ML18341A025
| ML18341A025 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Palo Verde  |
| Issue date: | 12/03/2018 |
| From: | Thomas Farnholtz Region 4 Engineering Branch 1 |
| To: | Bement R Arizona Public Service Co |
| Farnholtz T | |
| References | |
| IR 2019011 | |
| Download: ML18341A025 (7) | |
See also: IR 05000528/2019011
Text
December 3, 2018
Mr. Robert S. Bement
Executive Vice President Nuclear/
Chief Nuclear Officer
Arizona Public Service Company
P.O. Box 52034, MS 7602
Phoenix, AZ 85072-2034
SUBJECT:
PALO VERDE NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION - NOTIFICATION OF NRC
DESIGN BASES ASSURANCE INSPECTION (TEAMS) (05000528/2019011,
05000529/2019011, AND 05000530/2019011) AND INITIAL REQUEST FOR
INFORMATION
Dear Mr. Bement:
On January 24, 2019, the NRC will begin a triennial baseline design bases assurance
inspection at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. A six person team will perform this
inspection using NRC Inspection Procedure (IP) 71111, Attachment 21M, Design Bases
Assurance Inspection (Teams).
The inspection focuses on the maintenance of the design bases and modifications made to
structures, systems, and components. The samples reviewed during this inspection will be
identified during an information gathering visit. In addition, a number of operating experience
issues will also be selected for review during the in-office preparation week.
The inspection will include an information gathering site visit by the team leader and 2 weeks of
onsite inspection by the team. The inspection will consist of three NRC inspectors and two NRC
contractors, who will focus on engineering, and one NRC inspector that will focus on operations.
The current inspection schedule is as follows:
Onsite Information Gathering Visit: January 24, 2019
Preparation Week: February 4-8, 2019
Onsite Weeks: February 11-15, 2019, and February 25, 2019 - March 1, 2019
The purpose of the information gathering visit is to meet with members of your staff to identify
potential risk-significant components and operator actions. The lead inspector will also request
a tour of the plant with members of your operations staff and probabilistic safety assessment
staff. During the onsite weeks, several days and administration will be needed on the plant-
referenced simulator in order to facilitate the development of operator action-based scenarios.
R. Bement
2
Additional information and documentation needed to support the inspection will be identified
during the inspection, including interviews with engineering managers, engineers, and
probabilistic safety assessment staff.
Our experience with these inspections has shown that they are extremely resource intensive,
both for the NRC inspectors and the licensee staff. In order to minimize the inspection impact
on the site and to ensure a productive inspection, we have enclosed a request for information
needed for the inspection. The request has been divided into two groups. The first group lists
information necessary for the information gathering visit and for general preparation. This
information should be available to the regional office no later than January 21, 2019, unless
otherwise stated. If possible, this information should be provided electronically to the lead
inspector. Since the inspection will be concentrated on high risk/low margin components and
modifications, calculations associated with your list of high risk components and modifications
should be available to review during the information gathering visit to assist in our selection of
components based on available design margin.
The second group of documents requested lists information necessary to aid the inspection
team in tracking issues identified as a result of the inspection. It is requested that this
information be provided to the lead inspector as the information is generated during the
inspection. An additional request will be made by the team during the preparation week once
the specific components and modifications have been selected. Additional requests by
inspectors will also be made throughout the onsite weeks for specific documents needed to
complete the review. It is important that all of these documents are up-to-date and complete in
order to minimize the number of additional documents requested during the preparation and/or
onsite portions of the inspection. In order to facilitate the inspection, we request that a contact
individual be assigned to each inspector to ensure information requests, questions, and
concerns are addressed in a timely manner.
The lead inspector for this inspection is Gerond A. George, Senior Reactor Inspector. We
understand that our licensing engineer contact for this inspection is Ms. L. Weaver. If there are
any questions about the inspection or the requested materials, please contact the lead inspector
by telephone at 817-200-1562 or by e-mail at Gerond.George@nrc.gov.
This letter does not contain new or amended information collection requirements subject
to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). Existing information
collection requirements were approved by the Office of Management and Budget, control
number 3150-0011. The NRC may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to
respond to, a request for information or an information collection requirement unless the
requesting document displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget control
number.
In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter will be
made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from
R. Bement
3
the Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of NRCs document system (ADAMS).
ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the
Public Electronic Reading Room).
Sincerely,
/RA/
Thomas R. Farnholtz, Chief
Engineering Branch 1
Division of Reactor Safety
Dockets: 50-528; 50-529; and 50-530
Licenses: NPF-41; NPF-51; and NPF-74
Enclosure: Design Bases Assurance
Inspection (Teams) Request for
Information
Enclosure
Initial Request for Information
Design Bases Assurance Inspection (Teams)
Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station
Inspection Reports:
05000528/2019011, 05000529/2019011, AND
EPID ID:
I-2019-011-0009
Information Gathering Dates:
January 24, 2019
Inspection Dates:
February 11, 2019, to March 1, 2019
Inspection Procedure:
IP 71111, Attachment 21M, Design Bases Assurance
Inspection (Teams)
Lead Inspector:
Gerond A. George, Senior Reactor Inspector
I.
Information Requested Prior to Information Gathering Visit (due January 21, 2019)
The following information (Section I of this enclosure) should be sent to the Region IV
office in hard copy or electronic format to the attention of Gerond A. George by
January 21, 2019, to facilitate the reduction in the items to be selected for a final list.
The inspection team will finalize the selected list during the preparation week. The
specific items selected from the lists shall be available and ready for review on the day
indicated in this request. *Please provide requested documentation electronically in
pdf files, Excel, or other searchable formats, if possible. The information should
contain descriptive names and be indexed and/or hyperlinked to facilitate ease of use.
Information in lists should contain enough information to be easily understood by
someone who has knowledge of pressurized water reactor technology. If requested
documents are large and only hard copy formats are available, please inform the
inspector and provide subject documentation during the first day of the onsite inspection.
1. An Excel spreadsheet of equipment basic events (with definitions), including
importance measures sorted by risk achievement worth and Fussell-Vesely from
your internal events probabilistic risk assessment. Include basic events with risk
achievement worth value of 1.3 or greater.
2. A list of the top 50 cut-sets from your PRA.
3. Copies of probabilistic risk assessment system notebooks and the latest
probabilistic risk assessment summary document.
4. An Excel spreadsheet of probabilistic risk assessment human action basic events or
risk ranking of operator actions from your site-specific PSA sorted by risk
achievement worth and Fussell-Vesely. Provide copies of your human reliability
worksheets for these items.
5. If you have an external events or fire PSA model, provide the information requested
in items 1-4 for external events and fire.
2
6. A list of high large early release frequency impact events and associated
components.
7. Structures, systems, and components in the Maintenance Rule (a)(1) category.
8. A list of high risk maintenance rule systems/components and functions; based on
engineering or expert panel judgment.
9. Site top 10 issues list, if available.
10. Any pre-existing list of components and associated calculations with low design
margins.
11. A list of operating experience evaluations for the last 3 years.
12. A list of all time-critical operator actions in procedures.
13. A list of current operator work arounds/burdens.
14. Procedures, including emergency and abnormal, used to accomplish operator
actions associated with the basic events credited in your PRA.
15. Lists of permanent and temporary modifications performed in the past 5 years to
structures, systems, and components sorted by component identified in Item 1.
16. List of root cause evaluations associated with component failures or design issues
initiated/completed in the last 5 years.
17. A list of any common-cause failures of components in the last 3 years.
18. A copy of any internal/external self-assessments and associated corrective action
documents generated in preparation for this inspection.
19. A copy of engineering/operations-related audits completed in the last 2 years.
20. Electronic copies of the Technical Specifications, Technical Specifications Bases,
and the Final Safety Analysis Report, as updated.
21. A copy of the Individual Plant Examination of External Events, if available
electronically.
22. One-line drawings of emergency core cooling system, ultimate heat sink, emergency
feedwater, safety-related electrical systems.
23. A copy of condition reports associated with inspection findings from the previous
NRC Inspection Procedure 71111.21 (or 71111.21 Attachment M inspection).
24. A list of licensee contacts for the inspection team with phone numbers.
25. A copy of the current management and engineering organizational charts.
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II.
Information Requested to be provided throughout the inspection.
1. Electronic copies of the design bases documents for selected components and
modifications.
2. Electronic copies of the system health notebooks for selected components and
modifications.
3. A list of the design calculations that provide the design margin information for
selected components.
4. Calculations and drawings associated with selected components.
5. Modification documentation associated with modifications selected from Item I.15,
this includes:
a. Post-modification testing, including performance characteristics affected,
assumptions, and acceptance criteria associated with modifications selected.
b. Updated maintenance and surveillance procedures associated with
modifications.
c. Updated operation procedures and training plans associated with the
modifications.
6. Copies of any corrective action documents generated as a result of the teams
questions or queries during this inspection.
7. Copies of the list of questions submitted by the team members and the
status/resolution of the information requested (provide daily during the inspection to
each team member).
Inspector Contact Information:
Gerond A. George
Senior Reactor Inspector
817-200-1562
Gerond.George@nrc.gov
Mailing Address:
U.S. NRC, Region IV
Attn: Gerond A. George
1600 East Lamar Blvd.
Arlington, TX 76011-4511
SUNSI Review:
ADAMS:
Non-Publicly Available
Non-Sensitive
Keyword:
By: GAG
Yes No
Publicly Available
Sensitive
OFFICE
SRI:EB1
C:EB1
NAME
GGeorge
TFarnholtz
SIGNATURE
/RA/
/RA/
DATE
11/27/2018
12/03/2018