IR 05000443/2003001

2003 Annual Assessment Letter - Seabrook Station (Report No. 50-443/03-001)

ML030620234
Person / Time
Site:	Seabrook
Issue date:	03/03/2003
From:	Blough A Division Reactor Projects I
To:	Warner M Florida Power & Light Energy Seabrook
References
IR-03-001
Download: ML030620234 (5)

Text

rch 3, 2003

SUBJECT:

ANNUAL ASSESSMENT LETTER - SEABROOK STATION (REPORT NO. 50-443/03-001)

Dear Mr. Warner:

On February 6, 2003, the NRC staff completed its end-of-cycle plant performance assessment of Seabrook Station. The end-of-cycle review for Seabrook Station involved the participation of all technical divisions in evaluating performance indicators (PIs) for the most recent quarter and inspection results for the period from January 1 through December 31, 2002. The purpose of this letter is to inform you of our assessment of your safety performance during this period and our plans for future inspections at your facility so that you will have an opportunity to prepare for these inspections and to inform us of any planned inspections that may conflict with your plant activities.

Overall, Seabrook Station operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety and fully met all cornerstone objectives. Plant performance was within the Licensee Response Column of the NRCs Action Matrix, based on all inspection findings being classified as having very low safety significance (Green) and all PIs indicating performance at a level requiring no additional NRC oversight (Green). Therefore, we plan to conduct only baseline inspections at your facility through March 31, 2004.

While plant performance for the most recent quarter was within the licensee response column of the Action Matrix, performance had been within the Regulatory Response Column during the first quarter of the assessment period based on a single inspection finding of low to moderate safety significance (White) in the mitigating systems cornerstone. This finding, documented in March 2001, involved the failure of one emergency diesel generator. Since your corrective actions for this finding were completed and the results of the supplemental inspection were satisfactory, the finding was removed from the assessment process on March 31, 2002.

Mr. Mark In our Mid-Cycle Assessment Letter dated August 26, 2002, we advised you of a substantive cross-cutting performance issue in the area of Problem Identification and Resolution (PI&R). This issue had been documented in the past two Annual Assessment Letters for Seabrook Station and involved the inconsistent evaluation of degraded equipment. Based on the results of our routine resident inspections and our PI&R team inspection in September 2002, we conclude that your efforts to improve the quality of evaluations have resulted in a decrease in the number and significance of inspection findings. As a result, the NRC no longer considers Seabrook Stations performance indicative of a substantive cross-cutting issue in the area of PI&R.

The enclosed inspection plan details the inspections scheduled through March 31, 2004. The inspection plan is provided to minimize the resource impact on your staff and to allow for scheduling conflicts and personnel availability to be resolved in advance of the inspectors arrival onsite. Routine resident inspections are not listed due to their ongoing and continuous nature.

The last six months of the inspection plan are tentative and may be revised at the Mid-Cycle Review meeting.

As you are aware, since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the NRC has issued several orders and threat advisories to enhance security capabilities and improve guard force readiness.

We have conducted inspections to review your implementation of these requirements and have monitored your actions in response to changing threat conditions. For calendar year 2003, we plan to continue these inspections, conduct portions of the security baseline inspection program, as well as perform additional inspections to evaluate your compliance with new requirements that may be ordered. Based on our final determinations in this regard, we will notify you of any inspection plan changes.

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.790 of the NRCs Rules of Practice, a copy of this letter and its enclosure will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the Publicly Available Records component of NRC's document system (ADAMS).

ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/ADAMS/index.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room).

If circumstances arise which necessitate our changing the inspection plan, we will contact you to discuss the change as soon as possible. Please contact Mr. Brian McDermott at 610-337-5233 with any questions regarding this letter or the inspection plan.

Sincerely,

/RA/

A. Randolph Blough, Director Division of Reactor Projects Docket No.: 50-443 Licensee No.: NPF-86 Enclosure: Seabrook Inspection/ Activity Plan

Mr. Mark