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I-98-3 January 8, 1998
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff and Northeast Utilities (NU) officials will meet on Tuesday, January 13, to discuss apparent violations at the Millstone nuclear power plant that were found during a safety system functional inspection conducted in August and September. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in the Training Center at the Millstone site, in Waterford, Conn. It is open to the public for observation.
The NRC's Special Projects Office performed the inspection of the plant's chemical volume and control systems. During the review, the NRC found that NU's staff had failed to recognize and evaluate the potential for air in certain portions of the recirculation spray system to be swept into the suction of the charging and safety injection pumps under certain accident conditions, possibly preventing the system from working as designed.
In addition, the inspectors discovered an apparent shortcoming in NU's program to minimize leakage outside the containment building, as required by the plant's technical specifications. Specifically, the program addressed leakage from valve stems, piping joints and other direct leakage pathways, while failing to adequately account for potential valve leakage from systems carrying highly radioactive water following an accident.
The decision to hold a predecisional enforcement conference does not mean the NRC has determined that a violation has occurred or that enforcement action will be taken. Rather, the purpose is to discuss apparent violations, their causes and safety significance; to provide the company with an opportunity to point out any errors that may have been made in the NRC inspection report; and to enable the company to outline proposed corrective actions.
No decision on the apparent violations will be made at this conference. Those decisions will be made by senior NRC officials at a later time.
In addition to the predecisional enforcement conference, the NRC staff will hold the following upcoming meetings:
On Tuesday, January 13, at 9 a.m. at the Training Center, NRC staff will meet with officials of NU, Sargent and Lundy and Parsons Power Group to discuss the status of the Millstone Units 2 and 3 Independent Corrective Action Verification Programs (ICAVP). Sargent and Lundy is performing the ICAVP for Units 1 and 3, Parsons Power for Unit 2. On Wednesday, January 14, at 1 p.m. at the Training Center, the NRC Special Projects Office will hold another in a series of periodic meetings with NU to discuss plans, schedules and progress toward recovery of the Millstone units. Topics will include the status of restart activities, the ICAVP and the employee concerns program. On Thursday, January 22, at 10 a.m. at the Training Center, NRC staff will hold the exit meeting for the agency's evaluation of Millstone's employee concerns program. Also on Thursday, January 22, NRC staff will hold a meeting at 11 a.m. with Little Harbor Consultants, the firm hired to perform an independent assessment of the employees concerns program at Millstone. During that meeting, the NRC will provide the results of its evaluation of Little Harbor's oversight activities. That meeting will be held at the Training Center. On Tuesday, January 27, at 10 a.m. at the Training Center, NRC staff will meet with representatives of NU and Little Harbor Consultants to discuss Millstone's employee concerns program, safety conscious work environment and Little Harbor's findings and recommendations. Also on Tuesday, January 27, NRC staff will meet with the public to provide an update on the status of Millstone recovery efforts. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in the Waterford Town Hall.
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