IR 05000498/1993047

Insp Repts 50-498/93-47 & 50-499/93-47 on 931117-19.No Violations Noted.Major Areas Inspected:Emergency Prepared Program Including Evaluation of Licensee Emergency Accountability Capabilities During Day Shift Hours

ML20058J723
Person / Time
Site:	South Texas
Issue date:	12/03/1993
From:	Murray B NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION IV)
To:
Shared Package
ML20058J715	List: IR 05000498/1993047 ML20058J712
References
50-498-93-47, 50-499-93-47, NUDOCS 9312140214
Download: ML20058J723 (8)

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APPENDIX U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

REGION IV

Inspection Report: 50-498/93-47 50-499/93-47 Operating Licenses: NPF-76 NPF-80 Licensee: Houston Lighting and Power Company P.O. Box 1770 Houston, Texas 77251 Facility Name: South Texas Project Electric Generating Station Inspection At: Bay City, Texas Inspection Conducted: November 17-19, 1993 Inspectors: D. Blair Spitzberg, Ph.D., Lead Inspector J. Keeton, Resident Inspector Accompanied By: Cecil Thomas, Acting Director Division of Radiation Safety and Safeguards Approved: d IMk /

B. Nrray, Chiff, Facili 'es Inspection Dafe /

Programs Section Inspection Summarv Areas Inspected: Special, announced inspection of the emergency preparedness program including an evaluation of the licensee's emergency accountability-capabilities during day shift hours to determine whether previous weaknesses in this area have been corrected and a review of recent organizational changes as they relate to emergency preparednes Results:

• The licensee had performed a comprehensive analysis and developed a detailed set of corrective actions to address problems in accountability capabilitie Corrective actions had been implemented in. training, procedures, personnel, and hardware to facilitate and improve the accountability process. Accountability drills conducted showed. steady improvement and validated the effectiveness of the actions taken to correct previous licensee identified weaknesses in this area. Recent drills including one evaluated by the NRC demonstrated that the licensee can perform personnel accountability in a timely manner during day shift hours (Section 2.1).

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9312140214 931208 PDR ADOCK 05000498 G PDR

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• It was concluded that recent organizational changes would not ' diminish f the licensee's capabilities to effectively respond to emergencies j

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(Section 3.2).

e No NRC inspection issues remain in the emergency preparedness area which {

impact licensee's plans for plant restart (Section 4).

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I Summary of Inspection Findings:

• Unresolved Item 50-498/9325-02; 50-499/9325-02 was closed (Section 3.1).

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Attachment 1 - Persons Contacted and Exit Meeting .

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-3-DETAllS I PLANT STATUS t During this inspection, both units were defueled (Mode 5). .

2 EMERGENCY ACCOUNTABILITY DRILLS (82301-03.02.F.1-2; 03.03.G.2-3)

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The inspectors reviewed actions taken by the licensee to facilitate and improve its capabilities to perform emergency accountability in a timely manner. Documentation of recent accountability drill results was reviewed, and the licensee's performance during a day shift accountability drill was l evaluate ;

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2.1 Discussion The inspectors reviewed an assembly / accountability causal facter analysis report dated October 4, 1993, which was undertaken by the lictnsee to investigate the recent problems experienced in the accountabflity drills. The I report detailed several root causes in four causal areas in:.luding training, i procedures, personnel, and hardware. A specific corre:tive action plan was  ;

contained in the causal factor report. The inspectors found the causal factor ,

analysis and corrective action plan to be detailed and comprehensiv !

The inspectors reviewed documentation of actions either initiated or completed I by the licensee to facilitate and improve capabilities in performing timely accountability. The following causal factor areas and actions were reviewed:

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LAREA JCORRECTIVE ACTIONi I Training Revised General Employee Training. Issued two plant bulletins on assembly and accountability. Provided security force training of procedure changes. Developed training vide Conducted weekly drill Procedures Implemented revisions to Procedures 050P02-ZS-0027 " Access Control"; OPGP03-ZS-0001, -

SE-0001 " Personnel Access Controi"4, OSPD01-OERP01-ZV-IN0

" Assembly * Electronic Security System";ZV-SH01 and Accountability - DERP01- " Shift

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Supervisor"; and OERP01-ZV-SH03, " Acting Security Manager." l Personnel Personnel problems addressed through enhanced and modified  ;

training and increased drill frequenc , j Hardware Design change requests initiated to move exit card readers  :

outside of badging cubicles, to add 3 additional turnstiles to '

east and west gatehouse, and to install 3 assembly and i accountability card readers in the warehouse 32 anne Contractor was hired to perform system walkdowns and report on ,

the existing state of the plant public address syste '

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The inspectors reviewed documentation and licensee evaluations of assembly and accountability drills conducted since the previous inspection. Packages including scenarios, drill messages, critiques, and evaluations were well documented. The quality of drill documentation had improved over the period reviewed. In addition to critioue reports prepared by the Emergency Response Division, Quality Assurance personnel had also been assigned to evaluate most of the drills. The inspectors reviewed four Quality Assurance surveillance reports of recent assembly and accountability drill activitie The scope of these independent evaluations was excellent, and the surveillances provided !

useful findings to the licensee's overall drill evaluation proces .

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The licensee had defined its success criteria for the accountability aspect of ;

drills to be 5 2 percent of the personnel within the protected area

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unaccounted for 30 minutes after the assembly and accountability command. The inspectors found this success criteria to be reasonabl By meeting this criteria, within 30 minutes the licensee would generate a list of personnel unaccounted for, and the number of missing personnel on the list would be small compared to the number of personnel available to perform search and rescu '

The following table includes the results of assembly and accountability drills conducted from the time of the previous inspection through the drill conducted

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during this inspection. The results show that the licensee's performance during this period steadily improved. A timely performance of accountability was demonstrated in the last four drills conducted, including three conducted during the day shif ,

I No.'of No. of Personnel Percent Personnel in Unaccounted Unaccounted Protected- for at 30- ~ for at 30 L.icensee Date Time Area Minutes- Minutes Assessment-9/10/93 >50 Unsuccessful

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9/21/93 11:04a Unsuccessful 9/29/93 1:15p 1130 62 Unsuccessful ,

10/7/93 8:55a 977 7 Successful 10/14/93 8:00a 699 10 Successful 10/21/93 1:12p 864 42 Unsuccessful 11/2/93 1:00p 890 13 Successful 11/4/93 8:00p 297 0 Successful 11/10/93 1:18p 620 5 Successful 11/18/93 12:45P 866 0 Successful n.a. - not available from drill documentation The inspectors observed and evaluated the assembly and accountability drill conducted on November 18, 1993. Locations observed by the inspectors during the drill included the Unit 1 Control Room, the Unit I +41-foot access area,

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the Maintenance Operation > Facility assembly area, the east gatehouse badging i cubicle, and the assembly area outside the east gatehous The inspectors observed that station personnel responded promptly and \

effectively during the drill. The wcurity force demonstrated excellent j teamwork in its actions to effect an orderly egress of nonessential personnel !

from the protected area. Alarms and announcements were clearly audible in l locations observed by the NRC. After the drill, however, two players  !

interviewed stated that public address announcements were muffled and l difficult to understand in the Maintenance Operations facility. A missing l persons' list of 10 names was printed out 16 minutes after the initial .

announcement directing assembly and accountability. After further efforts to !

4 account for these individuals, all personnel were accounted for 7 minutes late Full accountability of the 866 personnel initially within the ,

protected area was achieved in 23 minutes. This exceeded the performance j guidance in NUREG 0654, the Emergency Plan, and the licensee's success  :

criteri l The following observations did not affect the overall success of the  !

licensee's drill but are considered potential areas for improvement: j

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e An Emergency Response Organization member attempted to enter the protected area at the east gatehouse during the assembly and  ;

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accountability process. Badging cubicle security personnel were unable .

. to locate a list of designated emergency responders to verify this

individual's authorization to enter during an emergency. Neither did the security personnel call the Emergency Director to gain authorization. The individual was granted access by the security personnel despite not verifying that he was an assigned responder. This i observation was identified by the licensee in its critique. The  !

inspectors confirmed that a current list of emergency responders was placed in the gatehouses before the inspection was conclude !

• A fire watch list was prepared by security prior to the drill containing l about 10-15 personnel on shift during the drill. These individuals were

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effectively exempted from participation in the drill. The lead drill I controller stated before the drill that no personnel would be exempted l from the drill. During assembly and accountability % cedure  !

OERP01-ZV-IN04, Step 5.3, states that individuals, , f safety :

reasons, are unable to terminate their work and proc t their j assembly area shall be accounted for by contacting the atrol Room or ,

Operations Support Center by radio or telephone. This activity was not !

demonstrated by those on the fire watch lis ;

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2.2 Conclusions i

The licensee had performed a comprehensive analysis and developed a detailed !

? set of corrective actions to address problems in accountability capabilities.-

Corrective actions had been implemented in training, procedures, personnel, and hardware to facilitate and improve the accountability proces Accountability drills conducted showed steady improvement and validated the effectiveness of the actions taken to correct previous licensee identified

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-6-P weaknesses in this area. Recent drills, including one evaluated by the NRC, demonstrated that the licensee can perform personnel accountability in a timely manner during day shift hour ;

3 REVIEW OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES (82301)

3.1 Discussion The inspectors reviewed recent changes in the licensee's management organization as they relate to emergency preparedness. On about November 9, j 1993, responsibility for the Emergency Response Division was reassigned from i reporting to the Vice President of Plant Support (a position which was ;

eliminated) to reporting to the General Manager of Nuclear Licensing. The <

General Manager of Nuclear Licensing reports to the Group Vice President, l Nuclea ;

The inspectors interviewed the General Manager of Nuclear Licensing and the !

Manager of the Emergency Response Division. Several emergency preparedness initiatives and program enhancements had been planned or initiated. These j included plans for upgrading performance based emergency preparedness' training

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and potentially adding two dedicated emergency preparedness training instructors. An aggressive drill schedule had been proposed for:1994 and

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institution of monthly functional group training errinars had been proposed '

for seven functional areas. In the past, such semis.ars had been conducted only in the area of emergency classification. An Emergency Response Organization steering committee had been formed to review all drill, exercise, ,

inspection, and audit report findings and to outline appropriate courses of action. This committee had approved and~ endorsed the training and program enhancement initiatives described abov .

I The inspectors found the proposed program initiatives to be proactive and i ambitious. Many of the recently proposed program enhancements had not been ;

initiated, however, and in some cases had not been formally approved by !

current senior management. The inspectors could not assess the impact of l recent organizational changes on the direction of emergency preparednes '

There were, however, positive indications noted of a recognition by senior

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management of the need to increase line management ownership of the Emergency Response Organization staff positions. Other organizational changes in the 4 plant staff had not changed the manner in which the licensee filled emergency response positions with qualified individual l 3.2 Conclusions

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The inspectors concluded that recent organizational changes would not diminish '

the licensee's capabilities to effectively respond to emergencie '

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4 FOLLOWUP DN PREVIOUS INSPECTION FINDINGS (92702)

(Closed) Unresolved Item (498/9325-02: 499/9325-02): This item concerned i recurrino weaknesses identified by the licensee durino drills to test its )

capabilities to perform timely emergency accountability durino day shift hours. The item was considered unresolved pendino an NRC determination that the weaknesses were corrected as reouired by 10 CFR Part 5 ,

Appendix E.IV.F.5. and that timely accountability could be achieved '

As documented in Section 2.1 of this report, the licensee was found to have corrected weaknesses identified in the area emergency accountability. Recent  ;

drills demonstrated the licensee's capabilities to perform emergency i accountability during day shift hours in a timely manner. With closure of  !

this item, no NRC inspection issues remain in the emergency preparedness area which impact the licensee's plans for plant restar l

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i ATTACHMENT 1 PERSONS CONTACTED

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1.1 Licensee Personnel l

• R. L. Balcom, Director, Nuclear Security l

• T. Cottle, Group Vice President, Nuclear t

• H. A. Coughlin, Senior Licensing Engineer i

• H. A. Covell, Manager, Emergency Response

• T. Cloninger, Vice President, Nuclear Engineering

• J. F. Groth, Vice President, Nuclear Generation

• A, W. Harrison, Supervisory Licensing Engineer i

• B. A. Kruse, Senior Quality Assurance Specialist

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• R. F. Lewis, Emergency Preparedness Consultant

• H. A. Ludwig, Manager, Training i

• L. E. Martin, General Manager, Nuclear Assurance

• L. W. Myers, Plant Manger, Unit I  !

• P. E. Parrish, Senior Specialist i

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• F. J. Puleo, Emergency Planning Specialist '

• J. J. Sheppard, General Manger, Nuclear Licensing  ;

• R. Thorsen, Emergency Preparedness Consultant -

• C. G. Walker, Manager, Public Information 1.2 NRC Personnel

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• D. Garcia, Resident Inspector

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• D. Johnson, Chief, Project Section A i

• Denotes those present at the exit meeting  !

2 EXIT MEETING -

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An exit meeting was conducted on November 19, 1993. During this meeting, the lead inspector reviewed the scope and findings of the report. The licensee !

did not identify as proprietary any of the materials provided to, or reviewed ;

by, the inspection team during the inspectio ~ ;

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