IR 05000255/2010007

EA-09-269, Palisades Nuclear Plant, Final Significance Determination for a White Finding; Notification of Follow-up Assessment; and Notice of Violation; NRC Inspection Report No. 05000255/2010007

ML100200720
Person / Time
Site:	Palisades
Issue date:	01/20/2010
From:	Satorius M Region 3 Administrator
To:	Schwarz C Entergy Nuclear Operations
References
EA-09-269, IR-10-007 EA-09-269
Download: ML100200720 (5)

Text

January 20, 2010

SUBJECT:

FINAL SIGNIFICANCE DETERMINATION FOR A WHITE FINDING; NOTIFICATION OF FOLLOW-UP ASSESSMENT; AND NOTICE OF VIOLATION; NRC INSPECTION REPORT NO. 05000255/2010007; PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANT

Dear Mr. Schwarz:

The purpose of this letter is to provide you the final results of our significance determination of the preliminary White finding identified in Inspection Report 05000255/2009008. The finding is associated with the failure to meet the requirements of Section 4.3 of the Technical Specifications for fuel storage in the spent fuel pool which resulted in the neutron absorber in the Region I spent fuel pool racks being degraded such that the effective neutron multiplication factor (Keff) would not remain at or below 0.95 without credit for soluble boron.

In a telephone message and follow-up conversation with Mr. John Giessner, Chief, Projects Branch 4, Region III, of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), on December 21 and 28, 2009, Mr. David Hamilton of your staff indicated that Entergy declined the opportunity to discuss this issue in a Regulatory Conference or to provide a written response.

After considering the information developed during the inspection, the NRC has concluded that the inspection finding is appropriately characterized as White, a finding with low to moderate safety significance that may require additional NRC inspections.

You have 30 calendar days from the date of this letter to appeal the staffs determination of significance for the identified White finding. Such appeals will be considered to have merit only if they meet the criteria given in the NRC Inspection Manual Chapter 0609, Attachment 2.

The NRC has also determined that the finding had an associated violation, as cited in the enclosed Notice of Violation (Notice). The circumstances surrounding the violation were described in detail in the subject inspection report. In accordance with the NRC Enforcement Policy, the Notice is considered escalated enforcement action because it is associated with a White finding. The NRC has concluded that the information regarding the reason for the violation, the corrective actions taken, and the date when full compliance was achieved is already adequately addressed on the docket in the subject inspection report. Therefore, you are not required to respond to this letter unless the description therein does not accurately reflect your corrective actions or your position.

As a result of our review of Palisades Nuclear Plants performance, including this White finding, we have assessed you to be in the Regulatory Response column of the NRCs Action Matrix.

Therefore, we plan to conduct a supplemental inspection using Inspection Procedure 95001, Inspection for One or Two White Inputs in a Strategic Performance Area, when your staff has notified us of your readiness for this inspection. This inspection procedure is conducted to provide assurance that the root cause and contributing causes of risk significant performance issues are understood, the extent of condition is identified, and the corrective actions are sufficient to prevent recurrence.

In accordance with Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 2.390 of the NRC's Rules of Practice, a copy of this letter, its enclosure, and your response, if you choose to provide one, will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the NRC=s Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To the extent possible, your response should not include any personal privacy, proprietary, or safeguards information so that it can be made available to the public without redaction.

Sincerely,

/RA by Cynthia D. Pederson Acting for/

Mark A. Satorius Regional Administrator Docket No. 50-255 License No. DPR-20 Enclosure:

Notice of Violation cc w/encl: Distribution via Listserv

Letter to Christopher