IR 05000254/2006013

IR 05000254-06-013 (Drs); 05000265-06-013 (DRS) on 05/15/2006 - 05/19/2006 for Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station; Emergency Preparedness Specialist Report

ML061570460
Person / Time
Site:	Quad Cities
Issue date:	06/02/2006
From:	Kenneth Riemer Plant Support Branch II
To:	Crane C Exelon Generation Co, Exelon Nuclear
References
IR-06-013
Download: ML061570460 (14)

Text

une 2, 2006

SUBJECT:

QUAD CITIES NUCLEAR POWER STATION, UNITS 1 AND 2 NRC EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS INSPECTION REPORT 05000254/2006013(DRS); 05000265/2006013(DRS)

Dear Mr. Crane:

On May 19, 2006, the NRC completed an inspection at your Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station, Units 1 and 2. The enclosed report documents the inspection findings, which were discussed on May 19, 2006, with Mr. R. Gideon and other members of your staff.

The inspection examined activities conducted under your license as they relate to safety and compliance with the Commissions rules and regulations and with the conditions of your license.

The inspectors reviewed selected procedures and records, observed activities, and interviewed personnel. Specifically, this inspection focused on emergency preparedness, including your staffs determinations of performance indicators for the Emergency Preparedness Cornerstone.

On the basis of the results of this inspection, no findings of significance were identified.

In accordance with 10 CFR Part 2.390 of the NRC's "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 NRC's 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/

Kenneth Riemer, Chief Plant Support Branch Division of Reactor Safety Docket Nos. 50-254; 50-265 License Nos. DPR-29; DPR-30 Enclosure: Inspection Report 05000254/2006013(DRS);

05000265/2006013(DRS)

w/Attachment: Supplemental Information cc w/encl: Site Vice President - Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station Plant Manager - Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station Regulatory Assurance Manager - Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station Chief Operating Officer Senior Vice President - Nuclear Services Senior Vice President - Mid-West Regional Operating Group Vice President - Mid-West Operations Support Vice President - Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Director Licensing - Mid-West Regional Operating Group Manager Licensing - Dresden and Quad Cities Senior Counsel, Nuclear, Mid-West Regional Operating Group Document Control Desk - Licensing Vice President - Law and Regulatory Affairs Mid American Energy Company Assistant Attorney General Illinois Emergency Management Agency State Liaison Officer, State of Illinois State Liaison Officer, State of Iowa Chairman, Illinois Commerce Commission D. Tubbs, Manager of Nuclear MidAmerican Energy Company

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

IR 05000254/2006013(DRS); 05000265/2006013(DRS); 05/15/2006 - 05/19/2006; Quad Cities

Nuclear Power Station; Emergency Preparedness Specialist Report.

The report covers a 1 week baseline inspection by two regional emergency preparedness inspectors, one resident inspector, and one licensed operator examiner. The inspection focused on the Emergency Preparedness Cornerstone in the Reactor Safety strategic performance area during the biennial emergency preparedness exercise. This inspection also included a review of records related to the three emergency preparedness performance indicators for the period January 1, 2005, through March 31, 2006.

The NRCs program for overseeing the safe operation of commercial nuclear power reactors is described in NUREG-1649, Reactor Oversight Process, Revision 3, dated July 2000.

A. Inspector-Identified and Self-Revealed Findings None.

Licensee-Identified Violations

A violation of very low safety significance (Green), which was identified and corrected by the licensee, was reviewed by the inspectors. The violation and corrective actions are listed in Section 4OA7 of this report.

REPORT DETAILS

1EP1 Exercise Evaluation

a. Inspection Scope

The inspectors reviewed the May 17, 2006, biennial emergency preparedness exercises objectives and scenario to ensure that the exercise would acceptably test major elements of the licensees emergency plan and to verify that the exercises simulated problems provided an acceptable framework to support demonstration of the licensees capability to implement its plan. The inspectors also reviewed records of emergency preparedness drills, which were conducted in 2005 through April 2006, to verify that those drills scenarios were sufficiently different from the scenario used in the May 2006 exercise.

The inspectors evaluated the licensees exercise performance, focusing on the risk-significant activities of emergency classification, notification, and protective action decision making, as well as implementation of accident mitigation strategies in the following emergency response facilities:

• Control Room Simulator (CRS);

• Technical Support Center (TSC);

• Operations Support Center (OSC); and

• Emergency Operations Facility (EOF).

The inspectors also assessed the licensees recognition of abnormal plant conditions, transfer of responsibilities between facilities, internal communications, interfaces with offsite officials, readiness of emergency facilities and related equipment, and overall implementation of the licensees emergency plan.

The inspectors attended post-exercise critiques in the CRS, TSC, OSC, and EOF to evaluate the licensees initial self-assessment of its exercise performance. The inspectors later met with the licensees lead exercise evaluators to obtain the licensees refined assessments of its exercise participants performances. These self-assessments were then compared with the inspectors independent observations and assessments to assess the licensees ability to adequately critique its exercise performance.

These activities completed one inspection sample.

b. Findings

No findings of significance were identified.

1EP4 Emergency Action Level and Emergency Plan Changes

a. Inspection Scope

The inspectors reviewed Revisions 21, 22, and 23 of the Quad Cities Station Annex to the Exelon Standardized Emergency Plan to determine whether any changes made in these revisions reduced the effectiveness of the emergency plan and to verify that the licensee adequately incorporated Emergency Action Level (EAL) and terminology changes associated with NRC Bulletin 2005-02. Inspectors also reviewed a sample of letters of agreement with local offsite support organizations to verify that these agreements were current and consistent with emergency plan statements. The inspectors also reviewed a sample of licensee evaluations of the changes in the Annex revisions, which were performed in accordance with 10 CFR 50.54(q) and the licensees corrective action program, to determine if the 10 CFR 50.54(q) reviews were adequate.

The inspector also verified that minor corrections made to several numerical values in Table F-2, which was associated with the site-specific EALs fission product barrier matrix, were editorial in nature.

b. Findings

A violation of very low safety significance, which was identified and corrected by the licensee, is summarized in Section 4OA7.

4OA1 Performance Indicator (PI) Verification

.1 Reactor Safety Strategic Area

a. Inspection Scope

The inspectors reviewed the licensees records associated with each of the three emergency preparedness PIs to verify that the licensees program was implemented consistent with the industry guidelines in Nuclear Energy Institute Publication No. 99-02, Regulatory Assessment Performance Indicator Guideline, Revisions 2 and 3, and related licensee procedures. Specifically, licensee records related to the performance of the Alert and Notification System (ANS), key Emergency Response Organization (ERO)members drill participation, and Drill and Exercise Performance (DEP) were reviewed to verify the accuracy and completeness of the PI data submitted to NRC for the period from January 1, 2005 through March 31, 2006. The following three PIs were reviewed:

Common

• ANS;

• ERO Drill Participation; and

• DEP.

These activities completed three PI samples.

b. Findings

No findings of significance were identified.

4OA7 Licensee-Identified Violations

The following violation of very low safety significance (Green) was identified by the licensee and is a violation of NRC requirements which meets the criteria of Section VI of the NRC Enforcement Policy, NUREG 1600, for being dispositioned as a Non-Cited Violation.

Per 10 CFR 50.54(q), the licensee is required to follow its emergency plan. Section 3 of the Quad Cities Station Annex to the Exelon Standardized Emergency Plan stated that the site-specific EALs scheme was based on the NRC-endorsed guidance of Nuclear Management and Resources Council/National Environmental Studies Project-007 document, Methodology for Development of Emergency Action Levels. This guidance included criteria for classifying an Unusual Event due to an inability to maintain water level in the plants spent fuel pool that would be at or above a numerical value listed in the Stations Technical Specifications.

In late 2004, the licensee revised the wording of corresponding site-specific EAL MU-11 as part of a project to improve the standardization of the wording of a number of EALs at its nuclear stations. Specifically, the words above the fuel were added to EAL MU-11's threshold value statement. However, the numerical value listed in the EALs threshold value statement was not adjusted to refer to the minimum water level above the spent fuel that was listed in the Technical Specifications. Instead, the numerical value contained in EAL MU-11's threshold value statement incorrectly referred the pools water level as measured from the bottom of the pool. The incorrect wording of revised EAL MU-11 was not identified in the licensees internal review processes prior to incorporating this incorrectly worded EAL in Revision 19 of the Quad Cities Station Annex, which became effective in December 2004.

The licensee identified the aforementioned error in the wording of EAL MU-11 during its ongoing preparations to update its nuclear stations EAL schemes to the guidance of Revision 4 of the Nuclear Energy Institute 99-01 publication, which NRC endorsed in 2003. The inspectors verified that the licensee adequately used its corrective action program to document its identification of the incorrectly worded EAL MU-11, and to adequately assess the causes of this erroneously worded EAL. The inspectors also verified that the licensee completed its planned corrective actions, as were indicated in corrective action program. These actions included promptly issuing a standing order to Control Room personnel to inform them of the incorrectly worded EAL MU-11 pending its correction in December 2005's Revision 22 of the Quad Cities Station Annex to the licensees standardized emergency plan. The licensee also enhanced its administrative practices for processing proposed changes to its EALs.

The inspectors assessed the significance of the incorrect wording of EAL MU-11, which existed between December 2004 and December 2005, using NRC Manual Chapters 0612 and 0609, Appendix B. The inspectors concluded that this licensee-identified, incorrectly worded EAL was a violation of very low safety significance (Green). The inspectors verified that adequate interim and longer-term corrective actions were completed as described in the corrective action program records.

4OA6 Meetings

.1 Exit Meeting

An exit meeting was conducted for:

• Emergency Preparedness with Mr. R. Gideon and other members of licensee management and staff at the conclusion of the inspection on May 19, 2006. The licensee acknowledged the information presented. No proprietary information was identified.

.2 Public and Media Briefing

• On May 19, 2006, an inspector was prepared to summarize NRCs preliminary exercise inspection conclusions at separate public and media briefings hosted by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Region V and Region VII staffs in Cordova, Illinois. However, DHS staff cancelled both meetings due to no members of the public or media being present.

ATTACHMENT:

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION

KEY POINTS OF CONTACT

Licensee

R. Armitage, Training Director

W. Beck, Regulatory Assurance Manager

A. Fuhs, Regulatory Assurance Engineer

R. Gideon, Plant Manager

K. Kemper, Exelon Emergency Preparedness Director

R. Mika, Emergency Preparedness Drill and Exercise Coordinator

D. Moore, Nuclear Oversight Manager

K. Ohr, Radiation Protection Manager

M. Perito, Operations Manager

W. Stoermer, Communications Manager

P. Sunderland, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator

D. Tubbs, MidAmerican Energy

C. Tzomes, Emergency Preparedness Manager

Illinois Emergency Management Agency

R. Ganser, Resident Engineer

LIST OF ITEMS OPENED, CLOSED, AND DISCUSSED

Opened, Closed, and Discussed

None.