ML051080005
| ML051080005 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Oconee, Mcguire, Catawba, McGuire  |
| Issue date: | 06/08/2005 |
| From: | Marsh L NRC/NRR/DLPM |
| To: | Barron H Duke Power Co |
| Paul Lain, NRR/DSSA/SPLB, 301-415-2346 | |
| References | |
| Download: ML051080005 (4) | |
Text
June 8, 2005 Mr. Henry B. Barron Group VP, Nuclear Generation and Chief Nuclear Officer Duke Power P.O. Box 1006 - EC07H Charlotte, NC 28201-1006
SUBJECT:
NRC RESPONSE TO DUKES LETTER OF INTENT TO ADOPT 10 CFR 50.48(c) (NFPA 805 RULE)
Dear Mr. Barron:
This letter responds to your letter dated February 28, 2005, in which you informed us that Duke Energy Corporation (Duke) intends to adopt NFPA 805, Performance-Based Standard for Fire Protection for Light Water Reactor Generating Plants, 2001 Edition (NFPA 805 Rule) in accordance with 10 CFR 50.48(c) for Oconee, McGuire, and Catawba Nuclear Stations.
You proposed in your letter that Oconee, Units 1, 2, and 3 be considered a pilot for the initial implementation of performance-based fire protection using the NFPA 805 Rule. The Staff has evaluated your request and agrees that Oconee station should be the first NFPA 805 Transition Pilot. The NRC needs pilot plants to improve the regulatory processes relating to implementation of the NFPA 805 Rule. With respect to McGuire being the second pilot plant, we will consider your request in the first quarter of next year. We would prefer to have a different licensee as our second pilot.
In your letter, you also request the licensing and review fees for the Oconee transition be waived for the license amendment requests. The Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) has considered your request in light of the following benefits that the NRC and industry will gain from Oconee being a pilot plant:
lessons learned will enable the NRC to improve the NFPA 805 Regulatory Guide lessons learned will enable the NRC to improve the Fire Protection Inspection Procedure for NFPA 805 plants lessons learned will enable development of templates for license amendment requests and safety evaluation reports We have communicated the benefits described above to the NRC Office of Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) for their consideration and approval. The OCFO has approved your request and will contact you directly to confirm their decision.
H. Barron 2
Your letter explains that you are planning to stagger the transition between the three sites, starting with Oconee in the second quarter of 2005. You indicate that each site will take about two years to complete, and that you plan to complete transition of all sites in 2009. Your letter of intent requested discretion during transition and our current enforcement discretion policy states that discretion is available for completion of the transition within two years of the date of the licensees letter of intent... For Oconee, we are interpreting your letter of intent to mean that you will start transition on June 1, 2005, and complete by May 31, 2007.
Your letter requests enforcement discretion for the existing unresolved items (URIs) for Oconee. The staff recognizes that Duke is conservatively interpreting its existing URIs as noncompliances, since the enforcement discretion policy addresses noncompliances rather than URIs. Using the Commission approved enforcement discretion policy, Oconee has met the deadline to receive discretion for existing fire protection noncompliances and any noncompliances found during transition. If the NRC later deems these URIs as noncompliances, the discretion under the current enforcement discretion policy will continue as long as the applicable conditions are met.
In your letter, you requested an extension to the enforcement discretion window for Catawba and McGuire. We have concluded that such an extension is pre-mature at this time and, therefore, will not be approved. We will reconsider your request via a change to the discretion policy using insights gained from Oconee. In the meantime, we provide the following alternative to encourage you to identify and correct any non-conformances at Catawba and McGuire using insights gained from Oconee. With respect to your existing "low risk" URIs at McGuire and Catawba or future self-identified old design related non-conformances, we advise you to place them in your corrective action program (CAP), apply appropriate compensatory measures, and use "pending NFPA 805 transition" as a resolution. This is acceptable since you have committed to transition these sites to NFPA 805. The safety basis for our conclusion is that you have assessed your current URIs as noncompliances with "low risk." We interpret this to imply that the core damage frequencies of your assessments meet the acceptance criteria provided in Regulatory Guide 1.174, "An Approach for Using Probabilistic Risk Assessment in Risk-Informed Decisions On Plant-Specific Changes to the Licensing Basis" using qualitative or quantitative analysis methods provided in the NRCs Fire Protection Significant Determination Process, the risk screening methods provided in NEI-00-01 Guidance for Post-Fire Safe Shutdown Circuits Analysis, or methods of comparable quality.
Please note that any new NRC-identified-issues found at McGuire or Catawba during their triennial inspections will be dispositioned in accordance with the current agency guidance unless; (a) you have sent us a letter indicating that the site is beginning the transition to NFPA 805, in which enforcement discretion is in place, or (b) the NRC has changed procedures or the enforcement discretion policy using insights from the transitioning pilot plants.
Please inform us by letter when you start transitions for McGuire and Catawba and identify the expected transition period for each plant. Once we receive those letters, enforcement discretion will be granted for any issues identified during transition at McGuire and Catawba in accordance with the current discretion policy. That is, issues that are not RED, not willful violations, and cannot be characterized as Severity Level 1, will receive enforcement discretion.
You will be expected to evaluate any findings made during Oconee transition for applicability to McGuire and Catawba, and take compensatory measures and corrective actions as appropriate.
H. Barron 3
If you have any questions regarding this letter, please contact Dr. Sunil Weerakkody, Chief, Fire Protection Engineering Section of the NRC at (301) 415-2870.
Sincerely,
/RA/
Ledyard (Tad) Marsh, Director Division of Licensing Project Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket Nos. 50-269, 50-270, 50-287, 50-369, 50-370, 50-413, 50-414
ML051080005 NRR-106 OFFICE SPLB SC: SPLB BC: DSSA/SPLB D: NRR/DSSA BC: NRR/DIPM D: NRR/DLPM NAME PLain SWeerakkody JHannon SBlack SRichards LMarsh DATE 05/3/05 05/3/05 05/3 /05 05/6/05 06/ 06 /05 06/ 08 /05