NRC CAL – NOV (White)

On October 26, 2009, a Notice of Violation was issued to Exelon Generation Company, LLC for a violations associated with a White Significance Determination Finding as a result of inspections at the Dresden Nuclear Power Station Unit 3. The White finding involved multiple violations including: (a) 10 CFR 50.54(j), in which non-licensed operators, during a maintenance activity, manipulated the control rod drive system hydraulic control unit insert riser isolation valves and the withdraw riser isolation valves, an action which affected the reactivity of the reactor in that the valve manipulations caused three control rods, D-7, E-7, and E-6 to move out of the core to positions 06, 18, and 16, respectively; (b) Technical Specification 3.1.1, in which the reactor was in Mode 4, the shutdown margin was not ≥ 0.38 ∆k/k and the licensee failed to initiate immediate actions to insert control rods; (c) Technical Specification 5.4.1, in which maintenance that affected the performance of the control rods, which are safety-related equipment, was performed in accordance with a written procedure that was not appropriate to the circumstances; (d) Technical Specification 5.4.1, in which the control room operators failed to implement a section of a procedure in that they did not aggressively investigate annunciators and alarms and did not accept the alarms as correct until demonstrated otherwise; and (e) Technical Specification 5.4.1, in which the licensee failed to implement its written procedure which addressed the inability to drive control rods.