| U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Operations Center Event Reports For
10/11/2006 - 10/12/2006 ** EVENT NUMBERS ** |
 | Fuel Cycle Facility | Event Number: 42165 | Facility: PADUCAH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT
RX Type: URANIUM ENRICHMENT FACILITY
Comments: 2 DEMOCRACY CENTER
6903 ROCKLEDGE DRIVE
BETHESDA, MD 20817 (301)564-3200
Region: 2
City: PADUCAH State: KY
County: McCRACKEN
License #: GDP-1
Agreement: Y
Docket: 0707001
NRC Notified By: KEVIN BEASLEY
HQ OPS Officer: BILL HUFFMAN | Notification Date: 11/22/2005
Notification Time: 15:54 [ET]
Event Date: 11/22/2005
Event Time: 12:05 [CST]
Last Update Date: 10/11/2006 | Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
RESPONSE-BULLETIN
| Person (Organization):
KERRY LANDIS (R2)
SCOTT FLANDERS (NMSS)
| Event Text IMPROPER CRITICALITY SPACING FOR WASTE DRUM
"At 1205 CST, on 11-22-05 the Plant Shift Superintendent was notified that during waste drum remediation activities, a drum was discovered that was in violation of one leg of double contingency. Drum #39666W has been determined to contain up to (deleted) g (grams) U235 exceeding the allowed (deleted) gram limit for NCS Spacing Exempt drums. This drum was previously located in an NCS (Nuclear Criticality Safety) Spacing Exempt storage area in violation of NCSA WMO-001 requirements. The drum was moved to the C-335 storage area under an approved Remediation Guide which established a safety basis for the movement of drums that had been roped off and posted per earlier direction. This drum is currently stored in a Temporary Fissile Storage Area maintaining a minimum 2 foot edge-to-edge spacing under NCSA WMO-001, which maintains double contingency."
SAFETY SIGNIFICANCE OF EVENTS
"While the (deleted) gram U235 limit was exceeded for this drum; DAC-832-2A1280-0001 demonstrates that drums containing less than (deleted) grams U235 in an NCS Spacing Exempt array are subcritical. The storage area is roped off and posted to prevent the addition of fissile material to the area; therefore another upset would be required before a criticality is possible."
POTENTIAL CRITICALITY PATHWAYS INVOLVED (BRIEF SCENARIO(S) OF HOW CRITICALITY COULD OCCUR)
"This drum is currently stored in the Temporary Fissile Storage Area under NCSA WMO-001, meeting double contingency. In order for a criticality to occur, two independent, unlikely, and concurrent events would have to occur."
CONTROLLED PARAMETERS (MASS, MODERATION, GEOMETRY, CONCENTRATION, ETC.)
"Double contingency is maintained by implementing two controls on mass."
ESTIMATED AMOUNT, ENRICHMENT, FORM OF LICENSED MATERIAL (INCLUDE PROCESS LIMIT AND % WORST CASE CRITICAL MASS)
"The drum has been determined to contain (deleted) grams U235. Calculations performed demonstrate that drums containing less than (deleted) grams U235 each, in an NCS Spacing Exempt array are subcritical."
NUCLEAR CRITICALITY SAFETY CONTROL(S) OR CONTROL SYSTEM(S) AND DESCRIPTION OF THE FAILURES OR DEFICIENCIES
"Although the drum contains greater than the WMO-001 limit of (deleted) grams U235 for NCS Spacing Exempt drums, it has been shown to be less than (deleted) grams U235 based on independent sample results. Calculations performed demonstrate that drums containing less than (deleted) grams U235 each, in an NCS Spacing Exempt array, are subcritical. Therefore, an additional process upset (i.e., spacing upset) would be necessary in order to have a criticality. Therefore, while the drum contained greater than (deleted) grams U235 in the spacing exempt array, the array has been shown to be subcritical for drums containing less than (deleted) grams U235 thus maintaining one leg of double contingency."
CORRECTIVE ACTIONS TO RESTORE SAFETY SYSTEMS AND WHEN EACH WAS IMPLEMENTED
"At the time of discovery, the drum was being stored according to NCS approved spacing controls. The drum will continue to be handled according to approved controls until the U235 mass can be reduced to meet the NCS Spacing Exempt criteria per NCSA WMO-001.
The NRC Senior Resident Inspector has been notified of this event."
See Related Event Report #40700.
* * * UPDATE 1802 EST ON 2/13/06 FROM K. BEASLEY TO S. SANDIN * * *
"At 1100 [CST], on 02-13-06 the Plant Shift Superintendent was notified that two additional waste drums were discovered that exceed the allowed [deleted] gram limit for NCS Spacing Exempt drums and had previously been located in an NCS Spacing Exempt storage area in violation of NCSA WMO-001. The drums are currently stored in a Temporary Fissile Storage Area under NCSA WMO-001, which maintains double contingency.
"The NRC Senior Resident Inspector has been notified of this event."
Notified R2DO(Ayres) and NMSS (Camper).
* * * UPDATE ON 3/20/06 AT 1859 EST FROM B. WALLACE TO HUFFMAN * * *
"At 1430, on 03-20-06, the Plant Shift Superintendent was notified that an additional waste drum has been discovered that exceeds the allowed (deleted) gram limit for NCS Spacing Exempt drums and had previously been located in an NCS Spacing Exempt storage area in violation of NCSA WMO-001. The drums are currently stored in a Temporary Fissile Storage Area under NCSA WMO-001, which maintains double contingency.
"The additional drum was determined to contain (deleted) grams U235. Calculations performed demonstrate that drums containing less than (deleted) grams U235 each, in an NCS Spacing Exempt array are subcritical."
The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector. R2DO (Ernstes) and NMSS EO (Pierson) notified.
* * * UPDATE ON 4/20/06 AT 1750 EDT FROM B. WALLACE TO HUFFMAN * * *
" At 1130, on 04-20-06 the Plant Shift Superintendent was notified that an additional waste drum has been discovered that exceeds the allowed (deleted) gram limit for NCS Spacing Exempt drums and had previously been located in an NCS Spacing Exempt storage area in violation of NCSA WMO-001. The drums are currently stored in a Temporary Fissile Storage Area under NCSA WMO-001, which maintains double contingency.
"The additional drum (#41663) was determined to contain (deleted) grams of U235."
The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector. R2DO (Lesser) and NMSS EO (Janosko) notified.
* * * UPDATE ON 4/21/06 AT 2040 EDT FROM WALKER TO HUFFMAN * * *
"At 1333, on 4-21-06 the Plant Shift Superintendent was notified that seven additional waste drums had been discovered that exceed the allowed (deleted) gram limit for NCS Spacing Exempt drums and had previously been located in an NCS Spacing Exempt storage area in violation of NCSA WMO-001. The drums are currently stored in a Temporary Fissile Storage Area under NCSA WMO-001, which maintains double contingency.
"Seven additional drums (41160W,41161W,41162W,41158W,41159W,40605W.41681W) were determined to contain in excess of the (deleted) gram limit of U235 but less than the (deleted) gram safety limit."
The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector. R2DO (Lesser) and NMSS EO (Janosko) notified.
* * * UPDATE ON 4/28/06 AT 1802 EDT FROM WALKER TO A. COSTA * * *
"At 1430, on 04-28-06 the Plant Shift Superintendent was notified that an additional waste drum has been discovered that exceeds the allowed [DELETED] gram limit for NCS Spacing Exempt drums and had previously been located in an NCS Spacing Exempt storage area in violation of NCSA WMO-001. The drum is currently stored in a Temporary Fissile Storage Area under NCSA WMO-001, which maintains double contingency.
"[This] one additional drum, # 43170W was determined to contain in excess of the [DELETED] gram limit of U235 but less than the [DELETED] gram safety limit."
The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector. Notified R2DO (Landis) and NMSS EO (Giitter).
* * * UPDATE ON 10/11/06 AT 1551 EDT FROM WALLACE TO HUFFMAN * * *
At 0900, on 10-11-06 the Plant Shift Superintendent was notified that an additional waste drum (#41470W) has been discovered that exceeds the allowed limit (but less than the safety limit) for NCS Spacing Exempt drums and had previously been located in an NCS Spacing Exempt storage area in violation of NCSA WMO-001. The drum is currently stored in a Temporary Fissile Storage Area under NCSA WMO-001, which maintains double contingency.
The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector. Notified R2DO (Decker) and NMSS EO (Essig). |
| General Information or Other | Event Number: 42891 | Rep Org: CALIFORNIA RADIATION CONTROL PRGM
Licensee: SCHLUMBERGER INC.
Region: 4
City: State: CA
County: KERN
License #: 0144-15
Agreement: Y
Docket:
NRC Notified By: BARBARA HAMRICK
HQ OPS Officer: PETE SNYDER | Notification Date: 10/08/2006
Notification Time: 15:00 [ET]
Event Date: 10/07/2006
Event Time: 09:30 [PDT]
Last Update Date: 10/08/2006 | Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
AGREEMENT STATE
| Person (Organization):
GREG PICK (R4)
LAWRENCE KOKAJKO (NMSS)
| Event Text AGREEMENT STATE REPORT - WELL LOGGING SOURCE DAMAGED
The NRC received the following information from the State of California via e-mail:
"At about 945 am October 6, 2006, [Deleted] from Schlumberger's Houston office contacted the RHB South ICE RM office to notify RHB that a well-logging tool with two sources (1.7 Ci Cs-137 and 16 Ci Am-Be) had become stuck the day before yesterday near the bottom of the hole. They worked over the last two days, 'fishing' for the sources, and recovered the Am-Be source when the tool broke. Neither of the sources have been compromised. They have not yet determined that the remaining source must be abandoned, but expect to make that determination over the weekend, and requested approval to abandon it, if additional retrieval attempts fail. Approval was granted, and Schlumberger was provided an emergency contact number to provide information over the weekend, if any health and safety concerns arise (e.g., if the source is compromised). The well is in Kern Co., CA at Chevron USA, well no. Amber 235 in the Midway-Sunset Field (Section 26, Township 31-S, Range 22-E).
"At 9:30 PDT on October 7, 2006, [Deleted] called again to report that they had reason to believe the Cesium-137 source had ruptured down-hole. Chevron had commenced a cut and thread fishing operation for the stuck logging tool late Wednesday evening, October 4th. On the first trip into the hole the logging tool was engaged into the grapple, when the rig started to pull out of the hole the drill pipe was stuck, the drill pipe would not move up or down. The decision was made to gently reverse rotate the pipe in an attempt to free the logging tool from the grapple. Once the tool was released from the grapple, the drill pipe was pulled out of the hole and the fishing assembly removed and replaced with wash over pipe. During the second trip in the hole with the wash over pipe the tool was engaged and part of the tool came out of the hole. This part of the tool contained the 592 GBq Am241Be source. The 63 GBq Cs-137 source remained down hole in another tool. Several more trips were made with the wash over pipe in an attempt to recover the remaining tools. It was during an attempt with the wash over pipe when Schlumberger personnel who were monitoring the mud returns notice a substantial increase on their survey meter from 0.4 mrem/hr to 7.0 mrem/hr. Since an increase such as this could indicate a potentially ruptured source all operations and circulation were immediately stopped with all personnel removed from the rig and the immediate area.
"At this time the area around the rig, mud pit and shale shaker were cordoned off. Schlumberger personnel are conducting further surveys of all personnel and the area at this time. RHB is continuing to follow up with the licensee on this."
The state also reported that Schlumberger is sending additional people to the site to conduct further surveys and determine their future course of action. The state was notified of the event on 10/7/06 at 2130.
CA Report Number: 100706 |
| Power Reactor | Event Number: 42896 | Facility: FT CALHOUN
Region: 4 State: NE
Unit: [1] [ ] [ ]
RX Type: [1] CE
NRC Notified By: KEVIN R. BOSTON
HQ OPS Officer: MARK ABRAMOVITZ | Notification Date: 10/10/2006
Notification Time: 23:57 [ET]
Event Date: 10/10/2006
Event Time: 15:00 [CDT]
Last Update Date: 10/11/2006 | Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(3)(ii)(B) - UNANALYZED CONDITION
| Person (Organization):
JACK WHITTEN (R4)
|
| Unit | SCRAM Code | RX CRIT | Initial PWR | Initial RX Mode | Current PWR | Current RX Mode | | 1 | N | N | 0 | Cold Shutdown | 0 | Cold Shutdown | Event Text CONTAINMENT SPRAY VALVE MISPOSITIONED
"While performing maintenance on one of two installed Containment Spray Header valves, HCV-345, the System Engineer determined that the valve disk was installed backwards [ball valve]. Actual valve positioning would be opposite of remote indication. The resulting affect would be that an accident signal to open HCV-345 would have closed the valve rendering one header inoperable. This condition is presumed to have existed, since the last maintenance activity on the valve during Refueling Outage May 2005, and through Cycle 23."
This system is not required to be operable in the current mode.
The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector. |
| Power Reactor | Event Number: 42897 | Facility: WOLF CREEK
Region: 4 State: KS
Unit: [1] [ ] [ ]
RX Type: [1] W-4-LP
NRC Notified By: DAVE DREES
HQ OPS Officer: JASON KOZAL | Notification Date: 10/11/2006
Notification Time: 15:05 [ET]
Event Date: 10/11/2006
Event Time: 12:40 [CDT]
Last Update Date: 10/11/2006 | Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(3)(ii)(A) - DEGRADED CONDITION
| Person (Organization):
JACK WHITTEN (R4)
|
| Unit | SCRAM Code | RX CRIT | Initial PWR | Initial RX Mode | Current PWR | Current RX Mode | | 1 | N | N | 0 | Refueling | 0 | Refueling | Event Text UNANALYZED CONDITION - INDICATIONS ON PRESSURIZER NOZZLE TO SAFE END WELDS
"The following event description is based on information currently available. If through subsequent reviews of this event, additional information is identified that is pertinent to this event or alters the information being provided at this time, a follow-up notification will be made via the ENS or under the reporting requirements of 10 CFR 50.73.
"On October 11, 2006, at approximately 12:40 Central Standard Time (CST), engineering personnel performing preplanned in-service examination of the Pressurizer nozzle to safe end welds notified the Control Room that five circumferential indications had been discovered that cannot be found acceptable under ASME Section XI.
"Since the indications cannot be found acceptable under ASME Section XI the condition is reportable in accordance with 10 CFR 50.72(b)(3)(ii)(A).
"Three indications are located on the surge line, one indication is on the safety nozzle, and one indication is on the relief nozzle. The locations are part of the Reactor Coolant System (RCS) pressure boundary. There is no evidence of RCS pressure boundary leakage.
"WCGS is currently shutdown for its 15th refueling outage and is in Mode 6. Weld overlay of the safe ends is an activity scheduled for the current outage.
"An investigation of this event will be conducted in accordance with the WCGS corrective action program."
The licensee notified the NRC Resident Inspector. |
| Power Reactor | Event Number: 42898 | Facility: ARKANSAS NUCLEAR
Region: 4 State: AR
Unit: [1] [2] [ ]
RX Type: [1] B&W-L-LP,[2] CE
NRC Notified By: DAVID THOMPSON
HQ OPS Officer: JASON KOZAL | Notification Date: 10/11/2006
Notification Time: 15:47 [ET]
Event Date: 10/11/2006
Event Time: 14:39 [CDT]
Last Update Date: 10/12/2006 | Emergency Class: NON EMERGENCY
10 CFR Section:
50.72(b)(3)(xiii) - LOSS COMM/ASMT/RESPONSE
| Person (Organization):
JACK WHITTEN (R4)
|
| Unit | SCRAM Code | RX CRIT | Initial PWR | Initial RX Mode | Current PWR | Current RX Mode | | 1 | N | Y | 100 | Power Operation | 100 | Power Operation | | 2 | N | N | 0 | Refueling | 0 | Refueling | Event Text SPDS OUT OF SERVICE
"The Safety Parameter Display System [SPDS] will be removed from service for approximately 6 hours for planned maintenance."
Appropriate compensatory actions have been put in place by the licensee to ensure remote indication of SPDS parameters are available when needed.
The licensee will notify the NRC Resident Inspector.
* * * UPDATE ON 10/12/06 AT 0043 EDT BY CHUCK OLSON TO MACKINNON * * *
Safety Parameter Display System place back in service at 0043 EDT.
R4DO (J. Whitten) notified.
The NRC Resident Inspector will be notified of this update by the licensee. | |