Event Notification Report for February 16, 1999

                    U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
                              Operations Center

                              Event Reports For
                           02/12/1999 - 02/16/1999

                              ** EVENT NUMBERS **

35366  35367  35368  35369  35370  35371  

+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Other Nuclear Material                           |Event Number:   35366       |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| REP ORG:  U. S. ARMY (ACALA)                   |NOTIFICATION DATE: 02/12/1999|
|LICENSEE:  U. S. ARMY (ACALA)                   |NOTIFICATION TIME: 16:38[EST]|
|    CITY:  ROCK ISLAND              REGION:  3  |EVENT DATE:        02/10/1999|
|  COUNTY:                            STATE:  IL |EVENT TIME:             [CST]|
|LICENSE#:  12-00722-06           AGREEMENT:  Y  |LAST UPDATE DATE:  02/12/1999|
|  DOCKET:                                       |+----------------------------+
|                                                |PERSON          ORGANIZATION |
|                                                |GARY SHEAR           R3      |
|                                                |JOHN GREEVES         NMSS    |
+------------------------------------------------+                             |
| NRC NOTIFIED BY:  TIM MOHS                     |                             |
|  HQ OPS OFFICER:  FANGIE JONES                 |                             |
+------------------------------------------------+                             |
|EMERGENCY CLASS:          N/A                   |                             |
|10 CFR SECTION:                                 |                             |
|BAB1 20.2201(a)(1)(i)    LOST/STOLEN LNM>1000X  |                             |
|                                                |                             |
|                                                |                             |
|                                                |                             |
|                                                |                             |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

                                   EVENT TEXT                                   
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| LOST MUZZLE REFERENCE SENSOR                                                 |
|                                                                              |
| A unit stationed in Kuwait removed a foggy muzzle reference sensor (MRS)     |
| containing 10 curies of tritium.  The MRS was triple bagged and transported  |
| to headquarters for maintenance in a truck, which was used for transporting  |
| garbage to the dump before its removal at headquarters.  The MRS was         |
| apparently dumped with the garbage in a Kuwait dump.  A safety investigation |
| is underway.  Their reference number is 99-11.  The device is not considered |
| a hazard to personnel.                                                       |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Power Reactor                                    |Event Number:   35367       |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| FACILITY: THREE MILE ISLAND        REGION:  1  |NOTIFICATION DATE: 02/12/1999|
|    UNIT:  [1] [] []                 STATE:  PA |NOTIFICATION TIME: 18:11[EST]|
|   RXTYPE: [1] B&W-L-LP,[2] B&W-L-LP            |EVENT DATE:        02/12/1999|
+------------------------------------------------+EVENT TIME:        14:50[EST]|
| NRC NOTIFIED BY:  JOHN S. SCHORK               |LAST UPDATE DATE:  02/12/1999|
|  HQ OPS OFFICER:  FANGIE JONES                 +-----------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------+PERSON          ORGANIZATION |
|EMERGENCY CLASS:          N/A                   |LAURIE PELUSO        R1      |
|10 CFR SECTION:                                 |                             |
|AINC 50.72(b)(2)(iii)(C) POT UNCNTRL RAD REL    |                             |
|                                                |                             |
|                                                |                             |
|                                                |                             |
+-----+----------+-------+--------+-----------------+--------+-----------------+
|UNIT |SCRAM CODE|RX CRIT|INIT PWR|   INIT RX MODE  |CURR PWR|  CURR RX MODE   |
+-----+----------+-------+--------+-----------------+--------+-----------------+
|1     N          Y       100      Power Operation  |100      Power Operation  |
|                                                   |                          |
|                                                   |                          |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                                   EVENT TEXT                                   
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| CONTAINMENT AIR SAMPLING SYSTEM PLACED OUT OF SERVICE FOR EXCESSIVE LEAKAGE  |
|                                                                              |
| The licensee discovered that two automatic closure containment isolation     |
| valves (CM-V-1 and 3) on the containment air sampling system process lines   |
| have excessive leakage.  This was discovered as a result of maintenance      |
| troubleshooting of leakage found in the containment air sampling system      |
| during the annual containment atmosphere post-accident sampling system       |
| surveillance.  The redundant isolation valves have been closed, and the      |
| monitor can remain out of service for 72 hours with 8-hour grab samples      |
| being taken of containment atmosphere per Technical Specification 3.1.8.     |
| Work is underway to install a passive barrier (pipe cap) on the inside       |
| containment end of each process line, after which the associated valves will |
| be repaired.                                                                 |
|                                                                              |
| The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector.                            |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Power Reactor                                    |Event Number:   35368       |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| FACILITY: CRYSTAL RIVER            REGION:  2  |NOTIFICATION DATE: 02/12/1999|
|    UNIT:  [3] [] []                 STATE:  FL |NOTIFICATION TIME: 18:30[EST]|
|   RXTYPE: [3] B&W-L-LP                         |EVENT DATE:        02/12/1999|
+------------------------------------------------+EVENT TIME:        08:54[EST]|
| NRC NOTIFIED BY:  WILLIAM KISNER               |LAST UPDATE DATE:  02/12/1999|
|  HQ OPS OFFICER:  FANGIE JONES                 +-----------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------+PERSON          ORGANIZATION |
|EMERGENCY CLASS:          N/A                   |THOMAS DECKER        R2      |
|10 CFR SECTION:                                 |                             |
|APRE 50.72(b)(2)(vi)     OFFSITE NOTIFICATION   |                             |
|                                                |                             |
|                                                |                             |
|                                                |                             |
+-----+----------+-------+--------+-----------------+--------+-----------------+
|UNIT |SCRAM CODE|RX CRIT|INIT PWR|   INIT RX MODE  |CURR PWR|  CURR RX MODE   |
+-----+----------+-------+--------+-----------------+--------+-----------------+
|3     N          Y       98       Power Operation  |98       Power Operation  |
|                                                   |                          |
|                                                   |                          |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                                   EVENT TEXT                                   
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NOTIFIED THE STATE OF FLORIDA, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, OFFICE OF RADIATION     |
| CONTROL                                                                      |
|                                                                              |
| The State of Florida, Department of Health, Office of Radiation Control was  |
| notified of the following event.                                             |
|                                                                              |
| An individual departing alarmed the portal monitor.  Upon investigation it   |
| was discovered that the individual's jacket contained a "hot particle."  The |
| individual is a French national working on site on the Appendix R (Mecatiss) |
| project.  The individual was aware of the contamination and had exited       |
| French nuclear plant(s) with out any questions.  The particle was removed    |
| and the jacket returned.  The particle was determined to be Co-60 and reads  |
| 450,000 dpm by direct frisk with an RM-25 meter with standard pancake probe. |
| The Beta reading was 8 millirem per hour, open window, with an RO-20 survey  |
| instrument.  This has been determined to be reportable under                 |
| 10CFR20.2203(a)(3)(ii), and a 30 day written report will be issued.          |
|                                                                              |
| The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector and Region 2 Division of    |
| Reactor Safety (Bruce Mallett).                                              |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|General Information or Other                     |Event Number:   35369       |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| REP ORG:  COLTEC INDUSTRIES                    |NOTIFICATION DATE: 02/15/1999|
|LICENSEE:  SYNCHRO-START CORPORATION            |NOTIFICATION TIME: 15:26[EST]|
|    CITY:  BELOIT                   REGION:  3  |EVENT DATE:        01/20/1999|
|  COUNTY:                            STATE:  WI |EVENT TIME:             [CST]|
|LICENSE#:                        AGREEMENT:  N  |LAST UPDATE DATE:  02/15/1999|
|  DOCKET:                                       |+----------------------------+
|                                                |PERSON          ORGANIZATION |
|                                                |GARY SHEAR           R3      |
|                                                |LAURIE PELUSO        R1      |
+------------------------------------------------+THOMAS DECKER        R2      |
| NRC NOTIFIED BY:  JAMES C. GOLDING             |JOHN PELLET          R4      |
|  HQ OPS OFFICER:  LEIGH TROCINE                |VERN HODGE           NRR     |
+------------------------------------------------+                             |
|EMERGENCY CLASS:          N/A                   |                             |
|10 CFR SECTION:                                 |                             |
|CCCC 21.21               UNSPECIFIED PARAGRAPH  |                             |
|                                                |                             |
|                                                |                             |
|                                                |                             |
|                                                |                             |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

                                   EVENT TEXT                                   
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 10-CFR-PART-21 NOTIFICATION FROM COLTEC INDUSTRIES, FAIRBANKS MORSE ENGINE   |
| DIVISION, REGARDING SYNCHRO-START -- ESSB-4AT SPEED SWITCHES, MODEL SA2110   |
|                                                                              |
| The following text is a portion of a facsimile received from the Coltec      |
| Industries:                                                                  |
|                                                                              |
| "On January 20, 1999, Coltec Industries, Fairbanks Engine Division (FMED),   |
| became aware of a potential safety hazard associated with the Synchro-Start  |
| -- ESSB-4AT speed switches supplied to PSE&G -- Hope Creek Nuclear Power     |
| Station.  FMED had supplied four Synchro-Start ESSB-4AT Model-SA2110 speed   |
| switches to Hope Creek in late 1997 and early 1998, which malfunctioned      |
| after approximately 70 hours of energization.  Hope Creek had previously     |
| evaluated the failures as not being a substantial safety hazard.             |
|                                                                              |
| "In the ... root cause investigation, FMED evaluated the starting circuitry  |
| and confirms that this is not a substantial safety hazard at Hope Creek due  |
| to redundant circuitry.  However, the investigation revealed that it is      |
| likely that one more ESSB-4AT Model-SA2 110 speed switch manufactured by     |
| Synchro-Start may have been supplied to the nuclear industry or non-nuclear  |
| application by a supplier other than Coltec Industries. The list of possible |
| recipients of the suspect speed switch are:  Wolf Creek Nuclear, Engine      |
| Systems Inc, Florida Keys Electric, Interstate Power Company, Rolls Royce,   |
| and Traycanna.  Therefore, notification is being made of the potential       |
| substantial safety hazard that might exist at other nuclear facilities that  |
| have purchased an ESSB-4AT speed switch in late 1997 and early 1998.         |
|                                                                              |
| "The Engineering Report also determined the root cause of the speed switch   |
| failures to be personnel error at Synchro-Start.  A personnel error was made |
| by picking the wrong current limiting resistor from stock for installation   |
| into the speed switch power supply circuit card.  Corrective actions have    |
| been taken by Synchro-Start to prevent recurrence including moving the stock |
| location of the resistors, retraining personnel, and changing procedures to  |
| verify proper resistor during bench testing.                                 |
|                                                                              |
| The Engineering Report from Coltec Industries also stated, "While the        |
| degradation described in the Part 21... pertains only to PSE&G at Hope Creek |
| and the ESSB-4AT speed switch, Coltec Engineering has also evaluated the     |
| applicability to other power stations that use a similar speed switch, such  |
| as models ESSB-2AT and --3AT, in a similar circuit arrangement.  These other |
| models of speed switch would also use the same internal power supply.        |
| Coltec identifies the power stations listed below.  It should be noted that  |
| Hope Creek is the only installation that employs the ESSB-4AT for speed      |
| switch requirements.  Coltec has not been notified of any other speed switch |
| degradations at any of the other nuclear power stations; Hope Creek is the   |
| only instance.                                                               |
|                                                                              |
| "Alabama Power--Farley                                                       |
| Entergy--Arkansas Nuclear One                                                |
| Georgia Power--Hatch I                                                       |
| Detroit Edison--Fermi 2                                                      |
| Northeast Utilities--Millstone 3                                             |
| Public Service New Hampshire--Seabrook                                       |
| Angra Brazil                                                                 |
| Duquesne Light--Beaver Valley                                                |
| SCE&G--V C Summer                                                            |
| PECO--Limerick                                                               |
| Union Electric--Callaway                                                     |
| Kansas Gas and Electric--Wolf Creek                                          |
| PSE&G--Hope Creek                                                            |
|                                                                              |
| "Coltec Engineering has also reviewed the starting circuitry for the above   |
| mentioned power stations.  All of the above stations have the similar        |
| redundant starting circuitry found at Hope Creek with four exceptions.  The  |
| four exceptions are Alabama Power, Detroit Edison, Northeast Utilities, and  |
| Angra Brazil.  At these four plants, if the installed speed switch should    |
| fail, the diesel would then fail to start, because of the failed speed       |
| switch, and not perform its intended design function.  At this time, there   |
| is no substantive safety hazard because none of these plants have received   |
| any suspect speed switches.                                                  |
|                                                                              |
| "Therefore, this investigation and finding at Hope Creek is not considered a |
| substantial safety hazard as defined by [10 CFR] Part 21.  This is due to    |
| the redundancy in the starting circuitry.  However, since there may be one   |
| remaining speed switch with an improper internal power supply, there may be  |
| a safety hazard depending on the configuration of the starting circuitry and |
| the incorporation of redundancy at that site."                               |
|                                                                              |
| (Call the NRC operations officer for a contact address and telephone         |
| number.)                                                                     |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Power Reactor                                    |Event Number:   35370       |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| FACILITY: MONTICELLO               REGION:  3  |NOTIFICATION DATE: 02/15/1999|
|    UNIT:  [1] [] []                 STATE:  MN |NOTIFICATION TIME: 16:58[EST]|
|   RXTYPE: [1] GE-3                             |EVENT DATE:        02/15/1999|
+------------------------------------------------+EVENT TIME:        15:19[CST]|
| NRC NOTIFIED BY:  JIM McKAY                    |LAST UPDATE DATE:  02/15/1999|
|  HQ OPS OFFICER:  LEIGH TROCINE                +-----------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------+PERSON          ORGANIZATION |
|EMERGENCY CLASS:          N/A                   |GARY SHEAR           R3      |
|10 CFR SECTION:                                 |                             |
|AESF 50.72(b)(2)(ii)     ESF ACTUATION          |                             |
|NLCO                     TECH SPEC LCO A/S      |                             |
|                                                |                             |
|                                                |                             |
+-----+----------+-------+--------+-----------------+--------+-----------------+
|UNIT |SCRAM CODE|RX CRIT|INIT PWR|   INIT RX MODE  |CURR PWR|  CURR RX MODE   |
+-----+----------+-------+--------+-----------------+--------+-----------------+
|1     N          Y       100      Power Operation  |100      Power Operation  |
|                                                   |                          |
|                                                   |                          |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                                   EVENT TEXT                                   
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| HIGH PRESSURE COOLANT INJECTION (HPCI) GROUP IV ISOLATION DURING TESTING     |
|                                                                              |
| During a quarterly HPCI test run, a Group IV high steam flow isolation was   |
| received.  The cause of the high steam flow isolation is under               |
| investigation.                                                               |
|                                                                              |
| The licensee stated that the isolation had not yet been reset and that all   |
| other emergency core cooling systems are operable and available if needed.   |
| The unit is currently in a 14-day limiting condition for operation because   |
| HPCI is out of service.                                                      |
|                                                                              |
| The licensee notified the NRC resident inspector.                            |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Power Reactor                                    |Event Number:   35371       |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| FACILITY: BRUNSWICK                REGION:  2  |NOTIFICATION DATE: 02/15/1999|
|    UNIT:  [1] [] []                 STATE:  NC |NOTIFICATION TIME: 22:33[EST]|
|   RXTYPE: [1] GE-4,[2] GE-4                    |EVENT DATE:        02/15/1999|
+------------------------------------------------+EVENT TIME:        21:45[EST]|
| NRC NOTIFIED BY:  GARY CLEMENTS                |LAST UPDATE DATE:  02/15/1999|
|  HQ OPS OFFICER:  LEIGH TROCINE                +-----------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------+PERSON          ORGANIZATION |
|EMERGENCY CLASS:          N/A                   |THOMAS DECKER        R2      |
|10 CFR SECTION:                                 |                             |
|AUNA 50.72(b)(1)(ii)(A)  UNANALYZED COND OP     |                             |
|NLCO                     TECH SPEC LCO A/S      |                             |
|                                                |                             |
|                                                |                             |
+-----+----------+-------+--------+-----------------+--------+-----------------+
|UNIT |SCRAM CODE|RX CRIT|INIT PWR|   INIT RX MODE  |CURR PWR|  CURR RX MODE   |
+-----+----------+-------+--------+-----------------+--------+-----------------+
|1     N          Y       100      Power Operation  |100      Power Operation  |
|                                                   |                          |
|                                                   |                          |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                                   EVENT TEXT                                   
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DISCOVERY THAT UNIT 1 FUELING WATER STORAGE TANK (FWST) CHANNEL 3 WAS NOT    |
| PLACED IN BYPASS WITHIN 6 HOURS OF BECOMING INOPERABLE                       |
|                                                                              |
| FWST Channel 3 was tripped shortly after 0800 today to facilitate a          |
| modification to change out a transmitter.  With this channel removed from    |
| service, plant technical specifications require the licensee to place the    |
| channel in bypass within 6 hours.  At 2145, it was discovered that the       |
| channel had not been placed in bypass within 6 hours of becoming inoperable, |
| and the unit entered Technical Specification 3.0.3.  The channel was         |
| successfully placed in bypass within 2 minutes, and Technical Specification  |
| 3.0.3 was exited at 2147.                                                    |
|                                                                              |
| The licensee plans to notify the NRC resident inspector                      |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+


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