ML050590044

License Amendment, Revising Cycle 13 Minimum Critical Power Ratio Safety Limit and References

ML050590044
Person / Time
Site:	Susquehanna
Issue date:	02/28/2005
From:	Richard Guzman NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD1
To:	Shriver B Susquehanna
Guzman R, NRR/DLPM 415-1030
References
TAC MC4431
Download: ML050590044 (12)

Text

February 28, 2005 Mr. Bryce L. Shriver President-PPL Generation and Chief Nuclear Officer PPL Susquehanna, LLC Two North Ninth Street, GENTW15 Allentown, PA 18101-1179

SUBJECT:

SUSQUEHANNA STEAM ELECTRIC STATION, UNIT 2 - ISSUANCE OF AMENDMENT REGARDING MINIMUM CRITICAL POWER RATIO SAFETY LIMIT AND REFERENCE CHANGES (TAC NO. MC4431)

Dear Mr. Shriver:

The Commission has issued the enclosed Amendment No. 194 to Facility Operating License No. NPF-22 for the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, Unit 2 (SSES-2). This amendment consists of changes to the Technical Specifications (TSs) in response to your application dated September 8, 2004, as supplemented by your letters dated February 1 and 14, 2005.

This amendment changes the SSES-2 TSs by revising the SSES-2 Cycle 13 Minimum Critical Power Ratio Safety Limit in Section 2.1.1.2 and the references listed in Section 5.6.5.b.

A copy of our safety evaluation is also enclosed. Notice of Issuance will be included in the Commission's Biweekly Federal Register Notice.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Richard V. Guzman, Project Manager, Section 1 Project Directorate I Division of Licensing Project Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-388

Enclosures:

1. Amendment No. 194 to License No. NPF-22

2. Safety Evaluation cc w/encls: See next page

February 28, 2005 Mr. Bryce L. Shriver President-PPL Generation and Chief Nuclear Officer PPL Susquehanna, LLC Two North Ninth Street, GENTW15 Allentown, PA 18101-1179

SUBJECT:

SUSQUEHANNA STEAM ELECTRIC STATION, UNIT 2 - ISSUANCE OF AMENDMENT REGARDING MINIMUM CRITICAL POWER RATIO SAFETY LIMIT AND REFERENCE CHANGES (TAC NO. MC4431)

Dear Mr. Shriver:

The Commission has issued the enclosed Amendment No. 194 to Facility Operating License No. NPF-22 for the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, Unit 2 (SSES-2). This amendment consists of changes to the Technical Specifications (TSs) in response to your application dated September 8, 2004, as supplemented by your letters dated February 1 and 14, 2005.

This amendment changes the SSES-2 TSs by revising the SSES-2 Cycle 13 Minimum Critical Power Ratio Safety Limit in Section 2.1.1.2 and the references listed in Section 5.6.5.b.

A copy of our safety evaluation is also enclosed. Notice of Issuance will be included in the Commission's Biweekly Federal Register Notice.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Richard V. Guzman, Project Manager, Section 1 Project Directorate I Division of Licensing Project Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-388

Enclosures:

1. Amendment No. 194 to License No. NPF-22

2. Safety Evaluation cc w/encls: See next page DISTRIBUTION:

PUBLIC PDI-1 RF RLaufer FAkstulewicz ACRS THuan g

RGuzman MOBrien GHill (2) OGC GMatakas, RGN-1 TBoyce DLPM DPR

• SE provided. No major changes made.

ADAMS Accession No.: ML050590044 OFFICE PDI-1/PM PDI-2/LA SRXB

• OGC PDI-1/SC NAME RGuzman MO'Brien FAkstulewicz DCummings RLaufer DATE 2/25/05 2/25/05 1/18/05 SE DTD 2/23/05 2/25/05

OFFICIAL RECORD COPY Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, Units 1 and 2 cc:

Britt T. McKinney Michael H. Crowthers Vice President - Nuclear Site Operations Supervising Engineer PPL Susquehanna, LLC Nuclear Regulatory Affairs 769 Salem Blvd., NUCSB3 PPL Susquehanna, LLC Berwick, PA 18603-0467 Two North Ninth Street, GENPL4 Allentown, PA 18101-1179 Robert A. Saccone General Manager - Nuclear Operations Dale F. Roth PPL Susquehanna, LLC Manager - Quality Assurance 769 Salem Blvd., NUCSB3 PPL Susquehanna, LLC Berwick, PA 18603-0467 769 Salem Blvd., NUCSB2 Berwick, PA 18603-0467 Aloysius J. Wrape, III General Manager - Performance Luis A. Ramos Improvement and Oversight Community Relations Manager, PPL Susquehanna, LLC Susquehanna Two North Ninth Street, GENPL4 PPL Susquehanna, LLC Allentown, PA 18101-1179 634 Salem Blvd., SSO Berwick, PA 18603-0467 Terry L. Harpster General Manager - Plant Support Bryan A. Snapp, Esq PPL Susquehanna, LLC Assoc. General Counsel 769 Salem Blvd., NUCSA4 PPL Services Corporation Berwick, PA 18603-0467 Two North Ninth Street, GENTW3 Allentown, PA 18101-1179 Gregory F. Ruppert General Manager - Nuclear Engineering Supervisor - Document Control Services PPL Susquehanna, LLC PPL Susquehanna, LLC 769 Salem Blvd., NUCSB3 Two North Ninth Street, GENPL4 Berwick, PA 18603-0467 Allentown, PA 18101-1179 Rocco R. Sgarro Richard W. Osborne Manager - Nuclear Regulatory Affairs Allegheny Electric Cooperative, Inc.

PPL Susquehanna, LLC 212 Locust Street Two North Ninth Street, GENPL4 P.O. Box 1266 Allentown, PA 18101-1179 Harrisburg, PA 17108-1266 Walter E. Morrissey Director - Bureau of Radiation Protection Supervising Engineer Pennsylvania Department of Nuclear Regulatory Affairs Environmental Protection PPL Susquehanna, LLC P.O. Box 8469 769 Salem Blvd., NUCSA4 Harrisburg, PA 17105-8469 Berwick, PA 18603-0467 Senior Resident Inspector U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, Units 1 and 2 cc:

P.O. Box 35, NUCSA4 Berwick, PA 18603-0035 Regional Administrator, Region 1 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 475 Allendale Road King of Prussia, PA 19406 Board of Supervisors Salem Township P.O. Box 405 Berwick, PA 18603-0035 Dr. Judith Johnsrud National Energy Committee Sierra Club 443 Orlando Avenue State College, PA 16803

PPL SUSQUEHANNA, LLC ALLEGHENY ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC.

DOCKET NO. 50-388 SUSQUEHANNA STEAM ELECTRIC STATION, UNIT 2 AMENDMENT TO FACILITY OPERATING LICENSE Amendment No. 194 License No. NPF-22

1. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the Commission or the NRC) having found that:

A. The application for the amendment filed by PPL Susquehanna, LLC, dated September 8, 2004, as supplemented by letters dated February 1 and 14, 2005, complies with the standards and requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (the Act), and the Commission's regulations set forth in 10 CFR Chapter I; B. The facility will operate in conformity with the application, the provisions of the Act, and the regulations of the Commission; C. There is reasonable assurance: (i) that the activities authorized by this amendment can be conducted without endangering the health and safety of the public, and (ii) that such activities will be conducted in compliance with the Commission's regulations set forth in 10 CFR Chapter I; D. The issuance of this amendment will not be inimical to the common defense and security or to the health and safety of the public; and E. The issuance of this amendment is in accordance with 10 CFR Part 51 of the Commission's regulations and all applicable requirements have been satisfied.

2. Accordingly, the license is amended by changes to the Technical Specifications as indicated in the attachment to this license amendment and paragraph 2.C.(2) of the Facility Operating License No. NPF-22 is hereby amended to read as follows:

(2) Technical Specifications and Environmental Protection Plan The Technical Specifications contained in Appendix A, as revised through Amendment No. 194 and the Environmental Protection Plan contained in Appendix B, are hereby incorporated in the license. PPL Susquehanna, LLC shall operate the facility in accordance with the Technical Specifications and the Environmental Protection Plan.

3. This license amendment is effective as of its date of issuance and shall be implemented within 30 days.

FOR THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

/RA/

Richard J. Laufer, Chief, Section 1 Project Directorate I Division of Licensing Project Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation

Attachment:

Changes to the Technical Specifications Date of Issuance: February 28, 2005

ATTACHMENT TO LICENSE AMENDMENT NO. 194 FACILITY OPERATING LICENSE NO. NPF-22 DOCKET NO. 50-388 Replace the following pages of the Appendix A Technical Specifications with the attached revised pages. The revised pages are identified by amendment number and contain marginal lines indicating the areas of change.

REMOVE INSERT TS/2.0-1 TS/2.0-1 TS/5.0-22 TS/5.0-22 TS/5.0-23 TS/5.0-23 TS/5.0-23a TS/5.0-23a

SAFETY EVALUATION BY THE OFFICE OF NUCLEAR REACTOR REGULATION RELATED TO AMENDMENT NO. 194 TO FACILITY OPERATING LICENSE NO. NPF-22 PPL SUSQUEHANNA, LLC ALLEGHENY ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC.

SUSQUEHANNA STEAM ELECTRIC STATION, UNIT 2 DOCKET NO. 50-388

1.0 INTRODUCTION

By application dated September 8, 2004, Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML042590562, as supplemented by letters dated February 1 and 14, 2005, ADAMS Accession Nos. ML050410261 and ML050540551, respectively, PPL Susquehanna, LLC, (PPL, the licensee), requested changes to the Technical Specifications (TSs) for Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, Unit 2 (SSES-2).

The supplemental letters dated February 1 and 14, 2005, provided additional information that clarified the application, did not expand the scope of the application as originally noticed, and did not change the staffs original proposed no significant hazards consideration determination as published in the Federal Register on January 4, 2005 (70 FR 404).

The proposed changes would revise the SSES-2 Cycle 13 (U2C13) Minimum Critical Power Ratio (MCPR) Safety Limit in Section 2.1.1.2 and the references listed in Section 5.6.5.b.

2.0 REGULATORY EVALUATION

2.1 Regulatory Requirements The regulatory requirements and guidance which the NRC staff considered in its review of the application are as follows:

1. Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) establishes the fundamental regulatory requirements with respect to the reactivity control systems. Specifically, General Design Criterion 10 (GDC-10), Reactor design, in Appendix A, "General Design Criteria for Nuclear Power Plants," to 10 CFR Part 50 states, in part, that the reactor core and associated coolant, control, and protection systems shall be designed with appropriate margin to assure that specified acceptable fuel design limits are not exceeded.

2. NRC Generic Letter 88-16 (GL 88-16), Removal of Cycle-Specific Parameter Limits from Technical Specifications, provides guidance on modifying cycle-specific parameter limits in the TSs.

3. NUREG-0800, Standard Review Plan for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants, provides guidance on the acceptability of the reactivity control systems, the reactor core, and fuel-system design. Specifically, Section 4.2, Fuel System Design, specifies the criteria for evaluation of fuel-design limits such that there be at least 95% probability at a 95% confidence level that the hot fuel rod in the core does not experience a departure from nucleate boiling or a transition condition during normal operation or anticipated operational occurrences. Section 4.4, Thermal Hydraulic Design, provides guidance on the review of thermal-hydraulic design in meeting the requirement of GDC-10 and the fuel-design criteria established in Section 4.2.

3.0 TECHNICAL EVALUATION

3.1 Proposed Change to MCPR Safety Limit PPL proposed to change the MCPR safety limit values in TS 2.1.1.2 for U2C13 operation from 1.10 to 1.09 for two-recirculation loop operation and from 1.11 to 1.10 for single-recirculation loop operation with the reactor steam dome pressure $ 785 psig and core flow $ 10 million lbm/hr. The current U2C13 core given in Figure 1 of the February 1, 2005, supplement has 764 fuel assemblies, of which there are 292 fresh ATRIUM-10 bundles, 284 once-burned ATRIUM-10 bundles, and 188 twice-burned ATRIUM-10 bundles.

PPL described the approved methodologies used to calculate the MCPR safety limit value for the proposed TS change in the submittal. The U2C13 MCPR safety limit analysis was performed by Framatone-ANP (FANP) using SSES-2, plant-and cycle-specific fuel and core parameters including power profiles provided by PPL and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)-approved methods, (1) ANF-524(P)(A), Rev. 2, Critical Power Methodology for Boiling Water Reactors, Supplement 1 Revision 2 and Supplement 2, (2) EMF-1997(P)(A), Rev. 0 &

Supplement 1, Rev. 0, (3) EMF-2158(P)(A), Rev. 0, Siemens Power Corporation Methodology for Boiling Water Reactors: Evaluation and Validation of CASMO-4/MICROBURN-B2.

PPL provides justification that the decrease in the MCPR safety limit is due to a reduction in power distribution uncertainties because the POWERPLEX-III core monitoring system uses the CASMO-4/MICROBURN-B2 code system. (Note that the radial and local power distribution uncertainties based on the CASMO-4/MICROBURN-B2 code system are smaller than the corresponding uncertainties based on the CASMO-3/MICROBURN-B code system.) PPL also provides results of its sensitivity analyses for the various MCPR safety limit inputs or uncertainties on a cycle-specific basis including impact on the MCPR safety limit values for increasing the nominal channel bow in the February 1, 2005, supplement.

The NRC staff has reviewed the justification contained in the application and supplements for the MCPR safety limit value of 1.09 for two-recirculation loop operation and 1.10 for single-recirculation loop operation. Based on our review of the application, and the supplements to the application, the NRC staff has concluded that the MCPR safety limit analysis for U2C13 operation using the plant and cycle-specific calculations in conjunction with

the approved methods, is acceptable because the reduction of the MCPR safety limit value is due to the effect of reduced power distribution uncertainties and compensates for any increasing MCPR safety limit value due to a penalty for the channel bow effect as described in the February 1, 2005, supplement. The U2C13 MCPR safety limit will ensure that 99.9 percent of the fuel rods in the core will not experience boiling transition, which satisfies the requirements of GDC-10 of Appendix A to 10 CFR Part 50 regarding acceptable fuel-design limit. The NRC staff has concluded that the justification for analyzing and determining the MCPR safety limit value of 1.09 for two-recirculation loop operation and 1.10 for single-recirculation loop operation for U2C13 is acceptable.

3.2 TS 5.6.5.b Core Operating Limits Report References PPL proposed to delete its analytical methods and add the FANPs NRC-approved analytical methods that are not already contained in TS 5.6.5.b.

The NRC staff has reviewed the proposed changes and their associated bases and finds them acceptable because the deleted references are the PPL analytical methods which are no longer in use. The added references are the NRC-approved FANP analytical methods to be used in support of the U2C13 operation.

4.0 STATE CONSULTATION

In accordance with the Commission's regulations, the Pennsylvania State official was notified of the proposed issuance of the amendment. The State official had no comments.

5.0 ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATION

The amendment changes a requirement with respect to installation or use of a facility component located within the restricted area as defined in 10 CFR Part 20. The NRC staff has determined that the amendment involves no significant increase in the amounts, and no significant change in the types, of any effluents that may be released offsite, and that there is no significant increase in individual or cumulative occupational radiation exposure. The Commission has previously issued a proposed finding that the amendment involves no significant hazards consideration, and there has been no public comment on such finding (70 FR 404). The amendment also relates to changes in recordkeeping, reporting, or administrative procedures or requirements. Accordingly, the amendment meets the eligibility criteria for categorical exclusions set forth in 10 CFR 51.22(c)(9) and (c)(10). Pursuant to 10 CFR 51.22(b) no environmental impact statement or environmental assessment need be prepared in connection with the issuance of the amendment.

6.0 CONCLUSION

The Commission has concluded, based on the considerations discussed above, that: (1) there is reasonable assurance that the health and safety of the public will not be endangered by operation in the proposed manner, (2) such activities will be conducted in compliance with the Commission's regulations, and (3) the issuance of the amendment will not be inimical to the common defense and security or to the health and safety of the public.

Principal Contributor: T. Huang Date: February 28, 2005