September 3, 2009 

EA-09-167 

Mr. Mark A. Schimmel 

Acting Site Vice President 

Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant 

Northern States Power Company - Minnesota 

1717 Wakonade Drive East 

Welch, MN 55089 

SUBJECT: FINAL SIGNIFICANCE DETERMINATION FOR A WHITE FINDING AND 

NOTICE OF VIOLATION; NRC INSPECTION REPORT NO. 05000306/2009013; 

PRAIRIE ISLAND NUCLEAR GENERATING PLANT, UNIT 2 

Dear Mr. Schimmel: 

The purpose of this letter is to provide you the final results of our significance determination of the 

preliminary White finding identified in Inspection Report 05000282/2009010; 05000306/2009010. 

The inspection finding was assessed using the Significance Determination Process and was 

preliminarily characterized as White, a finding with low to moderate increased importance to 

safety that may require additional U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspections. This 

White finding is associated with the licensee’s failure to design the component cooling water 

system such that it would be protected from the impact of a high energy line break, seismic, or 

tornado events. 

In a telephone conversation with Mr. Steven West of the NRC Region III office, on 

August 10, 2009, Mr. Michael Wadley, former Site Vice President, indicated that Northern States 

Power Company – Minnesota did not contest the characterization of the risk significance of this 

finding and that Northern States Power Company – Minnesota declined the opportunity to discuss 

this issue in a regulatory conference or to provide a written response. 

After considering the information developed during the inspection, the NRC has concluded that 

the inspection finding is appropriately characterized as White, a finding with low to moderate 

increased importance to safety that may require additional NRC inspections as stated in 

Inspection Report 05000282/2009010; 05000306/2009010. 

The NRC has also determined that the finding is a violation of 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix B, 

Criterion III, “Design Control,” as cited in the enclosed Notice of Violation (Notice). The 

circumstances surrounding the violation were described in detail in the subject inspection report. 

In accordance with the NRC Enforcement Policy, the Notice is considered escalated enforcement 

action because it is associated with a White finding. 

The NRC has concluded that the information regarding the reason for the violation, the corrective 

actions taken, and the date when full compliance was achieved is already adequately addressed 

on the docket in the subject inspection report. Therefore, you are not required to respond to this 

letter unless the description therein does not accurately reflect your corrective actions or your 

position. 
M. Schimmel -2- 

As a result of our review of Prairie Island Unit 2’s performance, including this White finding, we 

have assessed you to be in the Regulatory Response column of the NRC’s Action Matrix. 

Therefore, we plan to conduct a supplemental inspection using Inspection Procedure 95001, 

“Inspection for One or Two White Inputs in a Strategic Performance Area,” when your staff has 

notified us of your readiness for this inspection. This inspection procedure is conducted to 

provide assurance that the root cause and contributing causes of risk significant performance 

issues are understood, the extent of condition is identified, and the corrective actions are 

sufficient to prevent recurrence. 

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter, its 

enclosure, and your response, if you choose to provide one, will be made available electronically 

for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the NRC=s Agencywide 

Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), accessible from the NRC Web site at 

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To the extent possible, your response should not 

include any personal privacy, proprietary, or safeguards information so that it can be made 

available to the public without redaction. 

Sincerely, 

/RA by Cynthia D. Pederson Acting for/ 

Mark A. Satorius 

Regional Administrator 

Docket No. 50-306 

License No. DPR-60 

Enclosure: 

Notice of Violation 

cc w/encl: D. Koehl, Chief Nuclear Officer 

 G. Salamon, Regulatory Affairs Manager 

 P. Glass, Assistant General Counsel 

 Nuclear Asset Manager 

 J. Stine, State Liaison Officer, Minnesota Department of Health 

 Tribal Council, Prairie Island Indian Community 

 Administrator, Goodhue County Courthouse 

 Commissioner, Minnesota Department 

 of Commerce 

 Manager, Environmental Protection Division 

 Office of the Attorney General of Minnesota 

 Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, Dakota 

 County Law Enforcement Center 
M. Schimmel -3- 

As a result of our review of Prairie Island Unit 2’s performance, including this White finding, we have 

assessed you to be in the Regulatory Response column of the NRC’s Action Matrix. Therefore, we plan to 

conduct a supplemental inspection using Inspection Procedure 95001, “Inspection for One or Two White 

Inputs in a Strategic Performance Area,” when your staff has notified us of your readiness for this 

inspection. This inspection procedure is conducted to provide assurance that the root cause and 

contributing causes of risk significant performance issues are understood, the extent of condition is 

identified, and the corrective actions are sufficient to prevent recurrence. 

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter, its enclosure, and 

your response, if you choose to provide one, will be made available electronically for public inspection in 

the NRC Public Document Room or from the NRC=s Agencywide Documents Access and Management 

System (ADAMS), accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To 

the extent possible, your response should not include any personal privacy, proprietary, or safeguards 

information so that it can be made available to the public without redaction. 

Sincerely, 

/RA by Cynthia D. Pederson Acting for/ 

Mark A. Satorius 

Regional Administrator 

Docket No. 50-306 

License No. DPR-60 

Enclosure: 

Notice of Violation 

cc w/encl: D. Koehl, Chief Nuclear Officer 

 G. Salamon, Regulatory Affairs Manager 

 P. Glass, Assistant General Counsel 

 Nuclear Asset Manager 

 J. Stine, State Liaison Officer, Minnesota Department of Health 

 Tribal Council, Prairie Island Indian Community 

 Administrator, Goodhue County Courthouse 

 Commissioner, Minnesota Department 

 of Commerce 

 Manager, Environmental Protection Division 

 Office of the Attorney General of Minnesota 

 Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, Dakota 

 County Law Enforcement Center 

DISTRIBUTION: 

See next page 

FILE NAME: G:\EICS\ENFORCEMENT\Enforcement Cases 2009\EA-09-167 Prairie Island CCW\EA-09-

167 Prairie Island Draft Final Action.doc 

; Publicly Available ; Non-Sensitive 

OFFICE RIII RIII RIII D:OE RIII RIII 

NAME Lougheed Giessner West Bowman for 

Carpenter1

Orth Pederson for

Satorius 

DATE 09/01/09 09/01/09 09/01/09 08/31/09 09/01/09 09/02/09 

OFFICIAL RECORD COPY

 

1. OE concurrence received via e-mail from G. Gulla on August 31, 2009. 
Letter to Mark A. Schimmel from Mark A. Satorius dated September 3, 2009 

SUBJECT: FINAL SIGNIFICANCE DETERMINATION FOR A WHITE FINDING AND 

NOTICE OF VIOLATION; NRC INSPECTION REPORT NO. 05000306/2009013; 

PRAIRIE ISLAND NUCLEAR GENERATING PLANT, UNIT 2 

DISTRIBUTION: 

ADAMS (PARS) 

RidsSecyMailCenter 

OCADistribution 

Bill Borchardt 

Bruce Mallett 

Cynthia Carpenter 

Nick Hilton 

Marvin Itzkowitz 

Catherine Marco 

Eric Leeds 

Bruce Boger 

Mark Satorius 

Cynthia Pederson 

Steven West 

Daniel Holody 

Carolyn Evans 

William Jones 

Steven Orth 

Jared Heck 

Ross Moore 

Mary Ann Ashley 

Holly Harrington 

Hubert Bell 

Guy Caputo 

Mona Williams 

Allan Barker 

James Lynch 

Viktoria Mitlyng 

Prema Chandrathil 

Paul Pelke 

Patricia Lougheed 

Jeannie Choe 

Linda Linn 

Monte Phillips 

John Giessner 

Susan Bagley 

RidsNrrPMPrairieIsland 

RidsNrrDorlLpl3-1 Resource 

RidsNrrDirsIrib Resource 

ROPreports Resource

OEMAIL Resource 

OEWEB Resource 
ENCLOSURE 

NOTICE OF VIOLATION 

Northern States Power Company - Minnesota Docket No. 50-306 

Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, Unit 2 License No. DPR-60 

EA-09-167 

During a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspection conducted from June 15 to 

July 9, 2009, a violation of NRC requirements was identified. In accordance with the NRC 

Enforcement Policy, the violation is listed below: 

Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 50, Appendix B, Criterion III, “Design 

Control,” requires, in part, that measures be established to assure that the design basis 

for safety-related functions of structures, systems, and components are correctly 

translated into specifications, drawings, procedures, and instructions. Further, 

Criterion III requires that the design control measures provide for verifying or checking 

the adequacy of designs. 

Contrary to the above, as of July 29, 2008, the licensee failed to implement design 

control measures to ensure that the design basis for the component cooling water 

system was correctly translated into specifications, drawings, procedures, and 

instructions. Specifically, the licensee failed to ensure that the safety-related function of 

the component cooling water system was maintained following a high energy line break, 

seismic, or tornado events in the turbine building. 

This violation is associated with a White finding. 

The NRC has concluded that information regarding the reason for the violation, the corrective 

actions taken and planned to be taken to correct the violation and to prevent recurrence, and the 

date when full compliance was achieved, is already adequately addressed on the docket in 

Inspection Report 05000282/2009010; 05000306/2009010, dated August 5, 2009. However, 

you are required to submit a written statement or explanation pursuant to 10 CFR 2.201 if the 

description therein does not accurately reflect your corrective actions or your position. In that 

case, or if you choose to respond, clearly mark your response as a "Reply to a Notice of 

Violation EA-09-167," and send it to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 

ATTN: Document Control Desk, Washington, DC 20555-0001 with a copy to the Regional 

Administrator, Region III, 2443 Warrenville Road, Suite 210, Lisle IL 60532, and a copy to the 

NRC Resident Inspector at the Prairie Island facility, within 30 days of the date of the letter 

transmitting this Notice of Violation (Notice). 

If you contest this enforcement action, you should also provide a copy of your response, with the 

basis for your denial, to the Director, Office of Enforcement, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission, Washington DC 20555-0001. 

If you choose to respond, your response will be made available electronically for public 

inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the NRC’s Agencywide Documents 

Access and Management System (ADAMS), accessible from the NRC Web site at 
Notice of Violation -2- 

ENCLOSURE 

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Therefore, to the extent possible, the response 

should not include any personal privacy, proprietary, or safeguards information so that it can be 

made available to the public without redaction. 

In accordance with 10 CFR 19.11, you may be required to post this Notice within two working 

days. 

Dated this 3rd day of September 2009