Morning Report for April 15, 2004

Headquarters Daily Report

• REGION IV

REGION IV

Part 21 - 2004-0006-00 - Fire hazard in chart recorders

Licensee/Facility: THERMO ELECTRON CORPORATION THERMO ELECTRON CORPORATION HOUSTON, Texas Dockets: License No:

Notification: MR Number: H-2004-0010 Date: 03/24/2004

Reviewer: HODGE, VERNON

Discussion:

Part 21 - 2004-0006-00 - Fire hazard in chart recorders

THERMO WESTRONICS MODEL 3000C AND 3200C SERIES CHART RECORDER FAILURES

The vendor reports that a fire occurred within a Series 3000 commercial grade multipoint programmable chart recorder used for simulator training at the Fermi nuclear power plant in February 2004. The vendor determined that the root cause of the failure was a shorted clamp diode within the CB100295-01 Printhead Transition Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA). This failed short condition is considered an abnormal failure but could occur under several unfavorable simultaneous conditions. The vendor stated that the possibility for this type of failure only exists on this circuit board design produced in 1990 through 1991, Revision A and Revision B configurations. The vendor's review of records from 1990 through 2004 indicated that the safety-related version of this circuit board design, CB100295C01 PCBA, was used on both Series 3000C and Series 3200C recorders. No record of a failure of these safety-related components was found. In the United States, the Fermi and Indian Point nuclear power plants are affected.

Information for this issue as well as other Part 21s is available at the NRC's Operating Experience web page at:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/part21/.

Accession Numbers:

Accession No	Accession Date
ML041000282	03/24/2004

Contacts:

Name	Office Abbrev	Phone No	E-Mail
HODGE, VERNON	NRR	(301) 415-1861	CVH@nrc.gov