IR 05000133/1997002

Ack Receipt of Informing NRC of Steps Taken to Correct Violations Noted in Insp Rept 50-133/97-02 on 971001

ML20199B385
Person / Time
Site:	Humboldt Bay
Issue date:	11/13/1997
From:	Scarano R NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION IV)
To:	Rueger G PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO.
References
50-133-97-02, 50-133-97-2, NUDOCS 9711180297
Download: ML20199B385 (5)

Text

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• • • • • November 13, 1997-.

Gregory M. Rueger, Senior Vice President

and General Manager

~ Nuclear Power Generation Bus. Unit -

Pacific Gas and Electric Nuclear Power Generation, B14A77 77 Beale Street, Room 1451 P. O. Box 770000 San Francisco, California 94177 SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO NRC INSPECTION REPORT 50-133/97-02

Dear Mr. Rueger:

Thank you for your letter of Octcber 27,1997, in response to our October 1,1997iletter and Notice of Violation concerning the incorrect setting of the process water monitor high alarm.

We have reviewed your reply and find it responsive to the concerns raised in our Notice of Violation. We will review the implementation of your corrective actions during a future inspection to determine that full compliance has been achieved and will be maintained.

Sincerely,

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Ross A. Scarano, Director Division of Nuclear Materials Safety Docket No.: 50-133 License No.: DPR-7 cc:

Christopher J. Wamer, Esq.

Law Department Pacific Gas and Electric Company {

P.O. Box 7442 l

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San Francisco, California 94120

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- Pacific Gas and Electric Company _ '- 2-Thomas A. Moulia, Plant Manager -

- Pacific Gas and Electric Company Humboldt Bay Power Plant 1000 King Salmon Avenue Eureka, California _95503 Chairman -

- Humboldt County Board of Supervisors County Courthouse 825 Fifth Street Eureka, California 95501 Linda J. Brown, Esq.

Donohew, Jones, Brown & Clifford 1100 Van Ness Avenue,19th Floor

San Francisco, California 94102

' Regional Radiation Representative U. C Environmental Protection Agency _

- Region IX Office --

75 Hawthorne Street

. San Francisco,- California 94105 Dr. Richard Ferguson Energy Chair Sierra Club California 1100 lith Street, Suite 311 Sacramento, California 95814 Dr. James F. Davis, State Geologist Department of Conservation Division of Mines & Geology 801 K Street MS 12-30 Sacramento, California 95814-3531 Mr. Steve Hsu Radiological Health Branch State Department of Health Services

- P.O. Box 942732 Sacramento, California 94234

' Director Energy Facilities Siting Division

' Energy Resources Conservation &

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. Development Commission 1516 9th Etreet

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Docket No. 50-133 OL-DPR 7 Humbo!di Bay Power Plant, Unit 3 Reply to Notice of Violation in NRC Inspection Reoort No. SM33/97-02

Dear Commissioners and Staff:

NRC Inspection Report No. 50-133/97-02, dated October 1,1997. included a Notice of Violation citing one Severity Level IV violation. The violation perteins to an incorrect setting of the process water monitor high alarm. PG&E's response to the Notice of V:..iation is enclosed, k

Sincerely, 1%

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Gregory O cc: Richard F. Dudley Kenneth E. Perkins Ellis W. Merschoff Humboldt Distribution Enclosure HB3-97-QC-N003

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Enclosure l .' PG&E Lett:r HBL 97-016

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REPLY TO NOTICE OF VIOLATION IN NRC INSPECTION REPORT NO. 50133197-02 On October 1,1997, as part of NRC Inspection Report No. 50-133/97-02, NRC Region IV issued one Severity Level IV violation for Humboldt Bay Power Plant (HBPP), Unit 3.

The statement of violation and PG&E's response follow.

STATEMENT OF VIOLATION Facility Operating License DPR-7, Paragraph 2.(2) states, in part, that the Technical Specification contained in Appendix A, as revised, is hereby incorporatedin the license.Section V.B.2.b of the Technical Specifications state, in part, that the process water monitor shaII be set to alarm at or below a cesium 137 concentration in the discharge line of 1 x 10' microcuries/ milliliter (pCl/ml).

Contrary to the above, from April B-15,1997, the process water monitor was set to alarm at 300,000 counts per minute. This equates to 9.78 x 10' pCi/ml.

This is a Severity LevelIV violation (Supplement IV).

REASON FOR THE VIOLATION PG&E agrees with the violation as stated in the inspection report.

Setting the process water monitor high alarm too high is a violation of Technical '

Specification (TS) V.B.2.b.

TS V.B.2.b. requires 11* process water monitor alarm to be set at or below 1.0 E-4 microcuries per milliliter (pCl/ml) for Cs 137, which is equivalent to approximately 26,500 counts per minute (cpm). To ensure HBPP effluents remain in compliance with TS V.B.2.b., Surveillance Test Procedure (STP) 3.21.3, " Weekly Process Monitor ,

Checks,"is used to set the process water r 'onitor warning and high alarm settings at 1500 cpm and 5000 cpm, respectively.

The process water monitor has two scales: one from 1 cpm - 10,000 (10K) cpm, the other from 10 epin - 1,000,000 (1M) cpm. To parform STP 3.21.3, the operator sets the alarms for the readings on the 1M scale of the monitor.

The following are the causes of the event.

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i Enclosure - i PG&E Lett:r HBL 97-016 l l- .

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Personne! Error- .

f In performing STP 3.21.3 on April 8,1997, the operator manually _

_ adjusted the alarm setpoints on the monitor alarm panel in the control <

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room such that the alarm trip point was reduced to below the background i i level. Th's initiated the alarrn. After the test, the alarm setpoints were readjusted back to the required readings of 1500 and 5000 opm.  ;

However, the operator read the wrong scale on the process water  !

monhor_ when setting the woming and high alarms. Instead of reading i

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the 1M scale, the operator read the 10K scale. The value of 1500 cpm

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as read on the 10K scale corresponds to 41,000 opm on the 1M scale,-  ;

and is equivalent to approximately 1.28 E-4 pCL/ml. The value of _

5000 cpm as read on the 10K scale corresponds to 300,000 cpm on the _,

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1M scale, and is equivalent to approximately 9.78 E 4 pCi/ml, which

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exceeds the TS limit of 1.0 E 4 pCl/ml. ,

, Procedural Weakness  ;

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STP 3.21.3 did not clearly identify the appropriate scale for the operator  !

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to use when setting the warning and high alarms.

A description and analysis of this event was provided to the NRC in Licensee  ;

Event Report 3 97-001-00, submitted May 15,1997.  ;

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CORRECTIVE STEPS TAKEN AND RESULTS ACHIEVED

' A number of immediate actions were taken to assure that the process water monitor  !

warning and high alarms would remain set corredly while long term corrective actions were being implemented.

• When a different operator performed STP 3.21.3 on April 15,1997 he observed the-  !

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i: incorrect settings and correctly reset lne procese water monitor waming and high

- alarms.

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• All op3rators were re-educated on the proper method to set the process water

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monitor warning and high alarms.

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. . A shift order was sont to' shift foremen requiring them to independently verify the correct settings for process water. monitor waming and high alarms. The shift order ,

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- action wasW. interim measure that remained in place until incorporated as a long-term corremlve action in a revision to STP 3.21.3.  !

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..I Enclosure

. PG&E Letter HBL 97-016

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CORRECTIVE STEPS THAT WERE TAKEN TO AVolD FURTHER VIOLATIONS ,

The following actions were taken to prevent recurrence, based on the causes of the event:

PersonnelError The supervisor discussed the event with the responsible employee. The supervisor issued the employee an oral reminder as part of the positive discipline prograr,1 i

Procedural Weakness STP 3.21.3 was revised to:

e not require adjusting and resetting the process water monitor warning and high alarms if the as found settings are 1500 cpm and 5000 cpm, respectively.

• require an independent verification whenever the process water monitor warning and high alarm settings are changed.

. clearly identify the appropriate scale for the operator to use when setting the process water monitor warning and high alarms.

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HBPP personnel reviewed other STPs that contain alarm settings required by TS to determine if these other STPs require modifications similar to those made to STP 3.21.3. The results of this review dearmined that two other procedures, STP 3.16.2, ' Source Check Area Mon 5 tors," and STP 3.16.3, " Stack Gas +

Monitoring System (PIOPS) Annual Calibration Check," include changing alarm setpoints. Both of these STPs were revised in a similar manner to the revision for STP 3.21.3.

All the above actions were completed by September 26,1997. *

DATE WHEN FULL COMPLIANCE WILL BE ACHIEVED

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PG&E is currently in full compliance.

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