In October 1991 the NRC notified Southern California Edison (SCE), that due to past procedural issues, a rack mounted Foxboro Nest Conditioner (FNC) was no longer considered to be seismically qualified. Such nests are used to condition pressure, temperature, and flow transmitters. At the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) hundreds of safety related control and instrumentation channels were affected. If the seismic capability of the FNC could not be reestablished, SONGS faced mandatory shutdown in a few days.

2 WEEK TEST PERFORMED IN A WEEKEND

SCE contacted ANCO on Friday, 18 October. "Could seismic shake table tests be performed to avoid a shutdown on Monday, 21 October?" Kelly Merz, ANCO Principal Engineer, knew that such testing is normally planned and conducted over a 10-20 day period. "Responding to client emergency needs," noted Merz, "is in the ANCO spirit. In fact it seems we do our best work at odd hours!" While SCE prepared a FNC for testing, ANCO prepared its R-5 independent triaxial table to the test response spectra. The FNC arrived at 11 PM Friday. Testing began by 4 AM Saturday.

SEISMIC CAPACITY CONFIRMED

Working closely with SCE engineers, ANCO completed all testing by 5 PM Saturday. The tests, conducted under 10CFR21 and IEEE 344 guidelines, included chatter monitoring and functionality checks. The FNC passed the severe SCE seismic requirements. "The test was speeded up by the close cooperation of the SCE instrumentation group and the ability of our triaxial table to meet IEEE 344 without the need to rotate the equipment several times, as is required on biaxial tables," indicated Merz, "as well as a lot of hard work by all."

COMMENDATION

James T. Reilly, SCE Manager of Nuclear Engineering and Construction, subsequently wrote "SCE thanks ANCO for the outstanding effort performed. ANCO was requested, on very short notice, to perform seismic testing on items critical to the operation of San Onofre. Edison particularly wants to acknowledge the efforts of ANCO personnel including Kelly Merz, John Stoessel, Tom Solimeo, Phil Martinez, and Paul Ibanez. The commitment is greatly appreciated."