A noncited violation of License Condition 2.C.(41) was identified for failure to maintain required staffing available to respond to a fire. Specifically, the approved
Fire Protection Program requires that a five-person fire brigade be available onsite at all times and not assigned duties that conflict with the duties of the fire brigade. Contrary to this, on three occasions in March 2008, operators assigned as fire brigade members were directed to perform operator rounds at the radial wells. Because the
Mississippi River was at flood stage, this required traveling by boat, so the operators were unable to return to the plant promptly for approximately
2 hours2.314815e-5 days <br />5.555556e-4 hours <br />3.306878e-6 weeks <br />7.61e-7 months <br />. This was further complicated by the fact that operator/fire brigade radios did not work during most of the boat trip and in the vicinity of the most distant well, meaning that operators could not be quickly recalled. This finding was entered into the corrective action program under Condition Report 2008-01616. This finding had a crosscutting aspect in the area of Human Performance Work Control (
H.3.b) because the licensee did not ensure that different job activities were coordinated to ensure that the fire brigade remained available at all times. Failure to maintain a fully staffed fire brigade available onsite at all times was a performance deficiency. This finding was more than minor because it affected the protection from external factors (fire) attribute of the
Mitigating Systems Cornerstone objective of ensuring the availability, reliability, and capability of systems that respond to
initiating events to prevent undesireable consequences. This finding was evaluated using
Inspection Manual Chapter 0609, Appendix F, Fire Protection
Significance Determination Process, because it affected a fire protection defense-in-depth element. This finding was assigned a low degradation rating because the operations shift during the times when the fire brigade member was unavailable included extra fire brigade-trained personnel that could supplement the fire brigade. The delay in a replacement person reporting to the scene of a fire would not have impacted the initial fire fighting effort, since enough fire brigade personnel were available to perform the functions
