United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs, Region I

475 Allendale Road King of Prussia, PA 19401

Phone: 610/337-5330 Fax: 610/337-5241

Internet: dps@nrc.gov or nas@nrc.gov

I-97-60 May 28, 1997

Contact: Diane Screnci FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Neil A. Sheehan

NRC PROPOSES $205,000 FINE AGAINST CONSOLIDATED EDISON

FOR ALLEGED VIOLATIONS AT INDIAN POINT 2 NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a

$205,000 fine against Consolidated Edison Company of New York for

seven alleged violations of agency guidelines at the utility's

Indian Point 2 nuclear power plant.

Six of the infractions involve a failure to identify and/or

correct problems at the plant between June 1995 and March of this

year, resulting in conditions the NRC considers "adverse to

quality." The seventh deals with inadequate fire protection

measures.

Two other alleged violations at the Buchanan, N.Y., facility

were cited by the NRC but are not the subject of fines. They

pertain to inadequate written procedures and a failure to

properly review a safety evaluation. One other alleged

violation, involving the inadequate design of certain fire

protection measures, was not cited due to identification and

prompt corrective action by Consolidated Edison.

In the case of the unidentified/unresolved problems, one of

the violations pertains to a malfunction of four feedwater

regulating valves last January 27. The valves control the flow

of water which absorbs heat from the reactor coolant system and

produces steam.

Subsequent inspection determined the cause of the failures

to be blasting grit that had been used to prepare the highpressure turbine casing during the 1995 refueling outage. The

coarse material had migrated to the valves and caused internal

damage. Despite the fact that a June 1995 failure of a heater

drain tank pump was recognized to have been caused by intrusion

of the same grit, adequate corrective action measures were not

taken to identify the root causes and extent of the problem, and

to correct it in a timely manner.

A second violation involves Consolidated Edison's failure to

identify the inadvertent actuation of multiple fire dampers in

the control building from March 4 to 6, 1997, until it was
brought to management's attention by the NRC resident inspectors.

This violation is considered significant due to the multiple

missed opportunities to identify and address this problem.

Other corrective action violations were as follows:

ˇ An auxiliary feedwater steam admission valve failed three

consecutive quarterly tests, from April to October 1996, due to

low discharge pressure. However, repairs were not made until an

inspection of the valve's internals in December identified

internal damage.

ˇ The NRC found last July 12 that the plant's primary

auxiliary building, containment purge and boric acid building

charcoal filter deluge system had been inoperable for an

undetermined period of time. Further, the control room

annunciator alarm had been working intermittently since February

1996. Nevertheless, the alarm response procedure requiring

control room operators to be dispatched to the system control

panel to determine the causes of such problems was apparently not

followed.

ˇ Last July 31, a steam-driven auxiliary feedwater pump

discharge flow control valve failed to open on demand during

repeated testing and corrective actions to address the problem

were not undertaken until subsequent disassembly of the valves

revealed internal damage.

ˇ Although an alternate safe shutdown power supply switch

for a service water pump failed to close during multiple attempts

during a surveillance test on December 3 -- and had previously

experienced five similar failures during testing -- measures were

not taken to prevent recurrences of these failures.

Regarding the fire protection violation, it was determined

last July that protection features were not provided to limit

fire damage and ensure that one of the multiple safety systems

that can be used to achieve and maintain plant shutdown was

available. Specifically, both the normal and alternate safe

shutdown instrumentation could have been subject to fire damage

and rendered inoperable.

Consolidated Edison has 30 days to pay the fine or request

in writing that all or part be withdrawn.

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