ML20137B303

Submits Response to NRC Insp Rept 50-160/96-05.Corrective Actions:Licensees Promised to Develop Such Work Sheet & Put Into Practice on or Before 971201

ML20137B303
Person / Time
Site:	Neely Research Reactor
Issue date:	03/14/1997
From:	Karam R Neely Research Reactor, ATLANTA, GA
To:	Mcalpine E NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS)
References
NUDOCS 9703210271
Download: ML20137B303 (2)

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March 14,1997 Mr. Edward J. McAlpine, Chief Fuel Facilities Branch Division of Nuclear Material Safety U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission i 101 Marietta Street, N.W., Suite 2900 Atlanta, Georgia 30323-0199 i i

Subject:

NRC Inspection Report No. 50-160/96-05

Dear Mr. McAlpine:

1 In our previous correspondence with you, A Response to Exercise Weakness, IR No. 50-160/96-05, dated Feb. 13, 1997, we stated our assessmerit of the Emergency Drill

>= Weakness as:

L g (1) Command and Control by Emergency Director trainee needs improvement.

We promised to hold additional training on this issue and that the process will be completed on or before Dec.1,1997.

g (2) Correct Emergency Classification is important and must be done in a timely manner. We promised to retiain our people on this issue and that the U retrain:ng will be completed on or before Dec.1,1997.

(3) Event information work sheet tailored to GTRR Operation would be beneficial. We promised to develop such a work sheet and put it into O practice on or before Dec.1,1997.

After receiving your letter of Feb. 27,1997, we reviewed the whole issue again with )o regard to exercise weakness for failure to declare the correct emergency classification i a

in a timely manner. According to inspection Report #50-160/96-05, page 6, Alternate F

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ED reassessed emergency action levels based on radiation data and determined that the event should be down-graded to a NOUE at 10:02 and initiated notifications to correct previous classification. Based on the inspector's chronology of the drill, the earliest that the Alternate ED could have classified the event should be 9:32 a.m. immediately after the assessment team reported results of their assessment.

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.Mr. Edward J. McAlpine March 14,1997 The Alternate ED misread the information that was handed to him -- he thought that the dose rate at the fence was 38 mR/hr instead of 38 pR/hr. As soon as the error was

j. made known to him he immediately corrected the classification and proceeded.

. We regard to timeliness of notification, Procedure 6100," Emergency Notification" under

! 5.9.5 Notification of Unusual Events for GDNR, GEMA A/ FEMA and USNRC is required immediately after assessment (IAA) is completed. IAA is defined under 5.2.3 as within one hour after determining that an applicable action level has been exceeded. The Alternate ED correct notification was made at 10:02 - one half hour after 9:32 a.m. The notification was most assuredly made within the time requirement of procedure 6100 and l' within the envelop of the scenario's sequence. Consequently we do not agree with the statement that the notification was untimely. We hasten to add that the weakness, as far as Georgia Tech is concerned, is not in the timeliness / untimeliness of the classification but rather in the reasons for the incorrect classification in the first place.

Our analysis for root causes of the incorrect classification leads to the table which s

contained the survey data where the unit in mR/hr was crossed out and replaced with pR in a rather less than clear manner. Our personnel are accustomed to reading this Survey Data Form (Table) in mR/hr not pR/hr. The cause for the incorrect classification is rooted in the manner in which the data was presented, in the future more attention will be paid to details in how information is presented to the ED.

With regard to additional training on the subjects of command and control, Emergency Classification, and/or producing and instituting an event information sheet we confirm Georgia Tech's Commitment to have this training completed on or before Dec.1,1997 under the stipulation specified in our previous correspondence with NRC. We further l confirm that we will provide the scope of table top exercises to the NRC in a timely i manner and that we will do all the training prior to receiving the fuel.

Should you have any additional questions please let us know.

Sincerely, 0

R.A. Karam, Ph.D. Director Neely Nuclear Research Center RAK/ars

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