UNITED STATES

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

OFFICE OF NUCLEAR REACTOR REGULATION

OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY AND SAFEGUARDS

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555

October 22, 2003

NRC INFORMATION NOTICE 2003-20: DERATING WHITING CRANES PURCHASED

BEFORE 1980

Addressees

All holders of operating licenses for nuclear power reactors, except those who have

permanently ceased operations and have certified that fuel has been permanently removed

from the reactor vessel; applicable decommissioning reactors, fuel facilities, and independent

spent fuel storage installations.

Purpose

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing this information notice (IN) to notify

licensees of a recent report from Whiting Corporation concerning the derating of Whiting cranes

sold before 1980. It is expected that recipients will review the information for applicability to

their facilities and consider actions, as appropriate, to address this problem. However,

suggestions contained in this IN are not NRC requirements; therefore, no specific action or

written response is required.

Description of Circumstances

On January 29, 2003, Whiting Corporation submitted a 10 CFR Part 21 report (Event

Notification No. 39545 and Part 21 No. 2003-002-00) to the NRC. The concern described in

this report was specific to the Whiting #25 Hoist Unit (Gear Case). When the crane is lifting a

load at or near its nominal rating, the stress in one or possibly two internal support bolts in this

assembly may be significantly over the design allowable stress. These bolts connect the gear

case housing to an open frame that supports bearings and other components in the gear train. 

If a bolt failed, the open frame might deform, affecting gear alignment. Whiting identified this

problem during an engineering analysis, and Whiting Corporation was not aware of any crane

failures due to this concern.

The exact extent of the overstressed condition can only be determined by analyzing each hoist;

however, based on its findings, Whiting Corporation stated that a 50 percent reduction in rated

hoist capacity of the affected cranes would allow continued use of the cranes without

compromising design safety factors. Whiting indicated that this limitation should be enforced

until the overstressed bolts have been replaced or analysis shows that an overstressed

condition does not exist.

ML032960205
IN 2003-20

Page 2 of 3

On February 12, 2003, Whiting Corporation submitted a followup Part 21 report to the NRC

related to the above notification. As a result of the ongoing investigation and resolution of the 

January 29, 2003, notification, Whiting identified five cranes that utilize a different hoist

configuration that was also subject to a similar overstress condition. This condition applied to

special hoist arrangements using a Whiting #10 Hoist Unit, rather than the previously identified

Whiting #25 Hoist Unit. The cranes are installed at the following nuclear power plants: Indian

Point, Cooper, Columbia Generating Station, Vermont Yankee, and Millstone. Whiting

Corporation stated that these hoist units are to be limited to 20 percent of rated capacity to

avoid compromising design factors and that this limitation should be enforced until the units are upgraded.

Discussion

The identified conditions involve calculated stresses in the support bolts that exceed design

limits specified in applicable design standards. No actual failures have occurred. Failure of the

components subject to the overstress condition would not directly result in failure of the crane to

retain its load. However, the failure of a support bolt may result in deformation of the frame

housing the gear train bearings. The deformation would allow misalignment and potential

overstress of gear teeth to develop. The gear teeth transmit torque from the hoist motor and

holding brake to the load drum. Therefore, this concern is a facility and personnel safety issue.

This Part 21 report is applicable to a wide variety of cranes purchased prior to 1980, including

reactor building cranes, turbine building cranes, fuel handling cranes, spent fuel cranes, intake

structure cranes, auxiliary building cranes, refueling cranes, cask handling cranes, fuel gantry

cranes, radwaste handling cranes, screenwell cranes, heater bay cranes, and pumphouse

cranes. Other cranes may also be impacted.

During the Part 21 evaluation process, Whiting Corporation failed to identify a decommissioning

reactor facility (Fermi 1) that utilized one of the affected hoist units. This particular Part 21

report is applicable to decommissioning reactors as well as operating reactors because

decommissioning facilities continue to utilize cranes for fuel handling, radioactive waste

handling, and related activities for handling contaminated or activated structures, systems, and

components in support of decommissioning.

The Part 21 report requests crane owners to contact Whiting Corporation at e-mail address

Whiting-Nuclear@WhitingCorp.com and provide the following information: customer name,

contact person, e-mail address, telephone number, crane serial number, and date of next

scheduled outage. The above Part 21 reports may be obtained from NRC’s home page at

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/part21/.
IN 2003-20

Page 3 of 3

This IN requires no specific action or written response. If you have any questions about this

notice, contact one of the persons listed below or the appropriate project manager.

/RA/ /RA/

William D. Beckner, Chief Charles L. Miller, Director

Reactor Operations Branch Division of Industrial and

Division of Inspection Program Management Medical Nuclear Safety

Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Office of Nuclear Material Safety

 and Safeguards

Technical Contacts: Steven Jones, NRR Jack Foster, NRR

301-415-2712 (301) 415-3647

 E-mail: srj@nrc.gov E-mail: jwf@nrc.gov

William C. Huffman, NMSS

301-415-1141

E-mail: wch@nrc.gov

Attachment: List of Recently Issued NRC Information Notices
____________________________________________________________________________________

OL = Operating License

CP = Construction Permit

Attachment 1

IN 2003-20

Page 1 of 1

LIST OF RECENTLY ISSUED

NRC INFORMATION NOTICES

____________________________________________________________________________________

Information Date of 

Notice No. Subject Issuance Issued to

____________________________________________________________________________________

2003-19 Unanalyzed Condition of

Reactor Coolant Pump Seal

Leakoff Line During Postulated

Fire Scenarios or Station

Blackout

10/06/2003 All holders of operating licenses

or construction permits for

pressurized water reactors

(PWRs).

2003-18 General Electric Type SBM

Control Switches With

Defective Cam Followers 

09/26/2003 All holders of operating licenses

for nuclear power reactors,

except those who have

permanently ceased operations

and have certified that fuel has

been permanently removed from

the reactor vessel.

2003-17 Reduced Service Life of

Automatic Switch Company

(ASCO) Solenoid Valves With

Buna-N Material

09/29/2003 All holders of operating licenses

for nuclear power reactors.

2003-16 Icing Conditions Between

Bottom of Dry Storage System

and Storage Pad

10/06/2003 All 10 CFR Part 72 licensees and

certificate holders.

2003-15 Importance of Followup

Activities in Resolving

Maintenance Issues

09/05/2003 All holders of operating licenses

for nuclear power reactors except

those who have permanently

ceased operation and have

certified that fuel has been

permanently removed from the

reactor vessel.

Note: NRC generic communications may be received in electronic format shortly after they are

issued by subscribing to the NRC listserver as follows:

To subscribe send an e-mail to <listproc@nrc.gov >, no subject, and the following

command in the message portion:

subscribe gc-nrr firstname lastname