PNO-III-19-002, Palisades, Through-Wall Leak Identified on a Reactor Vessel Head Nozzle

PNO-III-19-002: Palisades, Through-Wall Leak Identified on a Reactor Vessel Head Nozzle

ML18318A419
Person / Time
Site:	Palisades
Issue date:	11/14/2018
From:	Bruce Bartlett, Dave Hills NRC/RGN-III
To:
References
PNO-III-19-002
Download: ML18318A419 (1)

PRELIMINARY NOTIFICATION November 14, 2018 PRELIMINARY NOTIFICATION OF EVENT OR UNUSUAL OCCURRENCE PNO-III-19-002 This preliminary notification constitutes EARLY notice of events of POSSIBLE safety or public interest significance. Some of the information may not yet be fully verified or evaluated by the Region III staff.

Facility Licensee Emergency Classification Palisades Nuclear Plant Notification of Unusual Event Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. Alert Covert, MI Site Area Emergency Docket: 05000255 General Emergency X Not Applicable

Subject:

Through-Wall Leak Identified on A Reactor Vessel Head Nozzle On Saturday, November 10, 2018, with the plant in a refueling outage and during an NRC required bare metal visual inspection of the reactor head, a through-wall leak was identified on a reactor vessel head control rod drive nozzle (event notification 53733). An NRC metallurgical specialist was onsite inspecting the licensees reactor vessel assessment activities when the issue was identified. The resident inspectors were also onsite and were notified when the discovery was made.

While assessing the condition of other control rod drive nozzles the licensee also identified similar ultrasonic test characteristics in another nozzle (event notification 53734). However, this nozzle did not exhibit evidence of through-wall leakage. The licensees extent of condition assessment is ongoing. The licensee has initiated repairs which will be completed prior to the plant restarting from the current refueling outage.

The NRC inspectors will continue to be onsite to monitor the licensees assessment, actions, and repairs to ensure they are conducted in accordance with safety regulations.

An inspection report will be publicly available after the NRC completes its inspection activities.

This preliminary notification is issued for information only.

The information presented herein has been discussed with the licensee, and is current as of 15:00 November 14, 2018.

ADAMS Accession Number: ML18318A419 Contacts: David Hills Bruce Bartlett 630-829-9733 630-829-9753 David.Hills@nrc.gov Bruce.bartlett@nrc.gov