ML25057A001
| ML25057A001 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | 05000128 |
| Issue date: | 02/25/2025 |
| From: | Joel Jenkins Texas A&M Univ |
| To: | Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, Document Control Desk |
| References | |
| L2025-003 IR 2024201 | |
| Download: ML25057A001 (1) | |
Text
Nuclear Engineering & Science Center 1095 Nuclear Science Road, 3575 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-3575 Tel. (979) 845-7551 February 25, 2025 L2025-003 Document Control Desk U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 FACILITY:
Texas Engineering Experiment Station/Nuclear Science Center Reactor DOCKET #: 05000128
SUBJECT:
Reply to a Notice of Violation Resulting From a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Safety Inspection, Report No. 05000128/2024201, Dated 29 January 2025, ADAMS Accession No.: ML25014A182 In accordance with 10 CFR 2.201, the Nuclear Science & Engineering Center of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station is hereby submitting the enclosed written statement to the above referenced Notice of Violation (NOV).
The Facility acknowledges the failure to complete the technical specification required audits within the specified time limits; however, these items were self-reported to the inspectors, not inspector-identified as stated in the NOV and Inspection Report. The Facility also notes that some of the audits claimed by the inspection team as missing or late were conducted, and were conducted on time.
Should you have any questions or require further information, please contact me via e-mail at jere@tamu.edu, or by phone at 979.845.7551.
Sincerely, Jere H. Jenkins Director; Nuclear Engineering & Science Center Enclosure Jere H Jenkins Digitally signed by Jere H Jenkins Date: 2025.02.25 23:53:25
-06'00'
ENCLOSURE Statement in Response to Notice of Violation Inspection Number: 05000128/2024201 Facility:
Notification Date:
29 January 2025 Response Date:
25 February 2025 License No.:
R-83 Docket No.:
050-00128
Subject:
Statement in Response to Notice of Violation Resulting From Routine Safety Inspection 050000128/2024201 (ML25014A182)
Contents of this Statement 1
Summary 2
Detailed Description 3
Corrective Actions Planned or Already Taken
Response to NOV dated 01/29/25 Pg 2 of 4 25 Feb 25 1
Summary The Nuclear Science Center Reactor (NSCR) at the Nuclear Engineering & Science Center (NESC), a part of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) underwent a routine Safety inspection from 16-20 December 2024. As a result of the inspection, the NSCR received two violations, one of which prompted a Notice of Violation (NOV) with a Severity Level-IV (SL-IV) violation relating to the failure to ensure timely audits were conducted in accordance with the reactor Technical Specifications. We acknowledge that the 2023 audit was performed late (in April 2024); however, the Facility informed the three inspectors that were onsite at the beginning in the initial meeting of the non-conformance. The cause of the delay was discussed at length with the inspectors, and it was pointed out that administrative practices had been changed early in 2024 to ensure that the problem would not repeat. Furthermore, the Facility also informed the inspectors that the 2024 audit had already been completed in the month prior to the inspectors arrival. The audit reports were shared with the inspectors during the week they were here.
While we acknowledge the non-conformance related to the late 2023 audit, we take issue with the statement in the letter in paragraph three (3) that states, the licensee failed to identify the violation. We did self-identify and report that problem to the inspectors before they began their work for the week, and we also described the steps that were taken to mitigate the problem. We also disagree with some of the points in the NOV related to which audits were not conducted.
While we are not intending to contest the violation, we do contest the implication, and the inaccuracy, of the items identified in the violation.
2 Detailed Description Three inspectors were sent to the NESC for the 2024 audit of the reactors here. Juan Arellano is the Lead Inspector for the NSCR. Jonathan Braisted joined Mr. Arellano as a trainee. Andrew Waugh was onsite to perform the inspection of the Aerojet General Nucleonics (AGN) reactor, which is presently disassembled and not operating. As a result, due to the limited scope of work related to the AGN, Mr. Waugh joined the inspection team for the NSCR after the very short time required to review a non-operational reactor. There were then three inspectors working on the NSCR records.
During the entrance meeting with the inspectors and the Facility staff, Jere JenkinsDirector, John GrissomAssistant Director of Operations, and Abby KurwitzRadiation Safety Officer, the inspectors were informed of several issues identified by Facility staff where there were known non-conformances with the NSCR Technical Specifications. The inspectors were specifically told about the 2023 Tech Spec audit not happening until April 2024, as well as a missed audit of the Physical Security Plan, both required in TS § 6.2.4. The cause of the delayed 2023 Tech Spec audit was explained to the inspectors in the entrance meeting, as well as a discussion that two audits were conducted in 2024: one in April which was the make-up for the 2023 audit, and the regularly scheduled 2024 audit which occurred in November of 2024, prior to the arrival of the inspection team.
The explanation presented to the inspectors for the late 2023 audit centered around unexpected staff changes at the NESC in late 2023 with the departure of the Associate Director of Operations in September 2023 and the subsequently necessary shuffling of staff to fill the void.
This disruption caused a postponement in the planned audit to be performed by Les Foyto prior
Response to NOV dated 01/29/25 Pg 3 of 4 25 Feb 25 to the December 2023 NRC Inspection. The inspection team onsite in December 2023, Mr.
Arellano and Craig Bassett, were made aware of the delay, and the reason for it.
Due to scheduling conflicts in the first quarter of 2024, the Facility was not able to get Mr. Foyto re-scheduled to perform the 2023 audit until early April 2024, specifically the week of 8 April.
Again, the delay of the 2023 audit to April 2024 was described to the inspectors in the December 2024 inspection entrance meeting, and it was discussed in detail with the inspectors throughout the week. Thus, it was self-reported, which conflicts with the description of the violation in the NOV as inspector identified. Moreover, the occurrence of the 2024 audit in the month before the arrival of the inspection team, and the measures taken to ensure that the audits are conducted in a timely fashion, were described to the inspectors. The reports for the April 2024 makeup audit conducted by Mr. Foyto, and the November 2024 audit by Dr.
Cameron Goodwin were provided to the inspectors during the inspection as a matter of record.
The Facility notes, again, that the issue was self-identified and self-reported to the inspectors by the Facility Staff. Moreover, it was discussed throughout the week.
As described in paragraph six of page one of the NOV, the Facility did not complete the audit of the Physical Security Plan prior to the arrival of the inspection team in December of 2024. The necessity of completing that audit was identified in the 2023 physical security plan audit. The Facility acknowledges that the security plan audit was not performed, and this was self-reported during the entrance meeting. We note here that the dates described in the NOV for the security plan audit do not match the facts, e.g., the NOV describes different datesby one calendar yearthan the inspection report dates of the last conducted audit and expiration of the 30-month requirement.
Paragraphs seven and eight of page one of the NOV describe a failure on the part of the Facility to conduct an audit of the ALARA Program as required by TS 6.2.5. Given that there is no separate ALARA program at the Facilityit is contained in Section 8 of the Radiation Safety Programthe audits of the ALARA program have been conducted during the Radiation Safety Program audit as required by TS 6.2.4.1. Those audits were performed by Tracy Tipping of the NETL at the University of Texas on 28 June 2022 (as noted in the NOV), 22 August 2023, and 30 August 2024. All those reports were shared with the inspectors during the December 2024 audit. We do not agree to this being included as part of the NOV as a missed audit.
During the inspection exit meeting, the Lead Inspector discussed the findings of the inspection.
These findings included the late 2023 audit. It was not known at the time whether the late audit would result in a cited or non-cited violation since it was self-reported, but Facility staff were aware it would be one or the other. The inspection team acknowledged that the issue had been self-identified and resolved as they had read the two audit reports. What was not discussed in the exit meeting was the list of missed audits as described in the Notice of Violation dated 29 January 2025. If that had been discussed, Facility Staff would have contested parts of that list at the time.
The fact that in 2022 the conduct of the audits changed to a more encompassing, single tech spec audit, i.e., most of the required audits in TS 6.2.4 are done together by an individual very familiar with the conduct of operations and technical specification requirements of research reactors may have created confusion. Annually required audits like TS 6.2.4.1 and 6.2.4.2 are done each year, with the biennial audits being split to alternating years during the annual audit periods to not overburden the individuals performing the audits. This change was a substantial
Response to NOV dated 01/29/25 Pg 4 of 4 25 Feb 25 improvement over the previous audit practices which had individuals from the Reactor Safety Board that were not well-informed or well-trained enough to understand the information they were auditing would give records an insufficient review to identify real issues. Perhaps this created the situation where the inspectors missed the ALARA audits conducted in August of 2023 and 2024. Mr. Foytos inclusion of an ALARA audit in his April 2023 visit appeared to be stand-alone. It was not in his original scope of work, but he added it in. The ALARA audits are conducted along with the audit of the Radiation Safety Program by Mr. Tipping. As the Facility continues to improve the program audits, procedures and scopes of work will be developed to ensure that requirements are clearly met.
3 Corrective Actions Planned or Already Taken The following corrective actions are already completed:
- 1. All audits are up to date except for the Security Plan Audit, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of March 2025.
- 2. Audit schedules are now being managed and tracked by the recently implemented compliance software application ECESIS.
The following corrective actions are planned:
- 1. Audit procedures are being developed, along with proper scopes for the audits.
- 2. The Security Plan Audit is scheduled to be completed by the end of March 2025.
Full compliance should be achieved by 30 June 2025.