IR 05000282/2011006

Mid-Cycle Letter for Prairie Island Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2, 05000282-11-006; 05000306-11-006

ML112440154
Person / Time
Site:	Prairie Island
Issue date:	09/01/2011
From:	West S K Division Reactor Projects III
To:	Schimmel M A Northern States Power Co
References
IR-11-006
Download: ML112440154 (7)

Text

September 1, 2011

Mr. Mark Site Vice President Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant Northern States Power Company, Minnesota 1717 Wakonade Drive East Welch, MN 55089

SUBJECT: MID-CYCLE LETTER FOR PRAIRIE ISLAND NUCLEAR GENERATING PLANT, UNITS 1 AND 2; 05000282/2011-006; 05000306/2011-006

Dear Mr. Schimmel:

On August 10, 2011, the NRC completed its mid-cycle performance review of Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, Units 1 and 2. The NRC reviewed the most recent quarterly performance indicators (PIs) in addition to inspection results and enforcement actions from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011. This letter informs you of the NRC's assessment of your facility during this period and its plans for future inspections at your facility. This performance review and enclosed inspection plan do not include security information. A separate letter will include the NRC's assessment of your performance in the Security Cornerstone and its security-related inspection plan. The NRC determined the performance at Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, Unit 2, during the most recent quarter was within the Licensee Response Column of the NRC=s Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) Action Matrix because all inspection findings had very low (i.e., green) safety significance, and all PIs indicated that your performance was within the nominal, expected range (i.e., green). Therefore, the NRC plans to conduct ROP baseline inspections at your facility (for Unit 2). The NRC determined the performance at Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, Unit 1, was within the Licensee Response Column of the NRC=s ROP Action Matrix the first three quarters of the assessment period because all inspection findings had very low (i.e., green) safety significance and all PIs indicated that your performance was within the nominal, expected range (i.e., green). The NRC determined the performance during the most recent quarter was within the Regulatory Response Column of the NRC=s Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) Action Matrix because of one inspection finding in the Mitigating Systems Cornerstone being classified as having low-to-moderate significance (i.e., white). This finding, from the second quarter of 2011, involved both trains of safety-related battery chargers being susceptible to locking up (i.e., stop providing an output, if the incoming alternating current voltage dropped below the nameplate minimum voltage at the battery charger motor control center during certain design basis events). Changes in your performance as reflected in the Action Matrix as a result of this finding are documented in the letter addressed to you dated, August 17, 2011 [ML112290087]. Therefore, in addition to ROP baseline inspections, the NRC plans to conduct a supplemental inspection in accordance with Inspection Procedure 95001, "Supplemental Inspection for One or Two White Inputs in a Strategic Performance Area," once your staff notifies the NRC of your readiness for it to conduct a supplemental inspection to review the actions taken to address the performance issues. The objectives of the Supplemental Inspection are to provide assurance that the root causes and contributing causes of the performance issue are understood, extent of condition and extent of cause are identified, and corrective actions implemented are sufficient to address the root and contributing causes to prevent recurrence. The enclosed inspection plan lists the inspections scheduled through December 31, 2012. Routine inspections performed by resident inspectors are not included in the inspection plan. The inspections listed during the last nine months of the inspection plan are tentative and may be revised at the end-of-cycle performance review. The NRC provides the inspection plan to allow for the resolution of any scheduling conflicts and personnel availability issues. The NRC will contact you as soon as possible to discuss changes to the inspection plan should circumstances warrant any changes. We also plan on performing a special and infrequently performed inspection: Inspection Procedure (IP) 71003, "Post Approval License Renewal - Outage." In the days following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in Japan, the Commission directed the staff to establish a senior-level agency task force to conduct a methodical and systematic review of the NRC's processes and regulations to determine whether the agency should make additional improvements to its regulatory system. The NRC has since completed Temporary Instruction (TI) 183, "Follow-up to Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Station Fuel Damage Event," and TI-184, "Availability and Readiness Inspection of Severe Accident Management Guidelines (SAMGs)" at your facility. Results of these inspections can be found here: http://www.nrc.gov/japan/japan-activities.html. Additionally, on May 11, 2011, the agency issued NRC Bulletin 2011-01, "Mitigating Strategies," to confirm compliance with Order EA-02-026, subsequently imposed license conditions, and 10 CFR 50.54(hh)(2), and to determine the status of licensee mitigating strategies programs. On July 12, 2011, the NRC's Task Force made its recommendations to the Commission in its report, "Recommendations for Enhancing Reactor Safety in the 21st Century: The Near-Term Task Force Review of Insights from the Fukushima Daiichi Accident." The NRC is currently reviewing the Task Force's recommendations to determine what additional actions may be warranted. In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC=s ARules of Practice,@ a copy of this letter 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). Please contact me or John Giessner, Chief, Branch 4, Division of Reactor Projects, at 630-829-9619 with any questions you have regarding this letter.

Sincerely,/RA/

Steven West, Director Division of Reactor Projects Docket Nos. 50-282; 50-306 License Nos. DPR-42; DPR-60

Enclosure:

Prairie Island Inspection/Activity Plan cc w/encl: Distribution via ListServ