ML042450744
| ML042450744 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Callaway  |
| Issue date: | 09/01/2004 |
| From: | Donohew J NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD4 |
| To: | Randolph G Union Electric Co |
| Donohew J N, NRR/DLPM,415-1307 | |
| References | |
| BL-03-002, TAC MC0527 | |
| Download: ML042450744 (6) | |
Text
September 1, 2004 Mr. Garry L. Randolph Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer Union Electric Company Post Office Box 620 Fulton, MO 65251
SUBJECT:
CALLAWAY PLANT, UNIT 1 -
SUMMARY
OF CONFERENCE CALL ON JULY 28, 2004, TO DISCUSS VOLUMETRIC EXAMINATIONS OF REACTOR VESSEL BOTTOM MOUNTED NOZZLES (TAC NO. MC0527)
Dear Mr. Randolph:
The Commission issued Bulletin 2003-02, "Leakage from Reactor Pressure Vessel Lower Head Penetrations and Reactor Coolant Pressure Boundary Integrity," on August 21, 2003. In your response dated November 19, 2003 (ULNRC-04920), you committed to perform a visual inspection of the lower reactor pressure vessel head penetrations in the Spring 2004 refueling outage; however, a volumetric examination of the penetrations was also performed. This outage is the first refueling outage after the bulletin was issued.
In the conference calls on April 21, June 2, and July 28, 2004, the NRC staff discussed the results of the inspection of the lower reactor vessel head during the spring refueling outage.
Enclosed is the summary of the July 28, 2004, call in which the non-destructive examination techniques to detect lack of fusion were discussed.
There is no action being approved, and no request for additional information in this letter.
Sincerely,
/RA/
Jack Donohew, Senior Project Manager, Section 2 Project Directorate IV Division of Licensing Project Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-483
Enclosure:
Summary of Conference Call cc w/encl: See next page
September 1, 2004 Mr. Garry L. Randolph Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer Union Electric Company Post Office Box 620 Fulton, MO 65251
SUBJECT:
CALLAWAY PLANT, UNIT 1 -
SUMMARY
OF CONFERENCE CALL ON JULY 28, 2004, TO DISCUSS VOLUMETRIC EXAMINATIONS OF REACTOR VESSEL BOTTOM MOUNTED NOZZLES (TAC NO. MC0527)
Dear Mr. Randolph:
The Commission issued Bulletin 2003-02, "Leakage from Reactor Pressure Vessel Lower Head Penetrations and Reactor Coolant Pressure Boundary Integrity," on August 21, 2003. In your response dated November 19, 2003 (ULNRC-04920), you committed to perform a visual inspection of the lower reactor pressure vessel head penetrations in the Spring 2004 refueling outage; however, a volumetric examination of the penetrations was also performed. This outage is the first refueling outage after the bulletin was issued.
In the conference calls on April 21, June 2, and July 28, 2004, the NRC staff discussed the results of the inspection of the lower reactor vessel head during the spring refueling outage.
Enclosed is the summary of the July 28, 2004, call in which the non-destructive examination techniques to detect lack of fusion were discussed.
There is no action being approved, and no request for additional information in this letter.
Sincerely,
/RA/
Jack Donohew, Senior Project Manager, Section 2 Project Directorate IV Division of Licensing Project Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-483 DISTRIBUTION:
PUBLIC ESullivan
Enclosure:
Summary of Conference Call PDIV-2 Reading SCoffin RidsNrrDlpmPdiv (HBerkow) GCheruvenki cc w/encl: See next page RidsNrrPMJDonohew SMonarque RidsNrrLaEPeyton WCullen RidsACRSACNWMailCenter RidsRegion4MailCenter (D. Graves)
ACCESSION NO.: ML042450744 Nrc-001 OFFICE PDIV-2/PM PDIV-2/LA EMCB PDIV-2/SC NAME JDonohew:mp EPeyton ESullivan SDembek DATE 8/17/04 8/17/04 8/30/04 9/1/04 DOCUMENT NAME: C:\\ORPCheckout\\FileNET\\ML042450744.wpd OFFICIAL RECORD COPY
SUMMARY
OF CONFERENCE CALL ON JULY 28, 2004 VOLUMETRIC EXAMINATIONS OF REACTOR VESSEL BOTTOM MOUNTED NOZZLES UNION ELECTRIC COMPANY CALLAWAY PLANT, UNIT 1 DOCKET NO. 50-483 The NRC staff requested the call to further discuss the results of Union Electric Companys (the licensees) inspection of the lower head of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) at Callaway in refueling outage (RO) 13. This inspection was beyond the commitment made by the licensee, to visually inspect the lower head, in its letter dated November 19, 2003, in response to Bulletin 2003-02, "Leakage from Reactor Pressure Vessel Lower Head Penetrations and Reactor Coolant Pressure Boundary Integrity." RO 13 was conducted in the Spring of 2004, beginning April 10, 2004, and ending June 13, 2004. Previous calls were held with the licensee on April 21 and June 2, 2004. The list of attendees for this conference call on July 28, 2004, are attached to this summary.
The NRC staff started the call with the licensee noting that NRC had had a previous phone call on June 2, 2004, with the licensee to discuss the results of Callaways volumetric and surface examinations of the RPV bottom mounted nozzles (BMN). The NRC stated that it wanted to revisit the non-destructive examinations (NDE) discussed in the June 2, 2004, call, in particular the ability of Callaways NDE techniques to detect lack of fusion (LOF). In the June 2nd call, the licensee's representatives had discussed the scope of the examination and the techniques used and they had indicated that the inspections did not find any LOF indications. The NRC stated that before the June 2nd call, it had expected that the NDE at Callaway would detect LOF because of examination results obtained at South Texas Unit 1 and knowledge of welding of the materials involved. However, since the June 2nd call, the NRC has determined that the NDE probes used at Callaway are different from those used at South Texas.
The NRC staff asked the licensee's representatives to clarify whether there were any LOF reflectors in the ultrasonic examination (UT) demonstration mockups. The licensee responded that the mockups did not contain any LOF reflectors, but that it is believed that the time of flight diffraction (TOFD) technique used for the examination would be capable of detecting LOF. The NRC stated that this had been discussed with an NRC consulting NDE expert. The expert indicated that he believed it is possible to detect LOF using TOFD, but there are challenges involved and some measurements would need to be made to quantify the effectiveness of TOFD to detect and characterize absence of LOF. Because no studies have been made to quantify the effectiveness of LOF, the NRC cautioned against drawing conclusions from the BMN examinations at Callaway regarding the absence of LOF from BMNs in the RPV lower head. The NRC pointed out that the conclusions from the examinations regarding the absence of LOF from BMNs could have an effect on the decisions made by the licensee for future inspections of the BMNs or by the Materials Reliability Project (MRP) recommendations for long-term inspections of BMNs by industry.
The licensee agreed that this point was valid, but noted that no conclusions about the effectiveness of their examinations for LOF had been made in their communications with the NRC or with industry groups. The NRC agreed that this comment was correct.
The NRC staff commented that, during a recent conference call with the MRP, it had recommended the creation of mockups containing LOF reflectors which could be used to optimize the NDE techniques to detect LOF. The licensee was aware of this recommendation and indicated that the MRP was considering this recommendation. The NRC stated that, if the MRP decides to create such mockups, it would want to review and comment on the design of the mockups. The licensee stated that it would pass this comment on to the appropriate MRP task manager.
The NRC staff thanked the licensee for their time and concluded the conference call.
Attachment:
List of Conference Call Attendees
LIST OF CONFERENCE CALL ATTENDEES VOLUMETRIC EXAMINATIONS OF REACTOR VESSEL BOTTOM MOUNTED NOZZLES JULY 28, 2004 NRC/NRR/EMCB E. Sullivan S. Coffin G. Cheruvenki NRC/NRR/PDII S. Monarque NRC/RES/MEB W. Cullen Ameren UE D. Shafer B. Holderness K. Young D. Maxwell B. Montgomery Where:
NRC
= Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRR
= Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation RES
= Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research PDII
= Project Directorate II EMCB
= Materials and Chemical Engineering Branch MEB
= Materials Engineering Branch AmerenUE
= Ameren Union Electric Company
Callaway Plant, Unit 1 cc:
Professional Nuclear Consulting, Inc.
19041 Raines Drive Derwood, MD 20855 John ONeill, Esq.
Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge 2300 N. Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20037 Mr. Mark A. Reidmeyer, Regional Regulatory Affairs Supervisor Regulatory Affairs AmerenUE P.O. Box 620 Fulton, MO 65251 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Resident Inspector Office 8201 NRC Road Steedman, MO 65077-1302 Mr. Chris Younie Manager, Quality Assurance AmerenUE P.O. Box 620 Fulton, MO 65251 Manager - Electric Department Missouri Public Service Commission 301 W. High P.O. Box 360 Jefferson City, MO 65102 Regional Administrator, Region IV U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400 Arlington, TX 76011-4005 Mr. Ronald A. Kucera Deputy Director for Public Policy Department of Natural Resources P.O. Box 176 Jefferson City, Missouri 65102 Mr. Rick A. Muench President and Chief Executive Officer Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation P.O. Box 411 Burlington, KA 66839 Mr. Dan I. Bolef, President Kay Drey, Representative Board of Directors Coalition for the Environment 6267 Delmar Boulevard University City, MO 63130 Mr. Lee Fritz, Presiding Commissioner Callaway County Court House 10 East Fifth Street Fulton, MO 65151 Mr. David E. Shafer Superintendent, Licensing Regulatory Affairs AmerenUE P.O. Box 66149, MC 470 St. Louis, MO 63166-6149 Mr. Keith D. Young Manager, Regulatory Affairs AmerenUE P.O. Box 620 Fulton, MO 65251 Mr. Scott Clardy, Director Section for Environmental Public Health P.O. Box 570 Jefferson City, MO 65102-0570 Certrec Corporation 4200 South Hulen, Suite 630 Fort Worth, TX 76109