PNO-IV-97-043, on 970724,licensee Commenced Reactor Shutdown Because of Decreasing Second Stage Pressure on Reactor Recirculation Pump Seal & Rising Drywell Unidentified Leakage.Licensee Did Not Enter Any Emergency Procedures

PNO-IV-97-043:on 970724,licensee Commenced Reactor Shutdown Because of Decreasing Second Stage Pressure on Reactor Recirculation Pump Seal & Rising Drywell Unidentified Leakage.Licensee Did Not Enter Any Emergency Procedures

ML20149K127
Person / Time
Site:	River Bend
Issue date:	07/28/1997
From:	Corporandy D, David Proulx NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION IV)
To:
References
PNO-IV-97-043, PNO-IV-97-43, NUDOCS 9707290262
Download: ML20149K127 (1)

l

• . July 28,1997 i

. PRELIMINARY NOTIFICATION OF EVENT OR UNUSUAL OCCURRENCE PNO-IV-97-043 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 Region IV staff in Arlington, Texas on this date.

Facility Licensee Emeraency Classification Entergy Operations, Inc. Notification of Unusual Event l River Bend 1 Alert l St Francisville, Louisiana Site Area Emergency Dockets: 50-458 General Emergency i X Not Applicable l l

Subject:

REACTOR SHUTDOWN IN EXCESS OF 72 HOURS l

l On July 24,1997, at 11 p.m. CDT, the licensee commenced a reactor shutdown because of decreasing second stage pressure on the reactor Recirculation Pump A seal and rising )

drywell unidentified leakage. Reactor power was decreased to approximately 30 percent and the shutdown was completed by a manual reactor scram at 11:16 a.m. on July 25 per the licensee's normal shutdown sequence. At the time of the shutdown, the second stage pressure of Recirculation Pump A was at 440 psig (normal pressure is approximately 530 psig), and the drywell unidentified leak rate was at 3.24 gpm.

The licensee had been tracking a slow increase in unidentified leak rate since June 29, l 1997. The Technical Specification limits for unidentified leakage are 5 gpm or a 2 gpm increase in 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br />. Neither limit was exceeded during this event. During the shutdown, 4 all systems responded as expected. The licensee did not enter any emergency plan f implementing procedures.

i During the initial phase of the forced outage, the licensee performed a walkdown of the I drywell in Mode 3 and identified no additional leaks or problems in the drywell other than the degraded seals on Recirculation Pump A. In addition to replacing the seal package on )

Recirculation Pump A, the licensee performed the 18-month service discharge surveillance l test on the Division ill safety-related battery because this test was found to be inadequate during past performances. The licensee completed both of these activities while in Mode 4 (Cold Shutdown) and is currently in Mode 4 in the process of restart.

The resident inspector responded to the control room and witnessed the shutdown. The I resident inspectors monitored the licensee's progress on the forced outage activities and  !

will continue to monitor the startup.

There has been no media interest in this event. I Region IV was notified of this information by telephone from the resident inspector at 11:30 p.m. CDT. Region IV has informed the OEDO, NRR, and PAO. Region IV will notify l the state of Louisiana. l The information herein was discussed with the licensee and is current as of 12:20 p.m.

(CDT), on July 28,1997.

Contact:

David Corporandy David Proulx (510)975-0319 9707290262 970728 (504)635-3193

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