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NRC NEWS
U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION III
801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532 |
| CONTACT: |
Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663/e-mail: rjs2@nrc.gov |
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Angela Greenman (630) 829-9662/e-mail: opa3@nrc.gov |
NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: RIII-96-50 August 28, 1996
CONTACT: Jan Strasma 630/829-9663
Angela Dauginas 630/829-9662
E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov
NRC STAFF TO HOLD PREDECISIONAL ENFORCEMENT CONFERENCE
ON INSPECTION FINDINGS AT POINT BEACH NUCLEAR POWER STATION
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet
September 12 with representatives of Wisconsin Electric Power
Co. for a predecisional enforcement conference on several
regulatory issues at the Point Beach Nuclear Power Station.
Among the issues to be discussed are possible violations
associated with a May 28 incident in which hydrogen ignited
during welding on a spent fuel storage cask at the plant.
The meeting, which is open to public observation, will be
in the Main Conference Room (Third Floor) of the NRC's Region
III Office, 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle, Illinois. The meeting
will be held in two segments, one beginning at 10 a.m. There
will be a lunch break at approximately 12 noon with the second
segment following the break.
The 10 a.m. segment will cover possible violations
associated with the May 28 spent fuel cask incident at Point
Beach and the utility's response to it.
Welding on a shield lid for a loaded spent fuel storage
cask ignited hydrogen gas which had accumulated under the lid.
There was no apparent damage to the cask or the spent fuel, and
there were no injuries. The hydrogen was generated by an
unexpected chemical reaction between a zinc coating inside the
cask and boric acid in the water surrounding the fuel in the
cask.
The segment following the lunch break will cover possible
violations associated with four unrelated issues which were
identified in NRC inspections:
1. Viewing of training video tapes by reactor operators
while on duty in the plant's control room.
2. The adequacy of a safety review by the utility of the
minimum number of pumps required to be operable in the plant's
service water system which supplies cooling water to various
plant equipment. There are six pumps in the system. The
existing requirement called for a minimum of two pumps, and the
utility did not take adequate steps to increase the minimum
when it determined that three would be needed in some accident
conditions to provide adequate cooling for the reactor
containment.
3. Starting up Point Beach Unit 2 in April with a safety
system -- an auxiliary feedwater pump -- inoperable. The pump
provides water to the plant's steam generators when the main
feedwater pumps are not available. A valve had been left
closed following maintenance, and the utility did not conduct a
required post-maintenance test which would have found that the
valve remained closed.
4. The adequacy of testing of safety injection pumps
which are part of the emergency core cooling system at the
plant. The pumps are periodically tested to assure that they
provide the necessary cooling water flow. During testing in
1995 and early 1996 the utility determined that the pumps
provided the necessary flow even though the test results showed
lower flow rates. The reduced flow measurements were
attributed to inaccurate measuring devices. The devices were
recalibrated, and a correction factor was applied to the flow
measurements to bring them to the required level. However, the
pumps were not tested with the recalibrated instruments to
verify they met the flow requirement.
The decision to hold an 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 licensee an opportunity to point
out any errors that may have been made in the NRC inspection
report; and to enable the company to outline its proposed
corrective actions.
No decision on the apparent violations or any contemplated
enforcement action, such as a fine, will be made at this
conference. Those decisions will be made by senior NRC
officials at a later time.
# # # # #
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News releases are also available on the NRC's internet web site at the
address: http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/organization/opafuncdesc.html.
A listing of NRC staff meetings with licensees and other organization which
are open to the public is available through a computer online system (1-800/952-9676), the Fedworld online system (1-800/303-9672), and the NRC's
web site http://www.nrc.gov. A recorded listing of meetings may be heard
by calling 1-800/952-9674.
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