ML062980613

NRC Receipt of Hope Creek Generating Station Response to Generic Letter 2003-01, Control Room Habitability (Tac No. MD9812)

ML062980613
Person / Time
Site:	Hope Creek
Issue date:	12/26/2006
From:	Stewart Bailey NRC/NRR/ADRO/DORL/LPLI-2
To:	Levis W Public Service Enterprise Group
Bailey S N,NRR/DLPM,415-1321
References
GL-03-001, TAC MB9812
Download: ML062980613 (4)

Text

December 26, 2006 Mr. William Levis Senior Vice President & Chief Nuclear Officer PSEG Nuclear LLC - N09 Post Office Box 236 Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038

SUBJECT:

RECEIPT OF HOPE CREEK GENERATING STATION RESPONSE TO GENERIC LETTER 2003-01, CONTROL ROOM HABITABILITY (TAC NO. MB9812)

Dear Mr. Levis:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) acknowledges the receipt of the responses from PSEG Nuclear LLC (PSEG), the licensee, dated August 8 and December 9, 2003 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession Nos. ML032310411 and ML033510613, respectively), to Generic Letter (GL) 2003-01, Control Room Habitability, for the Hope Creek Generating Station (Hope Creek). This letter provides a status of PSEGs responses and describes any actions that may be necessary to consider the responses to GL 2003-01 complete.

The GL requested that licensees confirm that the control room meets its design bases (e.g.,

General Design Criteria (GDC) 1, 3, 4, 5, and 19, draft GDC, or principal design criteria), with special attention to: (1) determination of the most limiting unfiltered and/or filtered inleakage into the control room and comparison to values used in your design bases for meeting control room operator dose limits from accidents (GL Item 1a); (2) determination that the most limiting unfiltered inleakage is incorporated into your hazardous chemical assessments; and, (3) determination that reactor control capability is maintained in the control room or at the alternate shutdown location in the event of smoke (GL Item 1b). The GL further requested information on any compensatory measures in use to demonstrate control room habitability, and plans to retire them (GL Item 2).

PSEG reported the results of tracer gas testing performed in accordance with American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) Standard ASTM E741, Standard Test Method for Determining Air Change in a Single Zone by Means of a Tracer Gas Dilution, for the Hope Creek control room, which is a positive pressure design. PSEG determined that the maximum tested value for inleakage into the control room envelope (CRE) was less than 325 cubic feet per minute (cfm),

which is less than the 350 cfm inleakage assumed in the design basis radiological consequence analyses for control room habitability.

PSEG indicated that hazardous chemicals have been evaluated incorporating the unfiltered inleakage measured from tracer gas testing. PSEG determined that no changes to the operation of Hope Creek were required as a result of including the measured unfiltered inleakage values into the hazardous chemical assessments. The assessment used the acceptance criteria of Regulatory Guide 1.78, Evaluating the Habitability of a Nuclear Power Plant Control Room During a Postulated Hazardous Chemical Release, Revision 1. PSEG

W. Levis also indicated that reactor control capability is maintained from either the control room or the remote shutdown areas in the event of smoke.

The GL further requested that licensees assess the plant Technical Specifications (TSs) to determine if they verify the integrity of the CRE, including ongoing verification of the inleakage assumed in the design basis analysis for control room habitability, in light of the demonstrated inadequacy of using only a measurement of pressure differential to provide such verification (GL Item 1.c). As permitted by the GL, PSEG provided a schedule for revising the surveillance requirement in the TSs to reference an acceptable surveillance methodology. PSEG stated in the December 9, 2003, response that a proposed license amendment to include a new TS surveillance requirement consistent with Technical Specification Task Force (TSTF) Traveler TSTF-448 will be submitted three months after NRC approval of TSTF-448.

The NRC staff considers PSEGs actions to date, coupled with its commitment to submit a license amendment request based on TSTF-448 following NRC formal review and approval, acceptable for the purposes of closing out the response to GL 2003-01 for Hope Creek.

If you have any questions regarding this correspondence, please contact me at (301) 415-1321 or at snb@nrc.gov.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Stewart N. Bailey, Senior Project Manager Plant Licensing Branch I-2 Division of Operating Reactor Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-354 cc: See next page

Hope Creek Generating Station cc:

Mr. Dennis Winchester Township Clerk Vice President - Nuclear Assessments Lower Alloways Creek Township PSEG Nuclear Municipal Building, P.O. Box 157 P.O. Box 236 Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038 Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038 Mr. Paul Bauldauf, P.E., Asst. Director Mr. George P. Barnes Radiation Protection Programs Site Vice President - Hope Creek NJ Department of Environmental PSEG Nuclear Protection and Energy P.O. Box 236 CN 415 Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038 Trenton, NJ 08625-0415 Mr. George H. Gellrich Mr. Brian Beam Plant Support Manager Board of Public Utilities PSEG Nuclear 2 Gateway Center, Tenth Floor P.O. Box 236 Newark, NJ 07102 Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038 Regional Administrator, Region I Mr. Michael J. Massaro U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Plant Manager - Hope Creek 475 Allendale Road PSEG Nuclear King of Prussia, PA 19406 P.O. Box 236 Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038 Senior Resident Inspector Hope Creek Generating Station Mr. James Mallon U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Manager - Licensing Drawer 0509 200 Exelon Way - KSA 3-E Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038 Kennett Square, PA 19348 Jeffrie J. Keenan, Esquire PSEG Nuclear - N21 P.O. Box 236 Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038 Mr. Michael Jesse Manager - Regulatory Assurance P.O. Box 236 Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038

ML062980613 OFFICE LPL1-2/PM LPL1-2/LA SCVB/BC PGCB/BC LPL1-2/BC NAME SBailey CRaynor RDennig CJackson HChernoff DATE 12/22/06 12/22/06 12/04/06 12/06/06 12/26/06