Jul 27 - The News-Herald


Above all, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co.'s Perry Nuclear Power Plant is operating safely.

An official from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission even said the human performance and "cross-cutting" errors found at the Perry plant by the federal watchdog of nuclear reactors, materials and waste were individually "of the lowest level of significance."

Why, then, did the NRC meet with FENOC and the public Tuesday evening at Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites LaMalfa in Mentor to discuss the errors?

Such a meeting is customary following the completion of a nuclear power plant's annual assessment.

The demand that FENOC explain a plan to address the issues before the public also is a reflection of the NRC's operation.

"What we do is look over the course of our inspection period, and if we see a number of examples where there's a weakness, we'll combine those and assess them," said James Cameron, chief of Branch 6 of the NRC's Lisle, Ill.-based Region III Reactor Projects division, which covers Perry.

"We'll ask ourselves, do we think the plant has a plan for addressing them and being successful?"

Because March marked the third time since 2008 that the NRC alerted FENOC about the issues, the answer to that question was likely "no."

During Perry's 2008 assessment period, resident NRC inspectors reported five findings in the "procedures/documentation" area, along with three findings regarding "human error prevention techniques."

The procedure and documentation mishaps included inadequate methods used for a test, plant equipment not being installed in accordance with designed documentation and inadequate procedure to ensure proper testing for a device used for heavy lifting, Cameron said.

Among the human error prevention techniques found were the failure to properly handle the cover of an underground vault and the failure to properly control a fire barrier.

"There is a trend in human performance," Cameron said. "I stress, individually, a cross-cutting issue is not a concern by itself. It's not a violation."

Still, the NRC listened with interest to FENOC representatives who spoke about actions taken in 2008 after the company was notified, along with a plan to minimize findings in the future.

Kurt Krueger, Perry's director of site operations, recited a litany of improvements FENOC had made or would make, ranging from the construction of a Safety and Human Performance Center to increased observing, coaching and mentoring of plant supervisors.

Fred Cayia, director of performance improvement at the plant, said officials also used various reports and industry standard indicators to gauge performance levels and workers' ability to prevent "events," or higher-level errors. Cayia said Perry's "event" level in January 2008 was about .55 of an event per 10,000 hours. That level improved to .352 by June of that year.

The FENOC panel didn't exactly receive an NRC grilling, but Cameron did pin FENOC to a timetable for improvements. Perry Plant Site Vice President Mark Bezilla said human performance corrections would become more noticeable during the third and fourth quarters of this year.

"We have seen improved behaviors on the part of leaders, and improvement behaviors on the part of workers, and we've seen an improvement on those higher levels of indicators," Cayia said, "but we're still having errors. We're not satisfied with errors we're experiencing.

"We have not arrived," he said. "Human performance will continue to be a focus for us going forward."

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