United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Office of Public Affairs

Washington, DC 20555

Phone 301-415-8200 Fax 301-415-2234

Internet:opa@nrc.gov

No. 96-125 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Friday, September 20, 1996)

NRC ISSUES SPECIAL INSPECTION REPORT ON MILLSTONE

A special Nuclear Regulatory Commission team inspection of

engineering and licensing activities at the Millstone 2 and 3

nuclear power plants in Connecticut found multiple deficiencies

and apparent violations.

The team identified apparent violations in the licensee's

failure to control design changes, properly maintain the plants'

Updated Final Safety Analysis Report (UFSAR), and maintain a

corrective action program that measured up to NRC requirements.

NRC management decided to conduct the special inspection

after the Millstone units were placed on the agency's "Watch

List" of problem plants in January.

Team inspections on March 11-29 and May 13-22 focused on

Northeast Utilities' methods for identifying, evaluating and

resolving technical issues related to Millstone 3's auxiliary

feedwater, service water and emergency power systems. Selected

technical issues were reviewed at Millstone 2.

Deficiencies and weaknesses included:

--Licensing/design-bases documentation: A number of

operating, surveillance and maintenance practices or procedures

were inconsistent with descriptions in the Millstone 3 UFSAR. As

a result, in one instance the licensee failed to conduct required

surveillance and maintenance tests for equipment needed in case

of a station blackout.

--Application of design requirements to procedures,

practices and drawings: A post-accident instrumentation system

to monitor containment conditions was not designed as stated in

the UFSAR.

--Problem identification and corrective action: Failure to

identify degraded or nonconforming equipment conditions that, in

some instances, had existed for several years. For example, the

failure to test certain valves at Millstone 2 went undetected for
three years. Weaknesses also were found in the plant's

management response to concerns identified in quality assurance

audits and third party assessments.

--Engineering: Several instances were found where design

discrepancies were corrected by the engineering department

through temporary fixes rather than restoring the systems to

their original design. At Millstone 2 for example, a procedure

was changed to have reactor operators install temporary jumper

cables in the control room to meet the single failure requirement

for containment hydrogen monitors following an accident.

--Materials classification: Lack of licensee oversight

resulted in incorrect classifications of material, equipment and

parts provided by vendors.

A predecisional enforcement conference will be scheduled at

a later date to discuss the deficiencies and apparent violations

of NRC requirements and provide management an opportunity to

respond.

The executive summary of the inspection report is available

upon request from the NRC's Office of Public Affairs. The

summary has been posted on the Internet at this address:

http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/reports.

The full report will be placed shortly in the local Public

Document Room for Millstone at Three Rivers Community Technical

College, Thames Valley Campus, 574 New London Turnpike, Norwich

CT.; and in the NRC Public Document Room at 2120 L Street, NW,

Washington, DC.

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