Headquarters Daily report OCTOBER 14, 1994 *************************************************************************** REPORT NEGATIVE NO INPUT ATTACHED INPUT RECEIVED RECEIVED HEADQUARTERS X REGION I X REGION II X REGION III X REGION IV X *************************************************************************** PRIORITY ATTENTION REQUIRED MORNING REPORT - REGION II OCTOBER 14, 1994 Licensee/Facility: Notification: Babcock & Wilcox Co. MR Number: 2-94-0086 Babcock & Wilcox Co. Date: 10/11/94 Lynchburg,Virginia Notification of Sr. Resident Insper Dockets: 07000824 License No: SNM-778 URANIUM FUEL R&D AND PILOT PLANTS Subject: EARLY SHUTDOWN OF URANIUM RECOVERY FACILITY Reportable Event Number: N/A Discussion: The licensee informed NRC Region II on October 11 that the plant manager directed that the Uranium Recovery Facility initiate a phased shutdown starting on October 11, three days earlier than had been scheduled for inventory. (The licensee completed the shutdown today, October 14.) This was based on the findings of the licensee's generic review of previous nuclear criticality safety incidents. The review indicated operators were not adhering to written procedures and had not identified procedure deficiencies to supervision, as was management's expectation. During the shutdown, the licensee plans to review and revise identified procedure inadequacies, walk down the systems and determine if there are other deficiencies, and retrain operators with emphasis on procedure adherence. This is scheduled to be done so operations can be resumed when inventory is completed. Current schedule for completion of inventory is the end of October. Regional Action: This information was discussed with ONMSS. The Sr. Resident Inspector will observe the licensee's actions and training of workers. A meeting will be held with the licensee for him to present the findings of the generic review and resulting corrective actions. Contact: G.L. Troup (404)331-5566 M.P. Elliott (804)847-7408 PRIORITY ATTENTION REQUIRED MORNING REPORT - REGION III OCTOBER 14, 1994 Licensee/Facility: Notification: Commonwealth Edison Co. MR Number: 3-94-0183 Byron 1 Date: 10/14/94 Byron,Illinois E-MAIL Dockets: 50-454 PWR/W-4-LP Subject: BOTH EMERGENCY DIESEL GENERATORS INOPERABLE DURING REFUELING OUTAGE Reportable Event Number: N/A Discussion: Unit 1 is currently in a refueling outage which commenced September 8, 1994. Due to an operator mistake, neither of the emergency diesel generators were capable of automatically sequencing loads onto the diesel generator in the event of a loss of offsite power, for over two weeks, contrary to the technical specification requirements for Modes 5 and 6. (One of the diesel generators would have automatically started as required, however.) On September 14, 1994, the 1A emergency diesel generator (EDG) was out of service for its planned 10 year inspection. The 1B EDG was therefore required to be operable per the technical specifications for modes 5 and 6. At 8:30 p.m. (CST), on September 14, the sequencing cabinet (1PA14J) for the 1B EDG was taken out of service for electrical preventive maintenance. 1PA14J has an associated bus undervoltage relay which initiates the bus safe shutdown load sequencer and auto start of the EDG. This maintenance made both EDGs inoperable. The technical specifications require immediate corrective action to restore one of the EDGs to operable status; however, this condition was mistakenly allowed to continue for over two weeks. On October 13, the licensee informed the NRC resident inspector of this issue and noted that a LER will be issued. Regional Action: The inspectors are evaluating the licensee's actions in this event. The inspectors are also investigating the possibility of occurrences during previous outages. Contact: L. F. MILLER JR (708)829-9629 PRIORITY ATTENTION REQUIRED MORNING REPORT - REGION IV OCTOBER 14, 1994 Licensee/Facility: Notification: Entergy Operations, Inc. MR Number: 4-94-0120 River Bend 1 Date: 10/14/94 St Francisville,Louisiana Senior Resident Inspector Dockets: 50-458 BWR/GE-6 Subject: CRACKS FOUND ON CONTROL ROD DRIVE PIPING (UPDATE) Reportable Event Number: 27892 Discussion: On October 10, 1994, while performing a prestartup walkdown of the drywell, the operators found a hairline longitudinal crack in control rod drive (CRD) 44-33 insert piping. The crack was weeping water from the CRD system. At the time, the plant was in cold shutdown, near the end of a 32-day forced outage. The CRD piping is 304 stainless steel, schedule 80 pipe. There was a brown substance on this, and 15 adjacent withdraw and insert pipes, which was analyzed to contain about 75 percent chlorides. The licensee found a discontinuous throughwall crack of up to 1 1/2 inch on the pipe and replaced it. Using dye penetrant and ultrasonic testing, cracks were found in the piping wall on seven of the adjacent pipes where the brown substance was deposited, and they will be replaced. They found no indications on the other eight pipes where the brown substance was deposited. The substance was removed. The licensee stated that trans-granular stress corrosion cracking has occurred on these pipes, caused by the presence of the brown substance. As of yet, they have not determined the source of the substance nor how long it has been present. The substance appears to be isolated to one bundle of pipes, as if something was spilled from above. The licensee checked the reactor recirculation loop pipe below and found none of the substance; however, a 3/4 inch stainless steel reactor vessel variable leg level instrument line had some of the substance on it and had cracks. That section of piping will be replaced. Regional Action: Routine followup by the resident inspectors. Contact: C. A. VanDenburgh (817)860-8161