the RML.

(87-01-01) Review of thi licensee's effectiveness in reemphasizing the importance of radiation safety and providing retraining commensurate with the work environment.

(87-01-02) Review the new Cf-252 procedure and related practices.

Open  ;

(87-01-03) Review the licensee's efforts to assure the CDF fire fighters become familiar with the site.

(87-01-04) Review of the improvement of the interfacing )

between the licensee and the hospital.

New l (87-02-01) Review of the results of the licensee's effort l to locate and control contaminated machinery i

found outside of radioactive material areas.

l The licensee stated that the ventilation system modifications associated with the shredder installation are still planned but the schedule has not been finalized.

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