ML032690314
| ML032690314 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Davis Besse  (NPF-003) |
| Issue date: | 10/07/2003 |
| From: | Dyer J Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | Riccio J Greenpeace |
| Fields M B, NRR/DLPM, 415-3062 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML032681092 | List: |
| References | |
| %dam200610, 2.206, G20030508, TAC MC0578 | |
| Download: ML032690314 (7) | |
Text
October 7, 2003 Mr. James P. Riccio Nuclear Policy Analyst Greenpeace 702 H Street, NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20001
Dear Mr. Riccio:
The petition dated August 25, 2003, submitted by Greenpeace on behalf of the Nuclear Information & Resource Service and the Union of Concerned Scientists (collectively, the Petitioners), and addressed to Dr. William D. Travers, has been referred to me pursuant to 10 CFR 2.206 of the Commissions regulations. The Petitioners requested that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) take enforcement actions against FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FirstEnergy), the licensee for Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio, and the Petitioners also requested that the NRC suspend the Davis-Besse license and prohibit plant restart until certain conditions have been met. As bases for the request to have the NRC take enforcement actions against the licensee, the Petitioners state that FirstEnergy has failed to complete commitments related to the NRCs 50.54(f) design basis letter (issued on October 9, 1996), and refer to numerous design basis violations dating back to plant licensing. The petitioners requested that the NRC suspend the Davis-Besse license and prohibit plant restart until all design basis deficiencies identified in response to the NRCs 50.54(f) design basis letter are adequately addressed, the plant probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) is updated to reflect design flaws, and no systems are in a "degraded but operable" condition. It should be noted that the information supplied by the Petitioners as the bases for the petition was obtained from publicly available correspondence between the NRC and FirstEnergy.
A copy of the petition has been made publicly available on the NRCs Web site via the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room under the Accession No. ML032400435.
NRC Management Directive (MD) 8.11, "Review Process for 10 CFR 2.206 Petitions,"
establishes the process and framework for evaluating and reviewing petitions under 10 CFR 2.206. This document, along with other general information on the process by which any member of the public may raise potential health and safety issues in a petition to the NRC, is available on our website at http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/regulatory/enforcement/petition.html.
In accordance with MD 8.11, we established a Petition Review Board (PRB) to review the Peitioners' request. In response to our offer, the Petitioners' representatives met with our PRB on September 17, 2003, to provide additional details in support of this request. This meeting was transcribed and the transcript is publicly available as a supplement to the petition (http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/ops-experience/vessel-head-degradation/controlled-correspondence.html). The results of that discussion have been considered in the PRB's
J. Riccio determination regarding the request for immediate action and in establishing the schedule for the review of the petition. After this meeting, the PRB also made the final determination that the Petitioners letter meets the criteria of MD 8.11 and will be treated as a 10 CFR 2.206 petition.
FirstEnergy may complete all necessary restart activities, and the NRC staff may complete all necessary oversight activities, before the staff can finalize its actions on all aspects of this petition. Therefore, we consider the requests to suspend the Davis-Besse license and preclude plant restart until certain conditions have been met to be equivalent to "immediate action" requests. The NRC will supplement this response with our findings on the Petitioners "immediate action" requests before the Davis-Besse plant is allowed to restart.
I would like to express my appreciation for the Petitioners interest in Davis-Besse. As provided by Section 2.206, we will fully evaluate and document the staff's decision in a Director's Decision within a reasonable time. I have assigned Mel Fields to be the petition manager for your petition. Mr. Fields can be reached at (301) 415-3062. I have enclosed for your information a copy of the notice that is being filed with the Office of the Federal Register for publication.
Sincerely,
/RA/
J. E. Dyer, Director Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
Enclosure:
Notice cc w/encl: See next page
J. Riccio determination regarding the request for immediate action and in establishing the schedule for the review of the petition. After this meeting, the PRB also made the final determination that the Petitioners letter meets the criteria of MD 8.11 and will be treated as a 10 CFR 2.206 petition.
FirstEnergy may complete all necessary restart activities, and the NRC staff may complete all necessary oversight activities, before the staff can finalize its actions on all aspects of this petition. Therefore, we consider the requests to suspend the Davis-Besse license and preclude plant restart until certain conditions have been met to be equivalent to "immediate action" requests. The NRC will supplement this response with our findings on the Petitioners "immediate action" requests before the Davis-Besse plant is allowed to restart.
I would like to express my appreciation for the Petitioners interest in Davis-Besse. As provided by Section 2.206, we will fully evaluate and document the staff's decision in a Director's Decision within a reasonable time. I have assigned Mel Fields to be the petition manager for your petition. Mr. Fields can be reached at (301) 415-3062. I have enclosed for your information a copy of the notice that is being filed with the Office of the Federal Register for publication.
Sincerely,
/RA/
J. E. Dyer, Director Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
Enclosure:
Notice cc w/encl: See next page DISTRIBUTION: See next page
- For previous concurrences see attached ORC Incoming: ML032400435 PKG: ML032681092 ACCESSION NO.: ML032690314 NRR-106 OFFICE PDIV-2/PM PDIV-2/LA TechEditor PDIV-2/SC*
PDIV/D*
NAME MFields EPeyton PKleene SDembek HBerkow DATE 10-2-03 10/2/03 9/17/03 9/23/03 9/23/03 OFFICE PDIII/D*
DLPM:D*
ADPT NRR:DIR NAME WRuland ELeeds for TMarsh BSheron JDyer DATE 9/25/03 9/26/03 10/3/03 10/7/03 DOCUMENT NAME: C:\\ORPCheckout\\FileNET\\ML032690314.wpd OFFICIAL RECORD COPY
2.206 ACKNOWLEDGMENT LETTER TO JAMES P. RICCIO (EDO-20030508)
DATED: October 7, 2003 DISTRIBUTION:
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PDIII-2 Reading RidsNrrDlpmLpdiii (WRuland)
RidsNrrDlpmLpdiii-2 (TMendiola)
RidsNrrLATHarris RidsNrrPMJHopkins RidsRgnIIIMailCenter (GGrant)
Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, Unit 1 cc:
Mary E. OReilly FirstEnergy Corporation 76 South Main St.
Akron, OH 44308 Manager - Regulatory Affairs FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station 5501 North State - Route 2 Oak Harbor, OH 43449-9760 Director, Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Industrial Compliance Bureau of Operations & Maintenance 6606 Tussing Road P.O. Box 4009 Reynoldsburg, OH 43068-9009 Regional Administrator U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 801 Warrenville Road Lisle, IL 60523-4351 Michael A. Schoppman Framatome ANP 1911 N. Ft. Myer Drive Rosslyn, VA 22209 Resident Inspector U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 5503 North State Route 2 Oak Harbor, OH 43449-9760 Randel J. Fast, Plant Manager FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station 5501 North State - Route 2 Oak Harbor, OH 43449-9760 Dennis Clum Radiological Assistance Section Supervisor Bureau of Radiation Protection Ohio Department of Health P.O. Box 118 Columbus, OH 43266-0118 Carol OClaire, Chief, Radiological Branch Ohio Emergency Management Agency 2855 West Dublin Granville Road Columbus, OH 43235-2206 Zack A. Clayton DERR Ohio Environmental Protection Agency P.O. Box 1049 Columbus, OH 43266-0149 State of Ohio Public Utilities Commission 180 East Broad Street Columbus, OH 43266-0573 Attorney General Department of Attorney General 30 East Broad Street Columbus, OH 43216 President, Board of County Commissioners of Ottawa County Port Clinton, OH 43252 President, Board of County Commissioners of Lucas County One Government Center, Suite 800 Toledo, OH 43604-6506 David Lochbaum, Nuclear Safety Engineer Union of Concerned Scientists 1707 H Street NW, Suite 600 Washington, DC 20006 The Honorable Dennis J. Kucinich United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515 The Honorable Dennis J. Kucinich, Member United States House of Representatives 14400 Detroit Avenue Lakewood, OH 44107 Paul Gunter Director Nuclear Watchdog Project Nuclear Information & Resource Service 1424 16th Street NW Suite 401 Washington, DC 20009 cc w/incoming dated August 25, 2003:
Mr. Lew Myers Chief Operating Officer FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station 5501 North State Route 2 Oak Harbor, OH 43449-9760
7590-01-P U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION DOCKET NO. 50-346 LICENSE NO. NPF-3 FIRSTENERGY NUCLEAR OPERATING COMPANY DAVIS-BESSE NUCLEAR POWER STATION, UNIT 1 RECEIPT OF REQUEST FOR ACTION UNDER 10 CFR 2.206 Notice is hereby given that by petition dated August 25, 2003, submitted by Greenpeace on behalf of the Nuclear Information & Resource Service and the Union of Concerned Scientists (collectively, the Petitioners), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has been requested to take enforcement actions against FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FirstEnergy), the licensee for Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio, and the NRC has also been requested to suspend the Davis-Besse license and prohibit plant restart until certain conditions have been met.
As bases for requesting the NRC to take enforcement actions against the licensee, the Petitioners state that FirstEnergy has failed to complete commitments related to the NRCs 50.54(f) design basis letter (issued on October 9, 1996), and refer to numerous design basis violations dating back to plant licensing. The petitioners request that the NRC suspend the Davis-Besse license and prohibit plant restart until all design basis deficiencies identified in response to the NRCs 50.54(f) design basis letter are adequately addressed, the plant probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) is updated to reflect design flaws, and no systems are in a "degraded but operable" condition.
The request is being treated pursuant to 10 CFR 2.206 of the Commission's regulations.
The request has been referred to the Director of the NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR). As provided by Section 2.206, appropriate action will be taken on this petition within a reasonable time.
A copy of the petition is available in the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) for inspection at the Commissions Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland, and from the ADAMS Public Library component on the NRCs Web site, http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the Public Electronic Reading Room), using Accession No. ML032400435. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS should contact the NRC's PDR reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737 or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 7th day of October 2003.
FOR THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
/RA/
J. E. Dyer, Director Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation