ML060250510
| ML060250510 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Cooper  |
| Issue date: | 03/07/2006 |
| From: | Catherine Haney NRC/NRR/ADRO/DORL/LPLG |
| To: | Edington R Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) |
| Benney B, NRR/DLPM, 415-3764 | |
| References | |
| Download: ML060250510 (5) | |
Text
March 7, 2006 Mr. Randall K. Edington Vice President-Nuclear and Chief Nuclear Officer Nebraska Public Power District Cooper Nuclear Station P.O. Box 98 Brownville, NE 68321
SUBJECT:
NRC RESPONSE TO NEBRASKA PUBLIC POWER DISTRICTS LETTER OF INTENT TO ADOPT 10 CFR 50.48(c) (NFPA 805 RULE) FOR COOPER NUCLEAR STATION (CNS)
Dear Mr. Edington:
This letter responds to your letter dated December 22, 2005 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System Accession No. ML053640280), in which you informed us that Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) intends to adopt National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 805, Performance-Based Standard for Fire Protection for Light Water Reactor Electric Generating Plants, 2001 Edition (NFPA 805 Rule), in accordance with the requirements in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR ), Paragraph 50.48(c) for CNS.
Your letter requests enforcement discretion for existing identified noncompliances in accordance with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRCs) Interim Enforcement Policy (69 FR 33684 and 70 FR 2662). Since you have met the deadline to receive discretion for existing identified noncompliances, NRC approves your request.
In your letter, you informed us that your transition to the performance-based standard for fire protection will commence during the first quarter of 2006, and will take approximately 48 months to fully implement. You indicated that the schedule is subject to change depending on the extent of any physical plant modifications or changes required to the CNS fire protection program to comply with NFPA 805. Your letter noted that the NFPA 805 transition process will proceed in three phases:
Phase 1 - Preliminary assessment of the fire protection program; Phase 2 - Review and engineering analysis; and Phase 3 - Implementation You provided numerous reasons to request an enforcement discretion window of 4 years, as opposed to the 2-year window approved by the Commission. Some of the key reasons that you provided for requesting an extension are:
Duke Energy, Progress Energy, and other plants have submitted letters of intent to transition to NFPA 805, and have requested to be considered as pilot plants.
CNS desires to apply the lessons learned from their efforts, and these lessons learned may not be available for one to two years;
CNS will need to rely on outside resources to complete the transition. However, within the nuclear industry, there are a limited number of experts in the areas of electrical engineering (circuit analysis), system engineering, Appendix R safe-shutdown, and probabilistic safety assessment (PRA) which are needed to support reconstitution of the Appendix R design basis and the transition to NFPA 805; and There are several actions that need to be completed in series to make a quality transition. This would include developing a cable and raceway data base and a complete fire PRA prior to doing further engineering analysis. For this reason, NPPD estimates the total project duration to be approximately 48 months.
Under the enforcement discretion policy currently in place, the discretion period for CNS begins December 31, 2005, and will expire on December 31, 2007. However, a number of licensees have raised issues similar to the ones that you have raised as the basis to request extensions to the enforcement discretion window. The NRC staff is considering your request and will contact you when we have reached a decision.
You have also proposed that we consider the CNS as a pilot for the initial implementation of performance-based fire protection using NFPA 805, and requested that we waive all licensing and review fees for the license amendment request (LAR). NRC has already selected two pilot plants to enable us to develop and refine the regulatory structure supporting the NFPA 805 implementations. The Chief Financial Officer will respond to you separately on your request for a fee waiver per regulation 10 CFR 170.11.
A number of utilities which are not pilots for NFPA 805, have requested meetings with the NRC staff to review their project plans and discuss transition issues. We recognize the benefits of communication among transitioning licensees, the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR),
and the regional staff. Therefore, we plan to hold periodic workshops at the regional offices on NFPA 805 implementation issues.
Please note that in order to receive the enforcement discretion, you must: (1) evaluate the risk significance of all noncompliances to assure that they do not constitute Red findings or a violation categorized as Severity Level I, (2) enter them into your corrective action program, and (3) implement and maintain appropriate compensatory measures, until the NRC staff approves your LAR to transition to NFPA 805 and issues the safety evaluation report. Please refer to NRC Regulatory Issue Summary 2005-07, Compensatory Measures to Satisfy the Fire Protection Program Requirements, to determine appropriate compensatory measures.
If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact Brian Benney, Project Manager, at (301) 415-3764 or (bjb@nrc.gov).
Sincerely,
/RA/
Catherine Haney, Director Division of Operating Reactor Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-298 cc: See next page
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January 2006 Cooper Nuclear Station cc:
Mr. William J. Fehrman President and Chief Executive Officer Nebraska Public Power District 1414 15th Street Columbus, NE 68601 Mr. Michael T. Boyce Nuclear Assett Manager Nebraska Public Power District P. O. Box 98 Brownville, NE 68321 Mr. John C. McClure Vice President and General Counsel Nebraska Public Power District P. O. Box 499 Columbus, NE 68602-0499 Mr. Paul V. Fleming Licensing Manager Nebraska Public Power District P.O. Box 98 Brownville, NE 68321 Mr. Michael J. Linder, Director Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality P. O. Box 98922 Lincoln, NE 68509-8922 Chairman Nemaha County Board of Commissioners Nemaha County Courthouse 1824 N Street Auburn, NE 68305 Ms. Julia Schmitt, Manager Radiation Control Program Nebraska Health & Human Services R & L Public Health Assurance 301 Centennial Mall, South P.O. Box 95007 Lincoln, NE 68509-5007 Mr. H. Floyd Gilzow Deputy Director for Policy Missouri Department of Natural Resources P. O. Box 176 Jefferson City, MO 65102-0176 Senior Resident Inspector U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission P. O. Box 218 Brownville, NE 68321 Regional Administrator, Region IV U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400 Arlington, TX 76011 Director, Missouri State Emergency Management Agency P. O. Box 116 Jefferson City, MO 65102-0116 Chief, Radiation and Asbestos Control Section Kansas Department of Health and Environment Bureau of Air and Radiation 1000 SW Jackson Suite 310 Topeka, KS 66612-1366 Mr. Daniel K. McGhee Bureau of Radiological Health Iowa Department of Public Health Lucas State Office Building, 5th Floor 321 East 12th Street Des Moines, IA 50319 Mr. Keith G. Henke, Planner Division of Community and Public Health Office of Emergency Coordination 930 Wildwood P.O. Box 570 Jefferson City, MO 65102 Jerry C. Roberts, Director of Nuclear Safety Assurance Nebraska Public Power District P.O. Box 98 Brownville, NE 68321 Mr. John F. McCann, Director Licensing, Entergy Nuclear Northeast Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.
January 2006 440 Hamilton Avenue White Plains, NY 10601-1813