- , . ,- .

:. ! ( s- James A.MiaPetrick ',_ t. W Vd' Nuolent Power Mont - '

L ' P.O. Box 41l.ycoming. New York 13093-'

315 342-3840I

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kWilliam Femandez 11

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Resident Manager

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March 2,-1990.'JAFP-90-0192' :

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United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission'

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Document Control Desk'Mail Station F1-137

[ Washington, D.C. 20555

SUBJECT: DOCKET NO. 50-333 ';

LICENSEE EVENT REPORT: 90-003-00L

-Dear Sir:!

This Licensee Event Report is submitted in accordance with :,

10 CFR 50.73. '

Questions concerning this report may be addressed to '

:Mr..' John Lyons at (315)'349-6788.,

Very truly.yours',

j.

ILL1 FERNAN EZ

'.WF:JL':me

' Enclosure

cc: .USNRC, Region I lINPO Records Center ie

| American Nuclear Insurers|

NRC Resident Inspector '

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INTERIM REPORT

EIIS Codes are in []

Two non conservative errors in feedwater (SJ) flow measurement werediscovered during a site review begun in October 1989. Feedwater flow gtransmitters were replaced on 10/3/88. The new style transmitter t

required pressure compensation in the calibration 3rocedure. This !re'quirement was not identified.at installation. Tae transmitter

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calibration was revised to include pressure compensation on 11/14/89.The cause and long-term corrective action will 3e provided in thesupplemental report.

The vendor siipplied correlation for the feedwater flow elements wasfound to be suspect. The feedwater transmitter calibration span valueswere adjusted to compensate the anomaly. When new more accuratetransmitters were placed in service (1/29/90), indicated power exceededthe licensed core thermal power limit, Power was immediately reducedto less than the licensed value. The correlation is still underinvestigation and additional information will be provided in thesupplemental report.

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Description ,

As a result of identified feedwater calibration problems and,

engineering input errors, the licensed core thermal power limit of 2436'megawatts thermal was potentially exceeded.

Chronology of Events :

!

| 10/03/88 Feedwater [SJ) flow transmitters were replaced by a,

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modification. (It was discovered in November, 1989, that a=

required static pressure compensation was not incorporated inthe calibration procedure for the replacement transmitters.) >

10/08/89 Unit start-up following a scheduled maintenance outage.Operations noted lower than expected flow at low power levels

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during plant power ascension. Instrument & Control (I&C)performed a feedwater calibration, discovered thetransmitters were found out of tolerance, and restored the

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transmitters to within tolerancc. As a result of this work,a separate work request was written to investigate anapparent problem with feed flow indication on one of thefeedwater loops. !

10/19/89 (Approximately) Thermal performance weekly monitoringdetected a decrease in unit output since before the

imaintenance ostage and additional ~research was begun,

10/26/89 (Approximately) Nuclear plant Reliability Data System (NPRDS)reviewer forwarded a copy of instrument problem report on thefeedwater transmitter problem of 10/08/89 to performance -

engineer. In the course of the investigation, applicableoperating experience reviewer documents, including General ,

!Electric SIL 452, Supplement 1 "Feedwater Flow ElementTransmitter Calibration", were included in the review scope.

11/05/89 Unit scram (LER-89-020) due to unrelated reasons

11/07/89 Work identified on the 10/8/89 work request was corrected. ,

11/12/89 Unit start-up. Low feedwater flow was again obeerved duringline feed start-up. Transmitter calibration checkedsatisfactory.

31/12/89 Unit scram (LER-89-023) due to unrelated reasons.

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11/13/89 Unit start-up. Satisfactory transmitter calibration checkprior to start-up. Maintained power at 25% forelectro-hydraulic system (LER 89-020)

11/14/89 I&C recalibrated the feedwater transmitters which included i

static pressure compensation as a result of parallel researchby both the performance engineer and the I&C Department.

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The initial effect on unit output following the change in transmitter ,

calibration was much larger than predicted. The engineering reviewcontinued to look at tho other issues in General Electric SIL 452,Supplement I and the lost capacity following the static pressurea dj us tment .

The site had been unable to obtain the methods or inputa used by thefeedwater flow element vendor to predict plant operating response from '

the flow nozzle laboratory test data. Because of the reduced unitoutput, additional flow transmitters were purchased and calibrated at ;

static pressure operating conditions by the transmitter vendor. Thiscalibration at pressure cannot be performed on site because of the needfor specialized test equipment. The lack of data from the flow elementvendor forced the site to revert to a calculation to identify thesetpoints for this transmitter calibration. The results predicted withthese setpoints were identified (on 01/05/90) as being moreconservative than the existing flow element vendor supplied numbers, -

but were suspect due to the already reduced output and the flow elementvendor being very adamant that these units were not designed to -

specifications that allowed an industry standard approach to beapplied. In the absence of flow element vendor specifics anappropriate correlation was selected by the site. This choice wasreviewed for applicability by an author of the related ASME test code.The site calculations were used for the transmitter calibration and theindicated power increased when the transmitters were placed in serviceon 01/29/90. The following day, the flow element vendor provided theinput data for the setpoint calculation and at least one input errorwas identified which partially accounted for the power increase seenthe day before. Due to the significantly reduced unit output, aninvestigation is ongoing.

Cause

The failure to compensate for transmitter static pressurization effectswas caused by an incomplete review of the transmitter vendor technicalmanual at the time of the modification which replaced the flowtransmitters. During the process of updating the calibration procedureto reflect this modification, this compensation was mistakenly omitted.Further causes may be identified as a result of the ongoinginvestigation.

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The flow elemen't. correlation errors are engineering application '

problems. Both the original and the replacement flow element vendors '

provided correlations with incorrect feedwater density values. Site '

engineering and NSSS staff investigations are continuing.Analysis !

It has been confirmed by the NSSS vendor that this event did not result'

in a condition which significantly affected nuclear safety with respect '

to fuel thermal limits. In accordance with USNRC guidance, anallowance for an uncertainty of 2% thermal power is included in thebasis of the reload analysis of the reactor core. Since the totalerrors in the feedwater flow calibration methodology were less than1.7%, this design parameter was not exceeded.

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'Corrective Action

Immediate Corrective Actions

11/14/89 - Upon determining that the static aressure compensation ',factor had not been included in the feedwater flow'

transmitter calibration, both feedwater flow transmitterswere recalibrated with the appropriate calibration applied.

|1/29/90 - Upon replacement of the feedwater flow transmitter with the

factory calibrated / compensated transmitters, calculated corethermal power exceeded the licensed limit. Power waspromptly reduced to lower than the licensed limit.

Continuing Corrective Action

!Investigation by both site engineering and NSSS staff is continuing.

Additional Information

LERs 82-002 and 82-034 were related events.

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