ML060660055

Performance at Salem & Hope Creek in Last Quarter

ML060660055
Person / Time
Site:	Salem, Hope Creek
Issue date:	02/07/2006
From:	- No Known Affiliation
To:	Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
References
FOIA/PA-2005-0194
Download: ML060660055 (1)

Text

Performance at Salem & Hope Creek in Last Quarter Performance and changes at Salem and Hope Creek within the last quarter can be categorized into Continued Evidence of Poor Performance and Reasons for Hope, as follows:

Continued Evidence of Poor Performance:

Plant Events & Equipment Reliability - The pace of unplanned plant level events has been significant. While no Pis have exceeded thresholds and all Pis remain green, the following events have occurred:

• July 29 - Salem Unit 1 load reject due to output breaker fault; Unusual Event

• Sept 19 - Hope Creek scram & Salem shutdowns due to switchyard salting

• Oct 3 - Hope Creek manual scram due to significant EHC leak

• Oct 15 - Salem Unit 1 shutdown due to jammed feed reg valve Both Hope Creek events were either caused or complicated by BOP equipment problems. Additionally, operator response in both instances was challenged by two longstanding workarounds in the BOP. (Only one workaround had been previously identified by PSEG.)

White Finding on EDG Turbocharger Remains - The supplemental inspection of the EDG turbocharger failure determined that the corrective actions in place did not provide a sufficient basis to close the White finding. Therefore, the finding which-vould have ceased to exist in the first quarter of 2004 will continue in the Action Matrix into 2004.

Nonetheless, PSEG has committed considerable resources to establishing a clear root cause.

Salem Special Inspection - The special inspection of the July 29 load reject concluded that PSEG's understanding of the event had been slow and not thorough. They determined that two violations existed for inadequate corrective actions (manual control of circ water breaker was insufficient) and inadequate design control (weak 1992 mod did not evaluate worst case).

SCWE Allegation - The evaluations and interviews associated with an allegation have provided insights into the state of the working environment at Salem and Hope Creek.

The evaluations and interviews are proceeding, and conclusions remain to be drawn. It is worth noting that the new managers have not been implicated thus far, and several of the involved managers are no longer ait the site.