UNITED STATES 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

REGION III 

2443 WARRENVILLE ROAD, SUITE 210 

LISLE, IL 60532-4352 

September 10, 2009 

EA 03-214 

Mr. Barry Allen 

Site Vice President 

FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company 

Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station 

5501 North State Route 2, Mail Stop A-DB-3080 

Oak Harbor, OH 43449-9760 

SUBJECT: COMPLETION OF REQUIREMENTS OF 2004 CONFIRMATORY ORDER 

MODIFYING LICENSE 

Dear Mr. Allen: 

This letter is in response to your May 12, 2009, letter, informing the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) that FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) had completed all 

actions required by the March 8, 2004, Confirmatory Order Modifying License (Order) issued to 

the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station. The Order was a condition of the NRC’s approval for 

the restart of Davis-Besse stemming from the identification of significant reactor pressure vessel 

head degradation in 2002. The NRC had issued a Confirmatory Action Letter to Davis-Besse 

confirming the Licensee’s agreement that NRC approval was required for restart. 

An effective licensee self-assessment process is a key element in preventing the recurrence of 

safety-significant events, such as the reactor pressure vessel head degradation. Given the 

magnitude, scope, and duration of problems identified during the extended outage at 

Davis-Besse, and, during the same time frame, that Davis-Besse’s internal self-assessments 

had not been fully effective, additional assurance regarding the effectiveness of the 

self-assessment program was essential in allowing Davis-Besse to restart. To that end, the 

Order required FENOC to: 

1. Contract with independent outside organizations to conduct comprehensive 

assessments of the Davis-Besse operations performance; organizational safety 

culture (SC), including safety-conscious work environment (SCWE); the corrective 

action program implementation; and the engineering program effectiveness. 

a. Ninety days prior to each assessment, FENOC was to inform the Regional 

Administrator of Region III of the identity of its outside assessment 

organizations, and the scope and depth of the assessment plans; 

b. The outside independent assessments were to be completed before the 

fourth calendar quarter of 2004 and annually thereafter for five years; and
B. Allen -2- 

c. Within 45 days of completion of the assessments, the licensee was to submit 

all assessment results and any action plans necessary to address areas for 

improvement raised by the assessments. 

2. Conduct a visual examination of the reactor pressure vessel upper head bare metal 

surface, including the head-to-penetration interfaces; the reactor pressure vessel 

lower head bare metal surface, including the head-to-penetration interfaces; and the 

control rod drive mechanism flanges during the Cycle 14 midcycle outage. 

Beginning in 2004 and continuing into 2009, the NRC monitored, through our inspection 

program, FENOC’s implementation of the Order requirements. Our inspections included 

reviews of each independent assessment’s plan, including the independence of the outside 

organization; observation, where reasonable, of the independent team’s in-process activities; 

and a review of each assessment’s results and FENOC’s action plans to address areas 

identified as needing improvement. In addition, during the first three years of the Order-required 

assessments, the NRC conducted independent assessments of Davis-Besse’s organizational 

SC/SCWE. The additional NRC assessments were conducted to validate the inputs FENOC 

and its independent teams were using to assess the SC/SCWE area. Further, these additional 

inspections allowed the NRC to more effectively assess the effectiveness of FENOC’s actions to 

address areas for improvement in the SC/SCWE area. The NRC documented the results of its 

monitoring activities in publicly available inspection reports identified in Enclosure 1 to this letter. 

Enclosure 1 identifies the Report Number and Report Section in which our reviews and 

observations for each of FENOC’s independent assessments are documented. Enclosure 2 

identifies the ADAMS ML Number for each report. 

With regard to the Order required visual examinations during the Cycle 14 midcycle outage, 

NRC inspectors observed portions of those examinations during the January 2005 outage. The 

results of those observations were documented in NRC Inspection Report 050000346/2005003, 

Sections 4OA5.2 through .4. 

In the final independent assessments, i.e., those conducted in 2008, each independent team 

concluded that Davis-Besse’s performance in its area of review continued to be adequate and 

effective to support continued safe facility operation. The NRC has also concluded, as noted in 

our most recent End-of-Cycle report (ML090630180), that Davis-Besse’s performance continues 

to be adequate to support safe facility operations. Further, the NRC has concluded that 

Davis-Besse’s performance has improved over the past five years, based on trending the 

results from the independent assessments, the results from our special oversight inspection 

activities, and the results from our Reactor Oversight Process (ROP) Base Line inspections 

completed. 

As noted previously, the Order required that FENOC contract for independent comprehensive 

assessments for a fixed period of time. Independent NRC inspections between 2004 and 2009 

have confirmed that each of the required assessments was completed. In addition, the 

inspections verified that the Order required milestones for each assessment regarding the 

identity of the assessment organizations, the scope and depth of the assessment plans, the 

assessment results, and action plans necessary to address issues raised by the assessments, 

were completed as required. In-process assessment observations by NRC inspectors 

confirmed that the assessment team’s activities were of sufficient scope and depth. It should be 
B. Allen -3- 

noted that the visual examinations described in Section 2 of the Order were required to be 

performed only once. 

In summary, based on our review of the Order requirements and the results of our inspections 

conducted between the second calendar quarter of 2004 and the first calendar quarter of 2009, 

we conclude that FENOC has met all of the requirements contained in the March 8, 2004, 

Confirmatory Order Modifying License issued to the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station. 

No additional independent assessments are required by this Order. 

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC’s “Rules of Practice,” a copy of this letter and its 

enclosure will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public 

Document Room or from the Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of NRC’s 

document system (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Website at 

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room). 

 Sincerely, 

 /RA/ 

 Mark A. Satorius 

 Regional Administrator 

Docket No. 50-346; 72-014 

License No. NPF-3 

Enclosures: As stated 

DISTRIBUTION: 

See next page 
Letter to B. Allen from M. Satorius dated September 10, 2009 

SUBJECT: COMPLETION OF REQUIREMENTS OF 2004 CONFIRMATORY ORDER 

MODIFYING LICENSE 

cc w/encl: The Honorable Dennis Kucinich 

 J. Hagan, President and Chief 

 Nuclear Officer - FENOC 

 J. Lash, Senior Vice President of 

 Operations and Chief Operating Officer - FENOC 

 Manager - Site Regulatory Compliance - FENOC 

 D. Pace, Senior Vice President of 

 Fleet Engineering - FENOC 

 K. Fili, Vice President, Fleet Oversight - FENOC 

 P. Harden, Vice President, Nuclear Support 

 D. Jenkins, Attorney, FirstEnergy Corp. 

 Director, Fleet Regulatory Affairs - FENOC 

 Manager - Fleet Licensing - FENOC 

 C. O’Claire, State Liaison Officer, Ohio Emergency Management Agency 

 R. Owen, Administrator, Ohio Department of Health 

 Public Utilities Commission of Ohio 

 President, Lucas County Board of Commissioners 

 President, Ottawa County Board of Commissioners 
B. Allen -3- 

noted that the visual examinations described in Section 2 of the Order were required to be 

performed only once. 

In summary, based on our review of the Order requirements and the results of our inspections 

conducted between the second calendar quarter of 2004 and the first calendar quarter of 2009, 

we conclude that FENOC has met all of the requirements contained in the March 8, 2004, 

Confirmatory Order Modifying License issued to the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station. 

No additional independent assessments are required by this Order. 

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC’s “Rules of Practice,” a copy of this letter and its 

enclosure will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public 

Document Room or from the Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of NRC’s 

document system (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Website at 

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room). 

 Sincerely, 

 /RA/ 

 Mark A. Satorius 

 Regional Administrator 

Docket No. 50-346; 72-014 

License No. NPF-3 

Enclosures: As stated 

DISTRIBUTION: 

See next page 

DOCUMENT NAME: G:\1-Secy\1-Work In Progress\Davis-Besse Order Completion Letter.doc 

□ Publicly Available □ Non-Publicly Available □ Sensitive □ Non-Sensitive 

To receive a copy of this document, indicate in the concurrence box "C" = Copy without attach/encl "E" = 

Copy with attach/encl "N" = No copy

OFFICE RIII RIII RIII OE 

NAME JCameron:cms KO’Brien KSWest NHIlton for CCarpenter 

DATE 08/06/09 08/10/09 08/13/09 08/10/09 - per email 

OFFICE NRR RIII RIII RIII 

NAME FBrown MSatorius 

DATE 08/10/09 - per email 09/10/09 

OFFICIAL RECORD COPY
Letter to B. Allen from M. Satorius dated September 10, 2009 

SUBJECT: COMPLETION OF REQUIREMENTS OF 2004 CONFIRMATORY ORDER 

MODIFYING LICENSE 

DISTRIBUTION:

RidsNrrDorlLpl3-2 Resource 

Susan Bagley 

RidsNrrPMDavisBesse Resource 

RidsNrrDirsIrib Resource 

Cynthia Pederson 

Kenneth O’Brien 

Steven Orth 

Jared Heck 

Allan Barker 

Jeannie Choe 

Linda Linn 

DRPIII 

DRSIII 

Patricia Buckley 

Tammy Tomczak 

ROPreports Resource

Bill Borchardt 

Bruce Mallett 

Cynthia Carpenter 

Nick Hilton 

Ross Moore 

Marvin Itzkowitz 

Catherine Marco 

Eric Leeds 

Bruce Boger 

Daniel Holody 

Carolyn Evans 

William Jones 

Mary Ann Ashley 

Holly Harrington 

Hubert Bell 

Guy Caputo 

Mona Williams 

James Lynch 

Viktoria Mitlyng 

Prema Chandrathil 

Paul Pelke 

Patricia Lougheed 

OEMAIL Resource 
1 of 2 Enclosure 1
2 of 2 Enclosure 1
Enclosure 2