U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Region III Office of Public Affairs

801 Warrenville Road, Lisle IL 60532-4351

NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: RIII-96-50 August 28, 1996

CONTACT: Jan Strasma 630/829-9663

Angela Dauginas 630/829-9662

E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov

NRC STAFF TO HOLD PREDECISIONAL ENFORCEMENT CONFERENCE

ON INSPECTION FINDINGS AT POINT BEACH NUCLEAR POWER STATION

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet September

12 with representatives of Wisconsin Electric Power Co. for a

predecisional enforcement conference on several regulatory issues

at the Point Beach Nuclear Power Station.

Among the issues to be discussed are possible violations

associated with a May 28 incident in which hydrogen ignited

during welding on a spent fuel storage cask at the plant.

The meeting, which is open to public observation, will be in

the Main Conference Room (Third Floor) of the NRC's Region III

Office, 801 Warrenville Road, Lisle, Illinois. The meeting will

be held in two segments, one beginning at 10 a.m. There will be

a lunch break at approximately 12 noon with the second segment

following the break.

The 10 a.m. segment will cover possible violations

associated with the May 28 spent fuel cask incident at Point

Beach and the utility's response to it.

Welding on a shield lid for a loaded spent fuel storage cask

ignited hydrogen gas which had accumulated under the lid. There

was no apparent damage to the cask or the spent fuel, and there

were no injuries. The hydrogen was generated by an unexpected

chemical reaction between a zinc coating inside the cask and

boric acid in the water surrounding the fuel in the cask.

The segment following the lunch break will cover possible

violations associated with four unrelated issues which were

identified in NRC inspections:

1. Viewing of training video tapes by reactor operators

while on duty in the plant's control room.

2. The adequacy of a safety review by the utility of the

minimum number of pumps required to be operable in the plant's

service water system which supplies cooling water to various

plant equipment. There are six pumps in the system. The

existing requirement called for a minimum of two pumps, and the

utility did not take adequate steps to increase the minimum when

it determined that three would be needed in some accident
conditions to provide adequate cooling for the reactor

containment.

3. Starting up Point Beach Unit 2 in April with a safety

system -- an auxiliary feedwater pump -- inoperable. The pump

provides water to the plant's steam generators when the main

feedwater pumps are not available. A valve had been left closed

following maintenance, and the utility did not conduct a required

post-maintenance test which would have found that the valve

remained closed.

4. The adequacy of testing of safety injection pumps which

are part of the emergency core cooling system at the plant. The

pumps are periodically tested to assure that they provide the

necessary cooling water flow. During testing in 1995 and early

1996 the utility determined that the pumps provided the necessary

flow even though the test results showed lower flow rates. The

reduced flow measurements were attributed to inaccurate measuring

devices. The devices were recalibrated, and a correction factor

was applied to the flow measurements to bring them to the

required level. However, the pumps were not tested with the

recalibrated instruments to verify they met the flow requirement.

The decision to hold an enforcement conference does not mean

the NRC has determined that a violation has occurred or that

enforcement action will be taken. Rather, the purpose is to

discuss apparent violations, their causes and safety

significance; to provide the licensee an opportunity to point out

any errors that may have been made in the NRC inspection report;

and to enable the company to outline its proposed corrective

actions.

No decision on the apparent violations or any contemplated

enforcement action, such as a fine, will be made at this

conference. Those decisions will be made by senior NRC officials

at a later time.

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