The inspectors identified a Non-Cited Violation of
10 CFR 50.9(a) regarding the licensee's February 22, 1989, reply to
NRC Generic Letter 88-14, "Instrument Air Supply System Problems Affecting Safety-related Equipment." Specifically, the licensee's response stated that the dewpoint of Davis-Besse's Instrument Air System is checked three times weekly. However, the inspectors determined at the time the licensee's response to this Generic Letter was being prepared and issued, the dewpoint was checked significantly less than three times weekly. This was identified in the licensee's corrective action program as CR 03-08959. This finding is of very low safety significance because of the age of the issue and because substantial upgrades have been performed on the Instrument Air System. This finding potentially impacted the NRC's ability to perform its regulatory function. This type of finding cannot be processed through the
Significance Determination Process. Consequently, the violation was processed using the traditional enforcement process.
