Cooper Fire Seals: Honestly, The NRC Is Discovering Unaddressed Violations In This Obsolete Plant

This is where all the critical safety power supplies get routed the control room. This is astonishing this went undiscovered for decays. How many other really old violations do they got in this plant?

The inspectors identified a Green, non-cited violation of License Condition 2.C(4), “Fire Protection,” for the failure to implement all provisions of the approved fire protection program.  Specifically, prior to July 2, 2019, the licensee failed to implement Surveillance Procedure 6.FP.606, “Fire Barrier/Penetration Seal Visual Examination,” Revision 25, for visual inspection of the cable expansion room west wall fire barrier and its associated MN 46 penetration to ensure that an unsealed penetration opening was identified.  As a result, the licensee failed to identify that the conduit seal was degraded until it was discovered by the inspectors on July 2, 2019, and subsequently declared nonfunctional by operations personnel. Description:  On July 2, 2019, the inspectors toured the cable expansion room, a  risk-significant area where safety-related cables from both divisions are routed.  The inspectors observed that a 3-inch cable conduit ran about 8 feet from the west wall of the room and opened near one of the cable trays.  The west wall of the cable expansion room was an FP1 Technical Requirements Manual (TRM)-required fire barrier.  The open end of the conduit had four cables in it, and the inspectors noted that the conduit seal material was missing from about half of the conduit opening.  The inspectors reported the degraded seal, labeled MN 46, to the control room.  In response, operations and fire protection personnel walked down the seal.  After review of applicable procedures and plant drawings, the licensee determined that the required intact smoke and hot gas seal could not be proven to exist.  Because the deficiency represented an unsealed fire barrier penetration, operations personnel declared the FP1 fire barrier that the conduit penetrated nonfunctional under TRM 3.11.7 and implemented the required hourly fire watch...