ML060610443

(EOC) Annual Assessment Letter (Report 05000454/455/2006-001)

ML060610443
Person / Time
Site:	Byron
Issue date:	03/02/2006
From:	Richard Skokowski NRC/RGN-III/DRP/RPB3
To:	Crane C Exelon Generation Co, Exelon Nuclear
References
IR-06-001
Download: ML060610443 (7)

Text

March 2, 2006 Mr. Christopher M. Crane President and Chief Nuclear Officer Exelon Nuclear Exelon Generation Company, LLC 4300 Winfield Road Warrenville, IL 60555

SUBJECT:

ANNUAL ASSESSMENT LETTER AND INSPECTION PLAN - BYRON STATION, UNITS 1 AND 2 (05000454/2006001; 05000455/2006001)

Dear Mr. Crane:

On February 9, 2006, the NRC staff completed its performance review of Byron Station, Units 1 and 2. Our technical staff reviewed performance indicators (PIs) for the most recent quarter and inspection results for the period from January 1 through December 31, 2005. The purpose of this letter is to inform you of our assessment of your safety performance during this period and our plans for future inspections at your facility.

This performance review and enclosed inspection plan do not include physical protection information. A separate letter designated and marked as Exempt from Public Disclosure in accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 will include the physical protection review and resultant inspection plan.

Overall, Byron Station Units 1 and 2 operated in a manner that preserved public health and safety and fully met all cornerstone objectives. Plant performance for the most recent quarter, as well as for the first three quarters of the assessment cycle, was within the Licensee Response column of the NRCs Action Matrix, based on all inspection findings being classified as having very low safety significance (Green) and all PIs indicating performance at a level requiring no additional NRC oversight (Green). Therefore, we plan to conduct reactor oversight process baseline inspections at your facility.

In our mid-cycle assessment letter dated August 30, 2005, (ML052420448), we advised you of a substantive cross-cutting issue in the cross-cutting area of human performance involving weaknesses in personnel performance regarding procedure adherence. Since the mid-cycle assessment, there has been one new Green finding/violation where personnel performance was not adequate. Over the course of the assessment period, there was a total of six findings of very low safety significance where personnel performance was not adequate. Four of these findings were in the reactor safety strategic performance area (SPA): one in the initiating events cornerstone, one in the mitigating system cornerstone, and two in the barrier integrity cornerstone. The other two findings were in the radiation safety SPA, both in the occupational radiation safety cornerstone. We recognize that you have initiated actions to understand the reasons for these human performance errors; however, several of the related corrective actions were yet to be implemented as of the end of the assessment period. Therefore, there continues to be a substantive cross-cutting issue in the area of human performance.

C. Crane Based on this substantive cross-cutting issue, we plan on conducting an annual inspection sample using Inspection Procedure 71152, Identification and Resolution of Problems, to focus on human performance issues. The Inspection Procedure 71152 annual reviews will also be increased to the upper band to better assess personnel error reduction. In addition, the semiannual trend review of your corrective action program will assess your efforts to ensure effective reduction of personnel errors to avoid repeat events. These inspection samples will provide us with further assessment on plant performance in the area of human performance and enable us to determine whether the plant meets the criteria established in Inspection Manual Chapter 0305, Operating Reactor Assessment Program, Section 06.06i, for clearing this cross-cutting issue.

Furthermore, as a result of this substantive cross-cutting issue, we request that you provide an update of the issue during the upcoming annual public meeting. In addition, we request that you provide us a written response to the substantive cross-cutting issue raised in this letter, including your focused areas of concern, the status of the associated corrective action, and a current assessment of personnel performance. This response should be sent to the NRC within 30 days of the receipt of this letter.

Additionally, on October 27, 2005, the staff issued a Severity Level III Notice of Violation in accordance with the NRCs Enforcement Policy. The violation was associated with 27 ventilation/filtration-related technical specification surveillance tests that were falsified as complete by the system engineer. The failure to perform the Technical Specification-required surveillance tests and the falsification of these test records were determined to be a deliberate violation and were categorized collectively as a Severity Level III Violation (EA-05-0159).

The enclosed inspection plan details the inspections, less those related to physical protection scheduled through September 30, 2007. Significant inspections planned for this year include a Modifications/50.59 inspection in March 2006, and a Component Design Bases inspection in October 2006. The inspection plan is provided to allow for the resolution of any scheduling conflicts and personnel availability issues well in advance of inspector arrival onsite. Routine resident inspections are not listed due to their ongoing and continuous nature. The inspections in the last nine months of the inspection plan are tentative and may be revised at the mid-cycle review.

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRCs Rules of Practice, a copy of this letter and its enclosure will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of NRC's document system (ADAMS), accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room).

C. Crane If circumstances arise which cause us to change this inspection plan, we will contact you to discuss the change as soon as possible. Please contact me at (630) 829-9620 with any questions you may have regarding this letter or the inspection plan.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Richard A. Skokowski, Chief Reactor Projects Branch 3 Division of Reactor Projects Docket Nos. 50-454; 50-455 License Nos. NPF-37; NPF-66

Enclosure:

Byron Station Inspection/ Activity Plan DISTRIBUTION:

See next page

C. Crane If circumstances arise which cause us to change this inspection plan, we will contact you to discuss the change as soon as possible. Please contact me at (630) 829-9620 with any questions you may have regarding this letter or the inspection plan.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Richard A. Skokowski, Chief Reactor Projects Branch 3 Division of Reactor Projects Docket Nos. 50-454; 50-455 License Nos. NPF-37; NPF-66

Enclosure:

Byron Station Inspection/ Activity Plan DISTRIBUTION:

See next page DOCUMENT NAME:G:\Branch TSS\ALL EOC\EOC CY2005\EOC Letters For CY 2005\Byron.wpd G Publicly Available G Non-Publicly Available G Sensitive G Non-Sensitive To receive a copy of this document, indicate in the concurrence box "C" = Copy without attach/encl "E" = Copy with attach/encl "N" = No copy OFFICE RIII RIII RIII RIII NAME RSkokowski:sls DATE 03/01/2006 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY

C. Crane cc w/encl: Site Vice President - Byron Station Plant Manager - Byron Station Regulatory Assurance Manager - Byron Station Chief Operating Officer Senior Vice President - Nuclear Services Vice President - Mid-West Operations Support Vice President - Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Director Licensing Manager Licensing - Braidwood and Byron Senior Counsel, Nuclear Document Control Desk - Licensing Assistant Attorney General Illinois Emergency Management Agency State Liaison Officer, State of Illinois State Liaison Officer, State of Wisconsin Chairman, Illinois Commerce Commission B. Quigley, Byron Station President, Village of Leaf River President, Village of Davis Junction President, Village of Stillman Valley Ogle County Board Chairman Ogle County Sheriff/EMA Coordinator EMA Coordinator, Winnebago County Winnebago County Board Chair Winnebago County Sheriff/ESDA Mayor of Oregon Mayor of Byron President, Village of Mt. Morris Mayor of Rochelle INPO

C. Crane ADAMS Distribution:

GYS DWW JBH1 RidsNrrDirslpab JLC1 GEG KGO RML2 SRI Byron DRPIII DRSIII PLB1 JRK1 ROPreports@nrc.gov (inspection reports, final SDP letters, any letter with an IR number)

Page 1 of 1 Byron 03/01/2006 16:01:51 Inspection / Activity Plan Report 22 03/01/2006 - 09/30/2007 Unit No. of Staff Planned Dates Inspection Number Inspection Activity Title on Site Start End Type M50.59 - MOD 50.59 INSPECTION 2 1, 2 IP 7111102 Evaluation of Changes, Tests, or Experiments 03/06/2006 03/24/2006 Baseline Inspections 1, 2 IP 7111117B Permanent Plant Modifications 03/06/2006 03/24/2006 Baseline Inspections IP 71114 - EP NON-EXERCISE BASELINE INSP 1 1, 2 IP 7111402 Alert and Notification System Testing 03/13/2006 03/17/2006 Baseline Inspections 1, 2 IP 7111403 Emergency Response Organization Augmentation Testing 03/13/2006 03/17/2006 Baseline Inspections 1, 2 IP 7111405 Correction of Emergency Preparedness Weaknesses and Deficiencies 03/13/2006 03/17/2006 Baseline Inspections 1, 2 IP 71151 Performance Indicator Verification 03/13/2006 03/17/2006 Baseline Inspections FY 2006 - BYRON INIT PREP 05/2006 2 1 W90122 OL - INITIAL EXAM - BYRON - MAY/JUN 2006 05/22/2006 05/26/2006 Not Applicable ME - MAINTENANCE RULE INSPECTION 1 1 IP 7111112B Maintenance Effectiveness 06/12/2006 06/16/2006 Baseline Inspections FY 2006 - BYRON INIT EXAM 06/2006 3 1 W90122 OL - INITIAL EXAM - BYRON - MAY/JUN 2006 06/19/2006 06/30/2006 Not Applicable 71121.03 - RP INSTRUMENTATION 1 1, 2 IP 7112103 Radiation Monitoring Instrumentation and Protective Equipment 07/17/2006 07/21/2006 Baseline Inspections IP 71122 - RAD WASTE PROCESSING AND TRANSPORTATION 1 1, 2 IP 7112202 Radioactive Material Processing and Transportation 08/21/2006 08/25/2006 Baseline Inspections 1, 2 IP 71151 Performance Indicator Verification 08/21/2006 08/25/2006 Baseline Inspections ISI - BYRON UNIT 1 ISI INSPECTION 1 1 IP 7111108P Inservice Inspection Activities - PWR 09/11/2006 09/29/2006 Baseline Inspections 71121.02 - ALARA PLANNING (OUTAGE) 1 1 IP 7112102 ALARA Planning and Controls 09/11/2006 09/15/2006 Baseline Inspections CDBI - COMPONENT DESIGN BASES INSPECTION 6 1 IP 7111121 Component Design Bases Inspection 10/30/2006 12/01/2006 Baseline Inspections 71111.11 - LIC OPERATOR REQUAL PROGRAM EVALUATION 2 1, 2 IP 7111111B Licensed Operator Requalification Program 10/30/2006 11/03/2006 Baseline Inspections 71121.01 - ACCESS CONTROL 1 1, 2 IP 7112101 Access Control to Radiologically Significant Areas 02/12/2007 02/16/2007 Baseline Inspections HEATSINK - HEAT SINK INSPECTION 1 1, 2 IP 7111107B Heat Sink Performance 02/26/2007 03/02/2007 Baseline Inspections 71121.02 - ALARA - OUTAGE 1 1, 2 IP 7112102 ALARA Planning and Controls 04/02/2007 04/13/2007 Baseline Inspections This report does not include INPO and OUTAGE activities.

This report shows only on-site and announced inspection procedures.