ML021280630

Request for Additional Information Re Tritium Production Program Interface Issue 5

ML021280630
Person / Time
Site:	Watts Bar
Issue date:	05/08/2002
From:	Padovan L NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD2
To:	Scalice J Tennessee Valley Authority
Padovan L, NRR/DLPM, 415-1423
References
TAC MB1884
Download: ML021280630 (7)

Text

May 8, 2002 Mr. J. A. Scalice Chief Nuclear Officer and Executive Vice President Tennessee Valley Authority 6A Lookout Place 1101 Market Street Chattanooga, Tennessee 37402-2801

SUBJECT:

WATTS BAR NUCLEAR PLANT, UNIT 1 - REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION RE: TRITIUM PRODUCTION PROGRAM INTERFACE ISSUE 5 (TAC NO. MB1884)

Dear Mr. Scalice:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has reviewed your letter of August 20, 2001, requesting an amendment to the operating license for the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, Unit 1.

Tennessee Valley Authoritys (TVAs) proposed amendment would modify the Technical Specifications related to irradiation of tritium producing burnable absorber rods in the reactor core.

We need additional information to complete our review and have prepared the attached request for additional information (RAI). Please refer to Interface Issue 5 in your reply. I discussed the enclosed RAI with Mr. Chardos, TVAs Tritium Program Manger, and he agreed to respond to this request by May 17, 2002. Please contact me on 301-415-1423 if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

/RA/

L. Mark Padovan, Project Manager, Section 2 Project Directorate II Division of Licensing Project Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-390

Enclosure:

Request for Additional Information cc w/ enclosure: See next page

May 8, 2002 Mr. J. A. Scalice Chief Nuclear Officer and Executive Vice President Tennessee Valley Authority 6A Lookout Place 1101 Market Street Chattanooga, Tennessee 37402-2801

SUBJECT:

WATTS BAR NUCLEAR PLANT, UNIT 1 - REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION RE: TRITIUM PRODUCTION PROGRAM INTERFACE ISSUE 5 (TAC NO. MB1884)

Dear Mr. Scalice:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has reviewed your letter of August 20, 2001, requesting an amendment to the operating license for the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, Unit 1.

Tennessee Valley Authoritys (TVAs) proposed amendment would modify the Technical Specifications related to irradiation of tritium producing burnable absorber rods in the reactor core.

We need additional information to complete our review and have prepared the attached request for additional information (RAI). Please refer to Interface Issue 5 in your reply. I discussed the enclosed RAI with Mr. Chardos, TVAs Tritium Program Manger, and he agreed to respond to this request by May 17, 2002. Please contact me on 301-415-1423 if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

/RA/

L. Mark Padovan, Project Manager, Section 2 Project Directorate II Division of Licensing Project Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-390

Enclosure:

Request for Additional Information cc w/ enclosure: See next page DISTRIBUTION:

PUBLIC PDII-2 R/F TKoshy BClayton (Hard Copy)

MPadovan MReinhart OGC PFredrickson SLaVie ACRS ADAMS ACCESSION NO:ML021280630 OFFICE PDII-2/PM PDII-2/LA PDII-2/ASC NAME MPadovan BClayton TKoshy DATE 5/02/02 5/02/02 5/03/02 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY

Request for Additional Information Tritium Production Program Interface Issue 5 Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, Unit 1 Docket No. 50-390

1. Section 2.15.6 of Enclosure 4, Westinghouse Report NDP-00-0344," of Tennessee Valley Authoritys (TVAs) August 20, 2001, amendment request addresses radiological consequences of various design basis accidents affected by the addition of tritium-producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs) to the Watts Bar reactor. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff needs additional information to make the requisite finding that the consequences of the accidents are consistent with regulatory criteria. Please refer to Regulatory Information Summary 2001-019, Deficiencies in the Documentation of Design Basis Radiological Analyses Submitted in Conjunction with License Amendment Requests, for a more complete discussion of the staffs expectations in regard to analysis descriptions. Please provide the information requested below or give us a specific reference if you have already docketed some of this information. For each accident analyzed:

• Provide a tabulation of all analysis inputs and assumptions used in offsite and control room habitability analyses in sufficient detail to enable the staff to evaluate the appropriateness of these data and, if deemed necessary, to perform confirmatory calculations.

• Describe any analysis methodology or modeling that is different from that previously approved by the NRC in a licensing action for Watts Bar. Please justify each change. This includes any changes in the determination of atmospheric dispersion values (X/Q) for offsite or control room intake.

• Please provide a substantiated basis for assuming 51 cfm control room unfiltered in leakage. Justify your "positive pressure means no in-leakage" assumption in light of industry experience on this subject.

• The NRCs letter of April 25, 2002, contained a second RAI on Interface Issue 7, questioning the ability of the TPBAR consolidation canister load-handling equipment to meet single failure criteria. If TVA does not address this under Interface Issue 7, please provide an analysis of the offsite and control room doses resulting from a dropped consolidation canister containing 300 TPBARs to demonstrate that the event is, in fact, bounded by the drop of a single assembly containing 24 TPBARs.

2. Section 1.5.5 of Enclosure 4 to TVAs letter of August 20, 2001, discusses control room habitability. The discussion appears to be limited to the emergency core cooling system leakage component of the loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA). You refer to Table 2.15.6-2 as the basis for TVAs conclusion that General Design Criterion 19 (GDC -19) will continue to be met.

We note that the language of GDC-19 is not restricted to LOCAs, but applies to all accidents.

Please explain how TVAs conclusion that meeting GDC-19 addresses all of the design-basis radiological accidents considered in the Watts Bar Updated Final Safety Analysis Report. If Enclosure

TVA based this conclusion on the LOCA being the limiting accident, please justify this conclusion addressing the following:

• the impact of accident-specific differences in release point configuration (e.g., upwind direction and distance, release point height, diffuse or point source, etc.)

• the impact of accident-specific differences in the activation of control room protective features inherent delays associated with these differences (e.g., instantaneous safety injection signal versus radiation monitor alarm)

• the impact of accident-specific differences in source terms on monitor response and isolation delay in reaching set point if actuation is based on radiation monitor response

• mode-dependent engineered safety feature operability for the fuel-handling accident versus at-power accidents, including the impact this may have on control room unfiltered in-leakage

3. TVA analyzed the total effective dose equivalent as well as whole body and thyroid doses to determined radiological consequence from TPBARs being in the reactor. TVAs submittal of August 20, 2002, does not appear to request that the total effective dose equivalent (TEDE) dose quantity and its associated dose criteria will replace the whole body and thyroid dose guidelines currently in the Watts Bar licensing basis. Please confirm our understanding that future design basis accident radiological analyses, intended to demonstrate compliance with regulatory criteria, will continue to assess whole body and thyroid doses, as well as TEDE, for tritium.

Mr. J. A. Scalice Tennessee Valley Authority WATTS BAR NUCLEAR PLANT cc:

Mr. Karl W. Singer, Senior Vice President Mr. Larry S. Bryant Manager Nuclear Operations Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Tennessee Valley Authority Tennessee Valley Authority 6A Lookout Place P.O. Box 2000 1101 Market Street Spring City, TN 37381 Chattanooga, TN 37402-2801 Senior Resident Inspector Mr. Jon R. Rupert, Vice President (Acting) Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Engineering & Technical U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Tennessee Valley Authority 1260 Nuclear Plant Road 6A Lookout Place Spring City, TN 37381 1101 Market Street Chattanooga, TN 37402-2801 Rhea County Executive 375 Church Street Mr. William R. Lagergren, Site Vice Suite 215 President Dayton, TN 37321 Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Tennessee Valley Authority County Executive P.O. Box 2000 Meigs County Courthouse Spring City, TN 37381 Decatur, TN 37322 General Counsel Mr. Lawrence E. Nanney, Director Tennessee Valley Authority Division of Radiological Health ET 11A Dept. of Environment & Conservation 400 West Summit Hill Drive Third Floor, L and C Annex Knoxville, TN 37902 401 Church Street Nashville, TN 37243-1532 Mr. Robert J. Adney, General Manager Nuclear Assurance Ms. Ann Harris Tennessee Valley Authority 341 Swing Loop Road 6A Lookout Place Rockwood, Tennessee 37854 1101 Market Street Chattanooga, TN 37402-2801 Dr. Gary Drinkard 340 Drinkard Dr.

Mr. Mark J. Burzynski, Manager Spring City, TN 37381 Nuclear Licensing Tennessee Valley Authority Ms. Vickie G. Davis 4X Blue Ridge TDEC-DOE Oversight Division 1101 Market Street 761 Emory Valley Road Chattanooga, TN 37402-2801 Oak Ridge, TN 37830-7072 Mr. Paul L. Pace, Manager Licensing and Industry Affairs Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Tennessee Valley Authority P.O. Box 2000 Spring City, TN 37381