PNO-III-04-001, Kewaunee: Plant Shutdown Greater than 72 Hours and Initiation of NRC Special Inspection to Look Into Plant Shutdown Due to Both Trains of Safety Injection System Declared Inoperable
| ML040200979 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Kewaunee  |
| Issue date: | 01/20/2004 |
| From: | Jamnes Cameron, Robert Krsek NRC/RGN-III |
| To: | |
| References | |
| PNO-III-04-001 | |
| Download: ML040200979 (1) | |
January 20, 2004 PRELIMINARY NOTIFICATION OF EVENT OR UNUSUAL OCCURRENCE PNO-III-04-001 This preliminary notification constitutes EARLY notice of events of POSSIBLE safety or public interest significance. The information is as initially received without verification or evaluation, and is basically all that is known by the Region III staff on this date.
Facility Licensee Emergency Classification Kewaunee Nuclear Station General Emergency Kewaunee, Wisconsin Site Area Emergency Docket: 05000305 Alert License: DPR-43 Unusual Event x Not Applicable
Subject:
PLANT SHUTDOWN GREATER THAN 72 HOURS AND INITIATION OF NRC SPECIAL INSPECTION TO LOOK INTO PLANT SHUTDOWN DUE TO BOTH TRAINS OF SAFETY INJECTION SYSTEM DECLARED INOPERABLE DESCRIPTION:
At 1:20 a.m. CST on January 16, 2004, plant operators shut down the reactor because inspection of the safety injection system pump lube oil heat exchangers found that both were partially clogged and the system was subsequently declared inoperable. The reactor remains in Cold Shutdown. On January 20, the NRC Region III office dispatched a two-person special inspection team to look into the circumstances surrounding this problem.
On January 16, plant staff visually inspected the A safety injection pump lube oil heat exchanger inlet and discovered blockage in 17 out of 20 tubes with silt and lake weed.
Consequent examination of the pump B lube oil heat exchanger inlet also revealed blockage of 17 out of 20 tubes. Operators determined that this clogging rendered both trains of the safety injection system inoperable and the plant was shut down, as required by technical specifications.
The NRC special inspection will examine the circumstances leading to the problem, the extent of condition, and short-term and long-term corrective actions.
The State of Wisconsin has been notified. The information in this preliminary notification has been reviewed with licensee management.
The licensee notified the NRC Operations Center of this event at 2:01 a.m. EST on January 16, 2004. The licensee issued a press release on January 16, 2004. This information is current as of 2 p.m. CST on January 20, 2004.
CONTACTS: Jamnes Cameron Robert Krsek (630)829-9833 (920)388-3156