L-81-465, Forwards Corrected Page 1 to Attachment to Util Responding to NRC Re Pressurized Thermal Shock to Reactor Pressure Vessels

Forwards Corrected Page 1 to Attachment to Util Responding to NRC Re Pressurized Thermal Shock to Reactor Pressure Vessels

ML17341A593
Person / Time
Site:	Turkey Point
Issue date:	10/23/1981
From:	Robert E. Uhrig FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT CO.
To:	Eisenhut D Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
References
L-81-465, NUDOCS 8111020285
Download: ML17341A593 (17)

Text

s RKSULAiTQR>>Y INFORblAiTION D~ISTRIBUTiION SYSTE>>li (RIDS)

ACCESSIONi >>VBR 81'1'1 0 202B5s DOC ~ DA>>TEI~ 81/1 0/23'OTAR'IZED i NO DOCKEfTl IV FACIL>>:50: 250 Tur key Point'l anti Un>>it>> 3i. Florida>> Power and Lig5it C' 00 50:-251 Turkey Point: Pl anti Unit>> 4i, Florida Powe'r.

and Lignit C

050 AUTH1 NAME[

AUTHOR>> AFFILIAT>>ION UHR IGi R ~ E'~

Flor>>i de>> Power L L.igh,t C'o.

RE C IP' VA>>SKI REC>>IPI ENT AFF IL>>I AIT'IDN'IISE>>VHUTiiD',G, Division of Licensing, SUBJKCl1':: For wards cor rected Pagp 1 to'ttachment to util Bi 1 02'1>

1 tr-responding, to NRC 810821 1 tr>> re>> pressurized therma'l shbcki to>>

rebctor pressurei vessells; D~ISTRilBUTIQN CODE);

A0498'-

COPIES>> RECEIVED: LA'R ENCL(~'IZE.':-'

T~ITLE(:: Thermal Shock to. Reactori Vesseil NOTES':"

R K C>>I PI KNTl IO>> CODE'/NAMKI ACTilON~:

ORB1 0 f BC) 01 COPIES L>>Tq R E>>VC Li 13 13 RECIPIENT ID'ODE'/NAME'OPIES LR'iTRi ENCL(

INTERNALi; A/Di SA/DLl A EIOD BASDEKASiD DIRE C>>TORi D El O'IRECiTQR, DL~

DiIREC.TOR i DST GOODihll>>V'i Kl I G VE"iI JOHNSONiiRi NRRi D>>IRi NRR>>/DL'IR NRR'/DS I'/RAB" PROC/

REV I

0$ (

RES OR A'i VI'SSINGv Gv 04 WOODSiRl 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

.1 1

1 1

1 f*

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 1

1 A8 8 0>>TiT i El AUST>>IN, J>>

GROUSE i R'>>IRECTOR'iDHFS DIREC>>TDR'i DSI El O~

I 8 El JGH>>VSO>>V>>i C L>>IANiB

>>VRR'/DHF8 DEP Y09.

>>VRR'/DL/DR'AB' l

>>VRR'/DS I'/RSB Ri KLECKER>>

RES" DETl VAGINSii>>i'AZELiTON 1~

1 1

1 1 ~

1 1

1 1

0.

2 2'-

1 1 ~

1 1

1-0.

1 1>>

1 f~

1 1

1 fi 1XTERNALS ACR8

>>VRCl PORE

>>V T'IS 10.

0+>>

16 16 1

1 1

1 LPDR'VS I C>

03 06 XOV 06 ~

TOiTAL>>VU>>ABER< OF COPIES'EQUIRED::

LATR'7 ENCL<

65

0 ll V',

III

,It

. BOX 529100 MIAMI,F L 33152

~y~lllgg~

FLORIDA POWER 8( LIGHTCOMPANY October 23, 1981 L-81-465 Office of Nuclear 'Reactor Regulation Attention:

Mr. Darrell G. Eisenhut, Director Division of Licensing U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D. C.

20555

Dear Mr. Eisenhut:

Re:

FPL Letter L-81-462 Dated October 21, 1981 ATTACHMENT CORRECTION By our letter referenced

above, we responded to questions of your letter dated August 21, 1981 regarding Turkey Point Units 3

8 4 relating to pressurize'd thermal shock to reactor pressure vessels.

The attached corrected page replaces Attachment Page 1

of our letter referenced above.

Very truly yours, Robert E. Uhrig Vice President Advanced Systems 8 Technology REU:DAC:cf Attachment cc:

Mr. James P. O'Reilly, Region II Mr. Harold F. Reis, Esquire 8.% 1 0 2 0 gf$.

pic PEOPLE... SERVING PEOPLE

gt:

ll

Pressurized Thermal Shock to Reactor Pressure Vessel's uesti on 1):

Provide the RTNDT Values of the critical welds and;plates (or forgi ngs) in, your vessel for:

(a)

Initial (as built)'onditions and 1 ocati.on (e.g.

1/4T) and (b) current conditions (include fluence level') at the RPV inside carbon steel surface.

Response

1):

Materi al Initial

~RT gQ Current

~RT I1j

~RT~

(a)

Intermedi.ate Inner 123P481VA1

+50 F

Forging*

+35F

+85F Ci rcumferenti al (Girth): Weld**

Lower Forging*

SA 1101

+3 F

122S180VA1

+40 F

+190 F

+193F

+35F

+75F 1/4 T

Inner wall.

The current RTNnT (1/4 T)

= +168 F.

Value is based on Unit 3 data.which has been sfiown to be more representative of Unit 4 than surveillance capsule removed fran Unit 4 (L-77-113, dated April ll, 1977 and L-77-326, dated October 21, 1977).

+

Based on the slo e of prediction curves presented in proposed ASTM Standards "Pre icting Neutron Radiation Damage To Reactor Vessel Materi al."

(b)

There have been 5.61 Effective Ful,l:Power Years (EFPY) of operation as of September 30, 1981 at Turkey Point Unit 4.

The total fluence on the inner wall is 1.1 X 10 9 n/cm2 and 6.6 X 1018 n/cm2 at 1/4 T.

(jues~tion 2:

At what rate is 'RTNDT increasing for these welds and plate material?

Res onse 2

RTNDT is increasing at the rate of 7'F/EFPY for the next 10 years;. for the remainder of life, 5'F/EFPY.

The rate of change for the forgings i's 30F for the remaining design life of the vessel.

These are based on the slo e of prediction curves presented in proposed ASTM Standards

".Predicti.ng eutron Radiation Damage To Reactor Vessel Material."

uestion 5:

Provide a listing,of operator actions which are required for your plant to prevent pressurized thermal shock and to ensure vessel integrity.

Include a

Il l

I ll I.

IJ I

4 l

J

'l I,I'l l

C I

l

LEHIGH UNIVERSITY

)nsthu(e of Frac)use anC Solid Mechanics PacLard Lab. B}d8. N)9 BETHLEHEM, PEA.'CSYLVANIA,l8015 Telex Yo. Lehigh Univ. UD 7)0-670-)066 g ['(') fj):.

, w G. C. Sih Di:ecto.'ctober l(~.

198'ttorney Yiartin H. Hodder 1131 N.E. 86th Street Niami, Florida 33138 RE:

Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant Unit No.':

and Surveillance Program Reactor Vessel Lmbrittlement

Dear Attorney Hodder:

In response to your letter da.ed August 29, 1985 and the abnve referenced subject matter, I have read the package of documents on th<<

RPV e::;t>.-i:tlement program at Turkey Point Unit No. 4.

A number of supporting argu>>ants with ref-erence to the calculation of bRTNDT ale questionable If not invalid from the scientific view point.

In what follows, the SMRI report and the FPL setter shall be referred to as

$1]* and t2j**, respectively.

(1}

Sn%I Prediction t'1 Based on the RPV material surveillance methodology, SM-.:! fl: estimated the shift in RTN>- for Turkey Point Unit No. 4.

The results per;a'.):i:.'o wall ND) loca.ion 1/4T based on the data of Capsule T -in terms of L'FPY a. e sum= -ized graprically on the sheet attached to this letter.

The shift in R;,,.

': found tc be*a -.oximately 324'F at 8 EFPY.

This is beyond the NRC screef.',:"

ialue of 300eF.

E.

Unit port B. Norris, "Reactor Vessel Material Surveillance Prooram fo Nc. 4:

Aralysis of "apsule T", Southwest Research Institute Nc. 02-4221, June 1976.

y Point

ical Re-

+*

Le ter, Ul io, FPL, to Eie,".l'ut, "Re:

Turkey P.in. Unit <,

Docs.~ :.s.

50-251, P:S to Reactor Pressure Vessels",

January 21, 1982.

'2-(2)

FPL Res onse 2

Mith reference to the material in Docket No. 50-:'51 on P1S of RPV as stated in [23, a lower aRTNDT value of 211'F was obtained for Unit No. 4.

This result,'.however, was obtained by application of the survei'.lance data taken from Turkey Point Unit No. 3.

The, justification was that the n~t".llurgica1 Properties of the beltline welds of the Turkey.Points Units No.

3 ard t'o.

4 are the same and that data on Unit No. 4 are not sufficient.

,(3)

Comments The rate at which the beltline weld material deteriorates and/or em-brittles depends on the eomMned effects of irradiation and pressurized thermal shock. 'It is plant-specific in the sense that the influence differs inherently from one unit to another.

In other words, the metallurgical properties alone

.. cannot determine the damage behavior of the welds.

The ZocAno k'~.<one plays <

major role.

Unless the rates of irradiation, fluctuations in thermal gradients and time variation in pressure are exactly the same for both Units No.

3 and No. 4, one is not justified to assume that data collected in Unit No.

3 could be applied to predict the behavior of Unit No. 4.

Hence, conclusions drawn on tRTNDT for Unit No.

4 based on the da.a of Unit No.

3 cannot be considered valid.

I will not delve into the other details concerning the actual calculation of aRTNDT as they are beyond the scope o

our imnediate concern.

Very sincerely vours,

'George C. Sih Professor of tiechanics GCS:bd

• '='.

Enclosure

Oata Reproduced. from Table on Page 3 at Mall Los<<tion 1/4T, Report by E.

B. Norris, "Reactor Vessel Naterial."urveillance Program for Turkey Point Unit No. 4:

Analysis u< Capsule T",

Southwest Research institute Technical Report Nn. 02-4221, June

1976, 500 400

~ tg 350 300 250 200 324'F I

1 l

I I

I I

I l

I l

t NPC Screening Criterion 8

10 15 20 E

ect'.ve Full Po~er Year (EFPY)

r

oc Dr.

Geo. oe C.

M. Sih Professor of Mechanics and Director of the Institute o

Fracture and Solid Mecharics

~

Dr.. Si'

. vrrently Professor of Mechanics and Director of the Institute of Fractur-a';"'olid Mechanics at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

h{ lds the appoir.ment'of Adjunct Professor at The Hahnemann Medical Col-lege and H-.,spital of Philadelphia since 1972.

He received his B.S. at the Uni-versity of Por'land;

Oregon, 1953;.his M.S. at New York University, 1957; and ph.D. at Lehigh University, 1960; all of thee degrees in Mechanical Engineering.

Dr. Sih has engaoed in research in the in.eraction of mechanical deforma.ion and heat flow (1960) supported by the Koppers Foundation, in Fracture Mechanics (1950 and 1961) for the Boeing Company Transport Division and (1962 to 1965) for the -National Science Foundation, and as a member of the Technical Staff, Bell Te'.ephone Laboratory (Surfer 1961).

He has been engaoed as Principal Investigator in more than fifty projects at Lehigh University sponsored by the Office of Naval

Research, Naval Research Laboratorv, the National Aeronautics and Space Adminis-tration, the Air Force, the Arry, etc.,'ll of which are concerned with opti-mizing the use of high performance material with design, a discipline that has r

beer freq~e:tl.> referred to as "Fracture Mechanics".

'Much of his work has been concerned with es:imating the remaining life of material and structural components dar aged by yielding ar.".or fracture.

He specializes in developing co:@uter soft-ware for predicting th~

mecI arical behavior of structures and the stability of objects moving through fluid media.

his more recent activities are concerned'ith the influence of moisture and te >perature ln co;.-,osite ma ellals laser glazing tech;iques a~d no."-destru tive testing methods involving higt'-voltage electrophotography.

.0 Fror.: 1953 to 1957, Dr. Sih was e-.

~ ioyed by Pa"io Corporation O'.

America as a project and re:eiirch engineer.

He worked on the research ard developnent of input and output d..vices for the first generation "Bizmark" computer system.

Among the sigr<i'.'cant patents he obtained were:

h 1..

Adju~', optical system for line printing.

0 2.

.Autor '.:: " 'gnetic disc printing device for the Xerox process.

In 1957 ~-." 19'. 8, Dr. Sih returned to the academic life and served at the City College of Ne~ York as Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering.

He came to Lehi gh Uni vers i ty Assistant Prc '.e's-.

held the positior in 195B as In..tructor in Engineering af er comp'c tion of his doctorate.

of Visiting Professor in Aeronautics Mechanics and was appointed From 1965 to 1966, Dr.. Sih at the California Institu'e of Technology and crack propagation participated in an Air Force research project on the dyramics of and size effects in the fracture of plates.

Dr.:Sih assumed in 1970 the du"..es of Regio'nal Editor, International Journal of Fracture Mechanics, a~ d the responsibilities of soliciting and reviewing papers in the field of fracture Mechanics.

From 1971 to 1975, he served as an Associate Editor.of the ASM: Journal of Applied Mechanics.

'He is also on the Editorial Ad-visory Board of the Journal of Engineering Fracture Mechanics.

He is also Ed~tor-in-Chief of an Interrati~'l Journal of Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics.

Dr. Sih is a Fe'ow of tie American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Honorary Fellow""of the Internatir>> al Congress of Fracture.

He is also a foundino member of the Ir+erra',ional C:::, era+ive Fracture Institute, an organization established to promote the interc~.'e of ideas and information among active researchers in

'fracture m chanics.

Dr.. Sih is'lso a

me".;

of the fol'oi irig societies:

i 1

~

Society of Signa Xi 2.

AS'on-..ittee E-24 on Fracture Testing of Y<a+erials 3.

International Society of Engineering Science 4.

American Society of Civil Engineering 5.

American Society of Hechanical Engineering 6.

Interriatioral Society for the Interaction of He;! anics aric'. 1'<1hematics Dr. Sih is the Editor of three book series.

Seven volumes on thr <echanics of Fracture series have been or are about to be published:

Volume I

- Methods of knalysis and Solutions to Cra~k Problems, 1973 Volume II - Three-Dimensiorial Crack Problems, 1974 Volume III Volume IV Volume V

- Plates ard Shells with Cracks, 1976

- Elas+odynamic Crack Problems, 1976

- Stress kralysis of Notch Problems, 1976 Volume VI

- Cracks in Composite Yiaterials, 1980 Volume VII - Experimenal Evaluation of Stress Corcentration and Intensity

Factors, 1980 The two other series are Fati ue and Fracture:

Volume I

- Fatigue and Fracture, S.

Kocanda, 1978 Volume II - Fracture t'icromechanics of Polymer Na:erials, V. 5.

>:i:,shenko and V. P. Tamuzh, 1980 and Enoineerinri k" lication of Fracture He Ianics:

Vol um I

- Fracture %chanics Yiethodol ogv:

Eve 1 ua. ion of St i.u:; ural lo:-:~:

nents Integrity, edited by G.

C. Sih a-d L. Faria

,.-~c II

~

~

MsxeC Miode Crack Enter sior by E.

E. Gdouto.

-- III - Fracture Nechanics of Concrete:

Material Characterization and Testing, edi ted by A. Carpinteri and A. Ingra ffea Volure IV Volume V

Volume YI Fracture Mechanics'f Concrete:

Numeric~1 Analysis and Struc.ural Application by G.

C. Sih anC Ii. DiTommaso Bonded Repair of Aircraft Structure by I

b. Balt r arid R. Jor es Crack Grouch and Material Damage iri Coi

< i

< tc'.

Lin:i'. Load arid Brittle Frac ture by A.

Ca rpinteri Dr. Sih has also served as principal organizer and editor of proceedings of several conferences:

1.

International Conference on "Dyniamic Crack Prop,<;ation",

(1972), Lehigh University 2.

Internatiorial Corference on "Prospects of Fracture Mechaflies", (1974';,

The Netherlands 3..

Conference on "Linear Fracture Mechanics",

(1975), Lehigh University 4;

Interriational Corference on "Fracture Mechanics and Technology",

(1976),

Hong Kong 5.="

14th Annual Meeting of the Society of Engir merino Science, (l977),

'.e-high University 6;

First USA-USSR Symposium on "Fracture of Composite Match la s',

(1975'),

USSR 7.

International Conference on "Fracture Mechanics in Engii

.-: "' " Applica-tions", (1979), India 8.

International Coriference ori "Analytical and Experimen+a

~ fi~cture N=-

chanics",

(1980), Italy 9.

International Con.erence on Defects arid Fractu e", (.9;-'.:), Po'.and 10.

International Conference on "Yixed Yiode Crack I'ropagation",

(1980),

Greece 11.

International Conference on "Absorbed Energy arid/or Specific Strall'i En-ergy Density Criter ion", (1980),

Hungary 12.

International Coriference on "Defects, Fractur~

and Fatigue",

(1982),

Cariada 13.

International Conference on "Fracture Yiechanics 7echnnlogy Applied to Yaterial Evaluatiori and Structure Design",

(1982), Australia 14.

International Conference on "Application of Fracture Hechanics to Na-terials and Structures",

(1983),

Germany Dr. Sih has approximately two hundred publications principally in the area of solid and fracture mechanics.

He has authored and co-authored a total of three books.

Handbook of Stress Intensity Factors, 1973 2.

Three Dimensional Crack Problems (with Yi. K. Kassir),

1974 3.

Cracks in Composite ¹terials (v ith E.

P. Chen),

1980 Dr. Sih received the 1975 Achievement Award from the Chinese Institute of Engineers in the United States and the 1984 Achievement Award from the Chinese Engineers and Scientists Association of Southern California for his accomplishments ir research and teaching in fracture and solid mechariics.

Dr. Sih has also beer active in serving as members of riatic ~ =.':~ittees.

Among ther are the National Yiaterials Advisory Board conicernina

~.i the Dyraric

Response

of Y~terials Subjected to High Strair Rate koadira; Shii t'~!erials Fab-ri:ation arid Inspection; and other cow;ittees concerrinc Nu lear hf'c:ctor Compo-nfnts Cf

A Cox Newspaper Friday Afternoon. October 25. 19ffb 40 Pages Make Ieectcr vvalms CBllled

'embff'ittted't TUrkey Point KI.LEMHAMPTON AW+4 items 8eeettor A metals engineer who re-viewed a 1976 Florida Power &

Bght Co. report on two nuclear reactors at Turkey Point maintains that the walls of one of the reac-tors has

"..gone Into embrlttle-inent" and should be promptly ln-pected.

But an FP&Lspokesman said the conditions of the reactor walls are within federally set safety stan-4ar'ds and do not warrant immedi-ate inspection. an assessment the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agrees with, aa NRC spokesman said.

'he fssue of the reactor's em-brittlement, or lack of ductility pliability) caused by age and etress, was raised at a press con-ference yesterday by Joette Lo-rioa, a freelance writer-researcher who founded and serves as the sole member of, the Miami-based Center for Nuclear Responsibility, a nuclear watchdog group.

Lorioa obtained the FP&Lreport

'rom the NRC Ia August and sent ftto Dr. George Sih, director of the Institute of Fracture and Solid Me-chanics at Lehigh University in Ifethfehem, Pa., for analysis.

Sih said fn a telephone intervfew that after reviewing the FP&L re-port, he concluded that the walls on the Unit Four reactor at Turkey Point reached a condition ot em-brfttlement in 1981.

"According to the report. the arateriaf has gone fnto embrittle-rnent," Sih said.

~

Sih. who was named a feBow of the American Society of Mechani-cal Engineers in 1973 for distin-guished work, said he pioneered the field of assessing the life span wrrd strength ot metals and has conducted many assessments on nuclear plants nationwide in the past decade.

FP&L spokesman Dave Wolver-ton stfd he hcs read Sih's report and "we have found his assess-ment was a limited assessment with a lin:ited "amount of informa-tion. Some of it in fact was old. It was not a comprehensive study of the u:hole situation."

Srn said he could not discuss whether Unit Four ls potentially dangerous because of the many factors that contribute to safety at a nuclear power plant. But he safd the information in the FP&L re-port called for further study.

"They should seriously re-evalu-ate the situation," Sih said. "Ac-cording to their assessmertt, it has passed beyond the limits. The pub-lic deserves an answer on that ba-sis Brittle walls can become dan-gerous during sudden changes ot temperature. If a minor accident were to occur and Unit Four had to be cooled down quickly with water, the walls could shatter. A cracked reactor would result in a meltdown, Lorion said, and NRC sdentlsts agree.

And a

meltdown at Turkey Pofnt, according to a report by Sandia Labs for the NRC, could be expected to cause immediate death to anyone within a 20-mile radius

~

of the plant and radioactive con-,

tamination to a 70-mile radius..

Turkey Point's just north of Homestead in deep South Dade.,

I Wolverton said that Unit Four walls have not become dangerous-l ly embrittled.

He said there is

'ome embrittlement of the walls, but that lt has not exdeeded feder-al safety standards.

"We contend that the plant is sate or we wouldn't run it," Wol-verton said.

NRC spokesman Frank Ingram aafd his agency had studied the po-tential for embrittlement at Tur-key Point and was satisfied that "embrlttlement would not be a problem for either reactor for some time, possibly even up to the end of its 40-year life span.

'e said the NRC currently fs re-viewing FP&L's 1976 report as part ot a hearing request by Lo-rion's group on the embrfttfemi;nt issue. Thc report, based on a 1975 test by Southv, est Research Indus-trIes Inc. of Texas, said that Unit Four would exceed federally set safety standards for brittleness be-tween its fifthand tenth "effective full power year," which is mea-sured in time at full operating

~

power.

Snulhwcst Rci<<iirch Industries filrd an ad<lllin>>al riliort fn 1979 equaling sevr>> rff<<c rive full pow-er years at Turkry Point to 10 cal-endar years. It suggested that an-other brittleness test be conducted in seven full-power years.

Unit Four, currently in ils eighth full power year. was scheduled tor a brittleness inspection this year.

But FPgiL requested permlssfon from the NRC to delay the teston its request, FP&L said ft wanted to begin an integrated program of testing between Unit Three and Unit Four, thus reducing employee exposure to radiation and avoiding possible power outages.

The NRC approved the delay and FP&L's plan to test material from Unit Three to evaluate condi-tions in Unit Four based on several criteria. Among them, the NRC said, the units must be "sufHcient-ly similar to permit accurate com-parisons" and there must be "sub-stantial advantages" to personnel and power clients in reduced radi-ation exposure and outages.

FP&L responded that Units Three and Four are identical in de-sign. modifications and materiel and are operated under the same conditions. FP&l. acknowledged a

difference in emb..':llement be-tween the two units r>>d attributed it to different lev<<ls of usage.

The Southwest Rrscarch Indus-tries Inc. tests shnwrd considera-

. bly lower ernbririlrr cnt levels for Unit Three than

.'i "nit Four, Sih said. Unit Thirr. li r example, was not expectc ':i

~

ceed federal safety standaiui r.i

'. after 10 full power years.

Martin Hod:;i; i "orney for Lo-rion's group, s:.i', i'.~t with the ap-proved delay i:.:irittlement of Unit.Four's vi>>lli ~ ould not be ex-amined for arii".l i

~ l4 years. Wol-verton said lir i "uldn't say how long the ext'>>."i >> is for iri re-quired testing Litigation 1!i i<>cli nr Responsibility began in 198'. << lien Lorior. co~-

plained to tl.

NRC about Turkey Point.