ML072210941

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Summary of Meeting with Representatives of Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation Discussed on Description and Justification of Its Proposed Modification of the Main Steam and Feedwater Isolation System
ML072210941
Person / Time
Site: Wolf Creek Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation icon.png
Issue date: 08/14/2007
From: Donohew J
NRC/NRR/ADRO/DORL/LPLIV
To:
Donohew J N, NRR/DORL/LP4, 415-1307
Shared Package
ML072210981 List:
References
TAC MD4839
Download: ML072210941 (7)


Text

August 14, 2007 LICENSEE: Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation (WCNOC, the licensee)

FACILITIES: Wolf Creek Generating Station

SUBJECT:

MEETING WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF WOLF CREEK NUCLEAR OPERATING CORPORATION FOR WOLF CREEK GENERATING STATION (TAC NO. MD4839)

A meeting was held on Thursday, August 2, 2007, between the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff and the licensee for Wolf Creek Generating Station (WCGS). The meeting was held at the request of the NRC staff to have the licensee address the NRC staffs questions on the information that has been submitted by the licensee to describe and justify its proposed modification of the main steam and feedwater isolation system (MSFIS), a safety-related engineered safety features actuation system, at WCGS. In preparation for the meeting, the five NRC staffs questions were emailed to the licensee on July 25, 2007, and they are included in the NRC staffs handout for the meeting. The notice of the meeting was issued on July 18, 2007.

BACKGROUND By letter dated March 14, 2007 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML070800193), the licensee submitted a license amendment request (LAR) to, in part, modify the current MSFIS. The LAR application would allow the replacement of the existing MSFIS controls with field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology, and would be the first use of this technology in a safety-related application at a nuclear power plant that NRC is required to review and approve.

In its initial review of the licensees application, the NRC staff determined that the application did not include sufficient information for the staff to accept the application and start a review of the proposed modification of the MSFIS. The NRC staffs acceptance review determines whether or not there is sufficient detail to allow the NRC staff to proceed with its detailed technical review. The review also ensures that the application adequately characterizes the regulatory requirements and licensing basis of the plant. Since the application was submitted, the NRC staff has interacted with the licensee to determine if sufficient information has been provided for the staff to begin its review of the application and, if not, to determine when it will be submitted. The licensees application was supplemented by the letters dated April 18 and May 9, 2007 (ADAMS Accession Nos. ML071160332 and ML071350247, respectively).

These interactions with the licensee culminated in the meeting held with the licensee on May 17, 2007. In the meeting, the NRC staff identified and discussed 22 areas of information needed for its review of the MSFIS modification. The purpose of the May 17, 2007, meeting was to determine where the licensee was in the development life cycle of the MSFIS modification project, and what of the information needed by the NRC staff to both initiate and

complete its review was available and had been submitted, or the time frame in which the information would be submitted by the licensee. On June 15, 2007, the licensee submitted additional information (ADAMS Accession No. ML071770446) and its schedule for submitting information not yet completed in response to the NRC staff's required information as identified in the meeting summary issued June 4, 2007, for the May 17th meeting (ADAMS Accession No. ML071380510). The questions sent to the licensee addressed the NRC staffs review of the documentation submitted in the licensees June 15, 2007, letter.

MEETING

SUMMARY

is the list of attendees. Enclosure 2 is the material handed out by the NRC staff.

The licensee did not have a handout for the meeting. Enclosure 2 includes the agenda for the meeting, the five questions sent to the licensee in preparation for the meeting, and a page providing the information items still needed by the NRC staff for its review of the MSFIS modification and the date the items are needed by the NRC staff.

The purpose of the meeting was to have the licensee address the five NRC staff questions in . The agenda for the meeting, slide 2 of Enclosure 3, was the following:

  • Introductions
  • NRC Presentation
  • Licensee Presentation
  • Comments, Questions, and Discussion
  • End of Meeting
  • Public Comments The NRC staff and the licensee management provided opening statements. The NRC staff then began its presentation. The presentation addressed the additional information needed from the licensee as given in the five questions in Enclosure 2. The details given in the five questions and the conditions in Questions 4 and 5 were presented by the NRC staff.

The NRC staff also handed out a one-page list of the information items that had not yet been submitted by the licensee on its MSFIS modification project and were needed by the NRC staff to complete its review of the MSFIS modification at WCGS. This list is included in Enclosure 2.

The NRC staff stated that the needed by dates in the list were the dates that NRC needed to receive the items to complete its evaluation of the MSFIS modification at WCGS by the fall of 2008. The fall of 2008 is the earliest that the NRC staff believes that it can complete its review and evaluation of the project.

Letters from the licensee to address the two conditions in Questions 4 and 5 are items 1 and 2 in this one-page list. The needed by dates for items 1 and 2 were changed to September 20, and September 4, 2007, respectively, and agreed to by the NRC staff and the licensee in the meeting.

The licensee did not make a presentation. It stated the importance of installing the MSFIS modification at WCGS in the spring 2008 refueling outage because the modification will make the plant safer by having the safety-related MSFIS more reliable and providing greater margins of safety. However, the licensee stated that it understood that NRC does not have an endless

supply of resources and this LAR is only one of many LARs improving safety at nuclear power plants. The licensee stated that it was encouraged by the NRC staff accepting the review of the MSFIS modification at Wolf Creek and it will meet the two conditions in Questions 4 and 5 by the agreed-upon dates of September 20 and 4, 2007, respectively.

The meeting was ended.

One member of the public was in attendance. The person was given an opportunity to ask questions of the NRC staff. During the meeting, a Public Meeting Feedback form was given to the person. Any comments received in the future on this meeting will be forwarded to the NRR Senior Communications Analyst, who will forward then to the Office of the Executive Director for Operations.

Direct any inquiries about this meeting to me at 301-415-1307, or by electronic mail to jnd@nrc.gov.

/RA/

Jack Donohew, Senior Project Manager Plant Licensing Branch IV Division of Operating Reactor Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No: 50-482

Enclosures:

1. List of Attendees at Meeting
2. NRC Staffs Handout cc w/encls: See next page

supply of resources and this LAR is only one of many LARs improving safety at nuclear power plants. The licensee stated that it was encouraged by the NRC staff accepting the review of the MSFIS modification at Wolf Creek and it will meet the two conditions in Questions 4 and 5 by the agreed-upon dates of September 20 and 4, 2007, respectively.

The meeting was ended.

One member of the public was in attendance. The person was given an opportunity to ask questions of the NRC staff. During the meeting, a Public Meeting Feedback form was given to the person. Any comments received in the future on this meeting will be forwarded to the NRR Senior Communications Analyst, who will forward then to the Office of the Executive Director for Operations.

Direct any inquiries about this meeting to me at 301-415-1307, or by electronic mail to jnd@nrc.gov.

/RA/

Jack Donohew, Senior Project Manager Plant Licensing Branch IV Division of Operating Reactor Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No: 50-482

Enclosures:

1. List of Attendees at Meeting
2. NRC Staffs Handout cc w/encls: See next page DISTRIBUTION:

PUBLIC RidsNrrPMJDonohew LPLIV r/f RidsOgcRp RidsAcrsAcnwMailCenter RidsRgn4MailCenter RidsNrrDE PLoeser/EICB RidsNrrDorl WKemper/EICB RidsNrrDorlDpr TLiu, NRR RidsNrrDorlLpl4 DPelton, EDO RIV RidsNrrLAJBurkhardt Meeting Notice: ML071790007 PKG.: ML072210981 ACCESSION NO. Meeting Summary: ML072210941 Handout: ML072150153 NRC-001 OFFICE NRR/LPL4/PM NRR/LPL4/LA NRR/EICB/BC NRR/LPL4/BC NAME JDonohew:sp JBurkhardt WKemper THiltz DATE 8/13/07 08/13/07 08/13/07 8/14/07 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY

Wolf Creek Generating Station cc:

Jay Silberg, Esq. Chief, Radiation and Asbestos Control Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Section 2300 N Street, NW Kansas Department of Health Washington, D.C. 20037 and Environment Bureau of Air and Radiation Regional Administrator, Region IV 1000 SW Jackson, Suite 310 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Topeka, KS 66612-1366 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400 Arlington, TX 76011 Vice President Operations/Plant Manager Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation Senior Resident Inspector P.O. Box 411 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Burlington, KS 66839 P.O. Box 311 Burlington, KS 66839 Supervisor Licensing Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation Chief Engineer, Utilities Division P.O. Box 411 Kansas Corporation Commission Burlington, KS 66839 1500 SW Arrowhead Road Topeka, KS 66604-4027 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Resident Inspectors Office/Callaway Plant Office of the Governor 8201 NRC Road State of Kansas Steedman, MO 65077-1032 Topeka, KS 66612 Attorney General 120 S.W. 10th Avenue, 2nd Floor Topeka, KS 66612-1597 County Clerk Coffey County Courthouse 110 South 6th Street Burlington, KS 66839 February 2006

LIST OF ATTENDEES AT MEETING OF AUGUST 2, 2007 WITH WOLF CREEK NUCLEAR OPERATING CORPORATION NAME AFFILIATION NRC: J. Donohew NRC/NRR/LPLIV J. Lubinski NRC/NRR/DORL P. Hiland NRC/NRR/DE M. Galloway NRC/NRR/DE M. Thadani NRC/NRR/LPLIV W. Kemper NRC/NRR/EICB P. Loeser NRC/NRR/EICB Licensee: T. Garrett WCNOC S. Wideman WCNOC G. Clarkson WCNOC P. Guevel WCNOC Public: K. Keithline NEI Where: LPLXX = Plant Licensing Branch XX DE = Division of Engineering DORL = Division of Operating Reactor Licensing EICB = Instrumentation and Controls Branch NEI = Nuclear Energy Institute NRC = Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRR = Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation WCNOC = Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation ENCLOSURE 1

NRC STAFF'S HANDOUT FOR AUGUST 2, 2007, MEETING ADAMS* ACCESSION NO. ML072150153 Attached is the six-page handout from the NRC staff at the meeting:

1. Agenda from meeting notice issued July 18, 2007 for the meeting (ADAMS Accession No. ML071790007).
2. Four pages containing five questions to be addressed in the meeting that were sent to the licensee in an email dated July 25, 2007.
3. The one-page list of items still needed by the NRC staff for its review of the Wolf Creek MSFIS replacement project, which is using field programmable gate array (FPGA) components.
  • Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS)

ENCLOSURE 2