PNO-IV-96-066, on 961211,licensee Notified Nrc,Walnut Creek Field Ofc of Electrical Fire & Partial Loss of Site Power. Licensee Formed Incident Investigation Board to Review Event.State of Wa Will Be Informed

PNO-IV-96-066:on 961211,licensee Notified Nrc,Walnut Creek Field Ofc of Electrical Fire & Partial Loss of Site Power. Licensee Formed Incident Investigation Board to Review Event.State of Wa Will Be Informed

ML20135F461
Person / Time
Site:	Framatome ANP Richland
Issue date:	12/12/1996
From:	Scarano R, Wenslawski F NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION IV)
To:
References
PNO-IV-96-066, PNO-IV-96-66, NUDOCS 9612130071
Download: ML20135F461 (2)

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December 12,1996 PRELIMINARY NOTIFICATION OF EVENT OR UNUSUAL OCCURRENCE PNO-IV-96-066 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 Ersown b/ Region IV staff in Arlington, Texas on this date.

Facility Licensee Emeroency Classification Siemans Nuclear Power Corporation Notification of Unusual Event Siemans Nuclear Power Corporation Alert Richland, Washington Site Area Emergency Dockets: 07001257 License No: SNM-1227 General Emergency X Not Applicable l l

Subject:

ELECTRICAL FIRE AND PARTIAL POWER OUTAGE j 1

1 At 2:15 p.m (PST) on December 11,1996, the licensee notified the NRC, Walnut Creek l Field Office (WCFO) of an electrical fire and partialloss of site power. The licensee had l reported the event to the NRC Operations Center prior to notifying the WCFO. The l licensee did not consider the event reportable and the notification was for informational l purposes in that the situation did result in temporary suspension of certain licensed I activities in the primary production facility. The following information was reported by the I licensee.

l At 1554 PST on December 10,1996, an apparent phase-to-phase short in a 480 volt electrical power junction box to the Product Development Test Facility (PDTF) caused a brief fire and partialloss of electrical power affecting several buildings on the Siemens j Power Corporation (SPC) Richland, Washington, site. The fire was contained in a power l

. junction box mounted on the rear exterior wall of the PDTF and a small area of insulation l on the interior wall of the PDTF. The loss of electrical power terminated the fire energy l source and the remaining fire was extinguished with a hand extinguisher by an SPC l employee by 1559 PST. At 1558 PST both a Fire Trouble Alarm and an emergency phone report were received in the Central Guard Station. The City of Richland Fire Department responded immediately to notification of the fire by SPC Central Guard Station procedures and arrived on site at 1609 PST. There were no personnel injuries as a result of the fire.

Four technicians / engineers in the PDTF at the time of the fire promptly evacuated the facility and reported the fire to the Central Guard Station. The Richland Fire Department confirmed the fire was extinguished, performed smoke removal of the PDTF and restored access to the PDTF. The Richland Fire Department departed at 1700 PST.

The PDTF is operated under NRC license for hydraulic flow and seismic tests involving single fuel elements containing special nuclear material of up to 5 w/o U-235. Such testing was not in progress and no specialsnuclear material was present in the PDTF at the time of the fire. The PDTF does contain test assemblies containing either depleted or natural uranium. These test assemblies were not affected by the fire.

9612130071 961212 PDR I&E PNO-IV-96-066 PDR

\lk 130028 oI

PNO-IV-96-066 The electrical power outage caused by the phase-to-phase shorting resulted in complete loss of electrical power to certain office buildings and ancillary facilities and a partialloss of electrical power to the main UO2 building. The partialloss of electrical power to the UO2 building resulted in a loss of the Line 2 conversion process equipment, the dry conversion pilot equipment, ventilation supply fans, and the UO2 building air sampling system vacuum pumps (2). UO2 building and process exhaust systems remained operable through either normal power or emergency power as designed, thus maintaining negative pressure containment of the UO2 building and conversion area process equipment.

Orderly shutdown of all process operations was performed until normal electrical power was restored at 1805 PST. Because normal airborne sampling was lost due to vacuurn sample pump loss, respiratory protection was prescribed for required personnel in the UO2 building process areas until restoration of power. HEPA exhaust filter bank system integrity was verified by verification of fiiter bank differential pressure continuous meuurement.

City of Richland utilities service isolated the damaged electrical power supply to the PDTF and by 1800 PST an orderly power restoration was initiated by SPC with normal power restored to the UO2 building by 1805 PST. There were no personnel injuries, no release of or damage to any licensed material, and no associated personnel exposures of environmental impacts.

The licensee has formed an Incident investigation Board to review the event.

Region IV discussed this event with the licensee via telephone and has briefed NMSS.

The state of Washington will be informed.

Region IV received notification of this occurrence by telephone from the licensee at 1415 PST on December 11,1996.

This information herein has been discussed with the licensee and is current as of 4:15 p.m. PS'I .

Contact:

Frank Wenslawski Ross Scarano (510)975-0219 (817)860-8106 I