Unplanned Reactor Shutdowns Bring More NRC Inspections at Indian Point

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission completed its performance review of Indian Point -- and downgraded Unit 3's status from green to white for one performance indicator.

The problem is the recent unplanned "scrams' -- sudden shutdown of the reactor, whether manual or automatic -- in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The NRC plans to schedule and conduct a supplemental inspection, focused on ensuring that the root causes and contributing causes of the performance issue are understood, the extent of condition and are identified, and the corrective actions are sufficient to prevent recurrence, said Michael L. Scott, head of the NRC's Division of Reactor Projects, in a letter to Larry Coyle, Site Vice President, Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. at Indian Point.

Here's the whole letter:

Dear Mr. Coyle:

On February 10, 2016, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) completed its end-of-cycle performance review of Indian Point Nuclear Generating (Indian Point), Units 2 and 3. The NRC reviewed the most recent quarterly performance indicators (PIs) in addition to inspection results and enforcement actions from January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2015. This letter informs you of the NRC’s assessment of your facility during this period and its plans for future inspections at your facility.

The NRC determined the performance at Indian Point Unit 2 during the most recent quarter was within the Licensee Response Column of the NRC’s Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) Action Matrix in Inspection Manual Chapter 0305, “Operating Reactor Assessment Program,” because all inspection findings had very low (i.e., Green) safety significance, and all PIs indicated that your performance was within the nominal, expected range (i.e., Green). The NRC determined the performance at Indian Point Unit 3 during the most recent quarter was within the Regulatory Response Column of the NRC’s ROP Action Matrix, because all inspection findings had very low safety significance (i.e., Green), and one PI was of low to moderate safety significance (i.e., White) in the Initiating Events cornerstone. Specifically, the “Unplanned Scrams per 7000 Critical Hours” PI exceeded the Green/White threshold in the fourth quarter of the assessment period. Therefore, in addition to ROP baseline inspections, the NRC plans to schedule and conduct a supplemental inspection in accordance with Inspection Procedure (IP) 95001, “Supplemental Inspection for One or Two White Inputs in a Strategic Performance Area,” upon notification of your readiness. The inspection will be focused on ensuring that the root causes and contributing causes of the performance issue are understood, the extent of condition and are identified, and the corrective actions are sufficient to prevent recurrence.

The enclosed inspection plan lists the inspections scheduled through December 31, 2017.

Routine inspections performed by resident inspectors are not included in the inspection plan. In addition to baseline inspections, the NRC will conduct IP 60845, “Operation of Inter-Unit Fuel Transfer Canister and Cask System,” and IP 60855.1, “Operation of an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation at Operating Plants.” The NRC provides the inspection plan to allow for the resolution of any scheduling conflicts and personnel availability issues. The NRC will contact you as soon as possible to discuss changes to the inspection plan should circumstances warrant any changes. This inspection plan does not include security-related inspections, which will be sent via separate, non-publicly available correspondence.

In response to the accident at Fukushima, the Commission issued Order EA-12-049, “Order Modifying Licenses with Regard to Requirements for Mitigation Strategies for Beyond-Design-Basis External Events.” This Order requires licensees to develop, implement, and maintain guidance and strategies to maintain or restore core cooling, containment, and spent fuel pool cooling capabilities following a beyond-design-basis external event. Additionally, the Commission issued Order EA-12-051, “Order Modifying Licenses with Regard to Reliable Spent Fuel Pool Instrumentation.” This Order requires licensees to have a reliable means of remotely monitoring wide-range spent fuel pool levels to support effective prioritization of event mitigation and recovery actions in the event of a beyond-design-basis external event. The NRC is conducting audits of licensee efforts towards compliance with these Orders. The audits were conducted during the weeks of November 30, 2015, and October 27, 2014, for Indian Point Units 2 and 3, respectively, and the information gathered will aid staff in development of the Final Safety Evaluation for the site. After the NRC staff receives the Final Compliance letter for the site, the Final Safety Evaluation will be issued. Then, the NRC staff will confirm through inspections the full implementation of the orders mentioned above by performing Temporary Instruction 2515-191, “Inspection of the Implementation of Mitigating Strategies and Spent Fuel Pool Instrumentation Orders and Emergency Preparedness Communications/Staffing/Multi-Unit Dose Assessment Plans.” The schedule for this inspection at Indian Point is shown in the Enclosure.

In accordance with Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 2.390 of the NRC’s “Rules of Practice,” a copy of this letter will be available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the Publicly Available Records component of NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room).

Please contact Mr. Glenn Dentel at 610-337-5233 with any questions you have regarding this letter.

Sincerely,

Michael L. Scott, Director

Division of Reactor Projects