ML19261F298

Environ Incident 50-289/74-8:on 740711,15 & 17,water Discharged Into River at Greater than Allowed Negative Temp Differential.Caused by Insufficient Written Guidance. Temporary Indicators Installed & Personnel Counseled

ML19261F298
Person / Time
Site:	Three Mile Island
Issue date:	07/24/1974
From:	Arnold R METROPOLITAN EDISON CO.
To:
References
GQL-0182, GQL-182, NUDOCS 7910250759
Download: ML19261F298 (4)

Text

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Ltr reporting Enviro Abnor.;al Occurrence 74-3 on 7-11, 15, 17-74, regarding negative temperat re dif ferential between the river water & plant ri'er -a' dischar;e in excess of 3'2F............

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dL![Ll?J LL'{3 Mr. J. P. O'Reilly, Director JCL2 E1974 ' 5 .

Regulatory Operations Region 1 1 ,

U.S. Atomic Energy Commission .p- '

631 Park Avenue ',/ ,

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania 19406 /

Dear Mr. O'Reilly:

Operating License DPR-50 Dochet #50-289 In accordance with the Environmental Technical Specifications for Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 1, we are reporting the following Environmental Incident:

(1) Reporting Number: E.I. 50-289/74-8 (2a) Report Date: July 24, 1974 (2b) Occurrence Date: July 11,15,17,19 74 (3) Facility: Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, Unit 1 (4) Identification of Incident:

Negative temperature differential between the river water and plant river discharge in excess of 3oF, which is a violation of the Environmental Technical Specifications, paragraph 2.la(1),

and constitutes exceeding a Limiting Condition for Operation.

(5) Conditions Prior to Occurrence: Reactor critical, power escala-tion test at 76% of rated power in progress with major plant para-meters as follows :

Power: Core: 1927 MWt Elec: 660 MWe r k 1 353 RC Flow: 136 x 10 #/hr. g/ tqq3 '(,

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O'Reilly Page 2 7/24/74 RC Temperature: 579 F PRZR Level: 220 in.

PRZR Temp.: 650 F (6) Description of Incident:

On July 11,15, and 17,1974, with the reac5 r at 76: of rated power, water which was 4.7 , 9.4 , and 10.2 F, respectively, below the river water temperature at the time was discharged into the river from the Mechanical Draf t Cooling Tower (MDCT) .

The Environmental Technical Specifications allow a negative temperature differential (river water temperature minus plant river discharge temperature) of only 3 F.

An immediate investigation by the Plant Operations Review Committee (PORC) revealed that the normal method of measuring the temperature differential (the Control Room AT Recorder) and the alternate method (Local Recorder at the MDCT) were both out of service and that operations personnel had failed to perform back-up temperature measurements.

(7) Designation of Apparent Cause of Incident:

a. It is believed that the incidents resulted primarily from inadequate procedc7y f.n that operations personnel were not provided with tb> . ssary written guidance on making back-up temperat v.asurements when the normal temperature monitoring equipment is not available. Additionally, main-tenance personnel were not provided with the necessary written procedures controlling the removal from service of monitoring equipment necessary to maintain operations within the Limiting Conditions for Operations as established by *he Environmental Technical Specifications.

b. Component failure is believed to be a factor which ultimately contributed to the incident, but did not directly cause it, in that the incident could have been prevented if there had been a contingency procedure to provide for the taking of back-up temperature measurements, as in a. above.

(8) Analysis of the Incident:

It is believed that the negative temperature differentials did not cause any significant environmental damage. This belief is based on the following:

a. the negative temperature differen tial as measured on July 15, 1974, 25 meters below the dise! _ Age was within 3 F of the inlet temperature.

b. no visable environmental damage was detected in the vicinity of the discharge during a survey of the area which was con-ducted to assess such damage.

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, . O'Reilly Page 3 7/24/74 (9) Corrective Action:

The following immediate actions were taken to correct the situation:

a. temporary temperature indicators were installed to provide the necessary information on the temperature differential until the nomal and alternate instrumentation could be returned to service;

b. Operations personnel were directed to measure and record the temperature differential and to operate the MDCT in such a way as to maintain the temperature differential within the specification limit.

As stated above, PORC met immediately af ter the incident and recom-mended the following long-term actions, with which the Station Su-perintendent concurred:

a. repair the normal and alternate temperature recorders and return them to service as soon as possible; b, provide the necessary written guidance to operations personnel on making back-up temperature meaf.,u.ements when the norsal temperature monitoring equipment is not available;

c. provide the necessary written guidance to maintenance per-sonnel on the removal from service of equipment necessary to verify compliance with Environmental Technical Specifications;

d. discuss with the environmental consulting co'upany stationed at Three Mile Island the necessity for promptly reporting any future thermal violations they might detect.

(10) Failure Data:

a. Previous Failures: None

b. Equipment Identiff. cation: Dual Channel Converter TY 607 and TY 894A of the MDCT Temperature Control and Monitoring System.

Sincerely ,

t R. C.'

gec . ld Vice President RCA:JFV:pa cc: Director Directorate of Licensing ,

U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Washington, D.C. 20545 Q} . , ..

File 20.1.1/7.7.3.11.1