ML21166A239

Notification of Inspection (NRC Inspection Report 05000498/2021003 and 05000499/2021003) and Request for Information

ML21166A239
Person / Time
Site:	South Texas
Issue date:	06/16/2021
From:	Nicholas Hernandez Division of Reactor Safety IV
To:	Gerry Powell South Texas
References
IR 2021004
Download: ML21166A239 (8)

See also: IR 05000498/2021003

Text

June 16, 2021

Mr. G. T. Powell, President and CEO

STP Nuclear Operating Company

P.O. Box 289

Wadsworth, TX 77483

SUBJECT: SOUTH TEXAS PROJECT ELECTRIC GENERATING STATION -

NOTIFICATION OF INSPECTION (NRC INSPECTION

REPORT 05000498/2021003 AND 05000499/2021003) AND

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Dear Mr. Powell:

During the week of August 30, 2021, three inspectors from the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory

Commissions (NRC) Region IV office will perform the baseline biennial requalification

inspection at South Texas Project Electric Generating Station, Units 1 and 2, using NRC

Inspection Procedure 71111.11B, Licensed Operator Requalification Program.

Experience has shown that this inspection is a resource intensive inspection both for the NRC

inspectors and your staff. In order to minimize the impact to your onsite resources and to

ensure a productive inspection, we have enclosed a request for documents needed for this

inspection. These documents have been divided into three groups:

• The first group (Section A of the enclosure) identifies information to be provided prior to

the inspection to ensure that the inspectors are adequately prepared.

• The second group (Section B of the enclosure) identifies the information the inspectors

will need upon arrival at the site.

• The third group (Section C of this enclosure) identifies the items which are necessary to

close out the inspection and are usually sent a few weeks after the team has left the site.

It is important that all of these documents are up to date and complete in order to minimize the

number of additional documents requested during the preparation and/or the onsite portions of

the inspection.

We have discussed the schedule for these inspection activities with your staff and understand

that our regulatory contact for this inspection will be Mr. Zachary Dibbern of your licensing

organization. Our inspection dates are subject to change based on your updated schedule of

examination activities. If there are any questions about this inspection or the material

requested, please contact the lead inspector Nicholas Hernandez, at (817) 200-1118

(nicholas.hernandez@nrc.gov).

G. Powell 2

PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT STATEMENT

This letter contains mandatory information collections that are subject to the Paperwork

Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). The Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

approved these information collections (approval number 3150-0011). Send comments

regarding this information collection to the Information Services Branch, Office of the Chief

Information Officer, Mail Stop: T6 A10M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,

DC 20555-0001, or by e-mail to Infocollects.Resource@nrc.gov, and to the Desk Officer, Office

of Information and Regulatory Affairs, NEOB-10202, (3150-0011) Office of Management and

Budget, Washington, DC 20503.

Public Protection Notification

The NRC may not conduct nor sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a request

for information or an information collection requirement unless the requesting document

displays a currently valid OMB control number.

In accordance with Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 2.390 of the NRCs

"Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter and its enclosure will be available electronically for

public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the Publicly Available Records

(PARS) component of NRCs document system (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible from the NRC

web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room).

Sincerely,

/RA/

Nicholas A. Hernandez, Operations Engineer

Operations Branch

Division of Reactor Safety

Docket Nos. 50-498 and 50-499

License Nos. NPF-76 and NPF-80

Enclosure:

Biennial Requalification Inspection

Request for Information

cc w/ encl: Distribution via LISTSERV

ML21166A239

SUNSI Review ADAMS: Non-Publicly Available Non-Sensitive Keyword:

By: NAH Yes No Publicly Available Sensitive NRC-002

OFFICE BC:DRS/OB OE:DRS/OB

NAME HGepford NHernandez

SIGNATURE hjg nah

DATE 6/16/2021 6/15/2021

Initial Request for Information

Biennial Requalification Inspection

SOUTH TEXAS PROJECT ELECTRIC GENERATING STATION

Inspection Report: 05000498/2021004 and 05000499/2021004

Inspection Dates: August 30, 2021 - September 3, 2021

Inspection Procedure: IP 71111.11B, Licensed Operator Requalification

Program

Lead Inspector: Nicholas Hernandez, Operations Engineer

A. The following information is requested in order to support inspection preparation

activities. These items are listed by section as they appear in the inspection module

(i.e. 03.04a, 03.04b, etc.). Requested materials should be sent in an electronic format

on CD/DVD in order to arrive at the Region IV office no later than July 30, 2021.

• CD/DVD to: Nicholas A. Hernandez

12311 116th Ave NW

Gig Harbor, WA 98329

General Requests:

• List of licensed operators (senior reactor operator (SRO) and reactor operator (RO))

by crew (operating and staff).

• Training and Operations Department organization charts (with qualified Licensed

Operator Requalification (LOR) evaluators identified).

• Procedures that identify process for revising and maintaining licensed operator

continuing training program up to date.

• List of outstanding LOR program changes.

• List of plant events and industry operating experience incorporated into LOR

program since last biennial requalification (BRQ).

• Audits and/or self-assessment reports addressing the licensed operator

requalification training program.

• Last 2 years of simulator review committee (or equivalent) meeting minutes.

• Last 2 years of Curriculum Review Committee (or equivalent) meeting minutes.

• A summary report of all condition reports related to operator actions/errors in the

control room.

Enclosure

• Any revised requalification training that was based on licensed operator performance

issue.

03.04a: Biennial Requalification Written Examinations

• The current and approved biennial written examination schedule.

• The current requalification cycle written examination results for both SRO & RO that

have already been administered up to the week prior to the inspection team arrival

onsite.

• All written examinations that have been approved for administration up to and

including the week before the inspection team is onsite. This will need to have

adequate password protection or double envelope protection if mailed via regular

mail per NUREG-1021.

• The current requalification cycle examination methodology (sample plan).

03.04b: Annual Requalification Operating Tests

• The schedule for the operating tests (job performance measures (JPMs) and

scenarios) to be given the week of August 30, 2021.

• The operating tests (JPMs & scenarios) (password protected and provide separately

via telephone at later date) to be given the week of August 30, 2021.

• Current requalification cycle operating tests (SRO & RO) and results up to the week

prior to the inspection team arrival onsite.

• All 2020 NRC required annual operating tests.

• Current requalification cycle operating test methodology (sample plan).

03.04c: Administration of an Annual Requalification Operating Test

• All procedures used to administer the annual operating test.

• All procedures used to assess operator performance.

• All procedures that describe conduct of simulator training.

• All procedures used to test, operate, and maintain the simulator.

03.04d: Requalification Examination Security

• Submit any tracking tools that you use as a means to prevent excessive overlap on

the written examinations and also meet the intent of sampling all required topics on a

periodic basis.

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• Submit any tracking tools that you use as a means to prevent excessive overlap on

the operating tests and also meet the intent of sampling all required malfunctions

(including major events, instrument/component malfunctions, technical specification

calls, etc.) on a periodic basis.

• All procedures that describe examination security, including procedures used to

develop the examinations that include guidelines on overlap between examinations

in current exam cycle tests and prior year examinations.

• List of all condition reports since the last biennial requalification inspection related to

examination security and overlap.

03.04e: Remedial Training and Re-Examinations

• List of remedial training conducted or planned since last requalification exam

(includes training provided to operators to enable passing requalification exam and

training provided to correct generic or individual weaknesses observed during

previous requalification exam cycle).

• Remediation plans (lesson plans, reference materials, and attendance

documentation).

03.04f: Operator License Conditions

• All procedures and program documentation for maintaining active operator licenses,

tracking training attendance, and ensuring medical fitness of licensed operators.

• All procedures and associated documentation that supports reactivation of any

SRO/RO license (operating or staff crew) since the last biennial inspection.

03.04g: Control Room Simulator

• All simulator management and configuration procedures if not already provided.

• Simulator discrepancy report summary list for all open discrepancy reports and

summary list for those items closed between November 18, 2019, and August 30,

2021.

• Primary parameters tested in order to verify core physics parameters (such as

moderator temperature coefficient, integral rod worth). The applicable reference

graphs from the plant physics data book (electronic or other means as available)

should also be included as well as the test procedures used and the acceptance

criteria with results.

• All simulator modification packages that are on hold, delayed, or not completed in the

last 2 years.

• A list of simulator modification packages completed in the last 2 year window.

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B. The following information is requested in order to support the onsite inspection

activities. Requested materials should be available to the inspection team, either

electronically or hardcopy, upon site arrival on August 30, 2021.

03.03: Requalification Exam Results / 03.04a and 03.04b: Biennial Requalification Written

Exam and Annual Requalification Operating Tests Quality

• All operating tests (JPMs & scenarios) to be given in all subsequent weeks after

onsite week, if available.

• All results up to the day the team leaves the site.

03.04f: Conformance with Operator License Conditions

• Access to licensed operators records (operating and staff crews).

• Access to licensed operators training attendance records.

• Access to licensed operators medical records.

03.04g: Control Room Simulator Performance

• Simulator discrepancies from November 18, 2019, to August 30, 2021. This should

include all open and closed simulator discrepancy reports, including the

documentation/justification for closure.

• Acceptance test documentation, including hardware and software model revisions at

the time of acceptance (as available).

• Documentation that validates current models, including the thermal-hydraulics and

neutronics models, to the actual plant.

• All current model deficiencies, including final safety analysis report vs design

differences in the simulator (any documentation on this).

• Summary list of modifications from November 18, 2019, to August 30, 2021.

• Plant modifications (both hardware and software) completed on the simulator by due

date from November 18, 2019, to August 30, 2021.

• Simulator differences Lesson plan used in training (current to August 30, 2021).

• The complete book of all simulator annual performance test packages (usually in a

single book but may be electronic or in single test packages), complete with all

transient tests, steady state tests, and malfunction tests. This should also include

the test procedures for each test, the acceptance criteria, and results. For each

transient test, the reference chart should be included or an equivalent subject matter

expert review versus the simulator results with a write-up for any differences beyond

the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard requirements.

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• All test packages used to verify core physics parameters (such as moderator

temperature coefficient and integral rod worth). The applicable reference graphs

from the plant physics data book (electronic or other means as available) should also

be included as well as the test procedures used and the acceptance criteria with

results.

• All simulator tests, configuration management, and related documents available in

the room for inspectors to review. This includes training needs analysis packages,

simulator review committee meeting minutes, etc.

• Current copy of ANSI 3.5 standard you are committed to for simulator testing.

C. The South Texas Project Electric Generating Station is required to send the final

results summary (see Table 1 below) and any remaining exams and operating tests

that have not been reviewed to the regional office lead inspector for this inspection

for final review and comparison against the Significance Determination Tools in order

to communicate the exit results for the inspection.

TABLE 1: EXAMINATION RESULTS

1. Total number of licensed operators.

2. Number of licensed operators administered a requalification

examination required by 10 CFR 55.59(a).

3. Number of individual licensed operators who failed any portion of a

requalification examination (written, JPM, or individual simulator

scenario failures).

4. Divide line 3 by line 2 to obtain the individual requalification

examination failure rate. Line 3/Line 2.  %

5. Number of crews administered simulator scenarios as part of a

requalification examination required by 10 CFR 55.59(a).

6. Number of crews who performed unsatisfactorily on the

simulator scenarios.

7. Divide line 6 by line 5 to obtain the crew simulator scenario

failure rate. Line 6/Line 5.  %

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