ML081620140

Issuance of Amendment Deletion of License Condition on Fuel Burnup

ML081620140
Person / Time
Site:	Kewaunee
Issue date:	07/02/2008
From:	Jack Cushing NRC/NRR/ADRO/DORL/LPLIII-1
To:	Christian D Nuclear Management Co
Cushing, J S, NRR/DORL/LPLIII-1,415-1424
References
TAC MD6085
Download: ML081620140 (10)

Text

July 2, 2008 Mr. David A. Christian President and Chief Nuclear Officer Innsbrook Technical Center 5000 Dominion Boulevard Glen Allen, VA 23060-6711

SUBJECT:

KEWAUNEE POWER STATION - ISSUANCE OF AMENDMENT RE: DELETION OF LICENSE CONDITION ON FUEL BURNUP (TAC NO. MD6085)

Dear Mr. Christian:

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued the enclosed Amendment No. 198 to Facility Operating License No. DPR-43 for the Kewaunee Power Station. This amendment revises the license in response to your application dated July 2, 2007.

The amendment revises the facility operating license by removing condition 2.C(5), Fuel Burnup, which had limited the peak rod average burnup to 60 gigawatt-days per metric ton uranium until completion of an NRC environmental assessment supporting an increased limit.

A copy of the Safety Evaluation is also enclosed. The Notice of Issuance will be included in the Commission's next regular biweekly Federal Register notice.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Jack Cushing, Senior Project Manager Plant Licensing Branch III-1 Division of Operating Reactor Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-305

Enclosures:

1. Amendment No. 198 to License No. DPR-43

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

ML081620140 Package:ML081620154 TS: ML081620196 OFFICE NRR/LPL3-1/PM NRR/LPL3-1/LA NRR/DSA/SNPB OGC NRR/LPL3-1/BC NAME JCushing THarris AMendiola MSpenser LJames DATE 07/ 02 /08 07 / 01 /08 02/27/08 07/01/08 07 / 02 /08 Kewaunee Power Station cc:

Resident Inspectors Office Ms. Lillian M. Cuoco, Esq.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Senior Counsel N490 Hwy 42 Dominion Resources Services, Inc.

Kewaunee, WI 54216-9510 120 Tredegar Street Riverside 2 Mr. Chris L. Funderburk Richmond, VA 23219 Director, Nuclear Licensing and Operations Support Mr. Stephen E. Scace Innsbrook Technical Center Site Vice President 5000 Dominion Boulevard Dominion Energy Kewaunee, Inc.

Glen Allen, VA 23060-6711 Kewaunee Power Station N 490 Highway 42 Mr. Thomas L. Breene Kewaunee, WI 54216 Dominon Energy Kewaunee, Inc.

Kewaunee Power Station Mr. Thomas J. Webb, Director N490 Highway 42 Nuclear Safety & Licensing Kewaunee, WI 54216 Dominion Energy Kewaunee, Inc.

Kewaunee Power Station N 490 Highway 42 Kewaunee, WI 54216

DOMINION ENERGY KEWAUNEE, INC.

DOCKET NO. 50-305 KEWAUNEE POWER STATION AMENDMENT TO FACILITY OPERATING LICENSE Amendment No. 198 License No. DPR-43

1. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the Commission) has found that:

A. The application for amendment by Dominion Energy Kewaunee, Inc. dated July 2, 2007, complies with the standards and requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (the Act), and the Commission's rules and 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 rules and 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; 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 Facility Operating License No. DPR-43 is hereby amended to read as follows:

(2) Technical Specifications The Technical Specifications contained in Appendix A, as revised through Amendment No. 198, are hereby incorporated in the license. The licensees shall operate the facility in accordance with the Technical Specifications.

3. This license amendment is effective as of its date of issuance and shall be implemented within 60 days of the date of issuance.

FOR THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

/RA/

Lois M. James, Chief Plant Licensing Branch III-1 Division of Operating Reactor Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation

Attachment:

Changes to the Facility Operating License Date of Issuance: July 2, 2008

ATTACHMENT TO LICENSE AMENDMENT NO.198 FACILITY OPERATING LICENSE NO. DPR-43 DOCKET NO. 50-305 Replace the following page of the Facility Operating License No. DPR-43 with the attached revised page. The changed area is identified by a marginal line.

REMOVE INSERT Page 3 Page 3

C. This license shall be deemed to contain and is subject to the conditions specified in the following Commission regulations in 10 CFR, Chapter 1: (1) Part 20, Section 30.34 of Part 30, Section 40.41 of Part 40, Section 50.54 and 50.59 of Part 50, and Section 70.32 of Part 70, (2) is subject to all applicable provisions of the Act and to the rules, regulations, and orders of the Commission now or hereafter in effect, and (3) is subject to the additional conditions specified or incorporated below:

(1) Maximum Power Level The licensee is authorized to operate the facility at steady state reactor core power levels not in excess of 1772 megawatts (thermal).

(2) Technical Specifications The Technical Specifications contained in Appendix A, as revised through Amendment No. 198, are hereby incorporated in the license. The licensee shall operate the facility In accordance with the Technical Specifications.

(3) Fire Protection The licensee shall implement and maintain in effect all provisions of the approved Fire Protection Program as described in the licensee's Fire Plan, and as referenced in the Updated Safety Analysis Report, and as approved in the Safety Evaluation Reports, dated November 25, 1977, and December 12, 1978 (and supplement dated February 13, 1981) subject to the following provision:

The licensee may make changes to the approved Fire Protection Program without prior approval of the Commission, only if those changes would not adversely affect the ability to achieve and maintain safe shutdown in the event of a fire.

(4) Physical Protection The licensee shall fully implement and maintain in effect all provisions of the Commission approved physical security, training and qualification, and safeguards contingency plans including amendments made pursuant to provisions of the Miscellaneous Amendments and Search Requirements revisions to 10 CFR 73.55 (51 FR 27817 and 27822) and to the authority of 10 CFR 50.90 and 10 CFR 50.54(p). The combined set of plans, which contain Safeguards Information protected under 10 CFR 73.21, is entitled: Nuclear Management Company Kewaunee Nuclear Power Plant Physical Security Plan (Revision 0)" submitted by letter dated October 18, as supplemented by letter dated October 21, 2004, July 26, 2005, and May 15, 2006.

(5) Deleted Amendment No. 198 3

SAFETY EVALUATION BY THE OFFICE OF NUCLEAR REACTOR REGULATION RELATING TO AMENDMENT NO. 198 TO FACILITY OPERATING LICENSE NO. DPR-43 DOMINION ENERGY KEWAUNEE, INC.

KEWAUNEE POWER STATION DOCKET NO. 50-305

1.0 INTRODUCTION

By application dated July 2, 2007 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System Accession No. ML071860075), Dominion Energy Kewaunee, Inc. (the licensee), requested a change to Facility Operating License No. 43 for the Kewaunee Power Station (KPS).

The proposed change would delete license condition, 2.C (5) Fuel Burnup, which limits the peak rod average burnup to 60 gigawatt-days per metric ton of uranium (GWD/MTU) until completion of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) environmental assessment supporting an increased limit. Upon the deletion of license condition 2.C (5), the licensee will be able to increase the peak rod average burnup limit to 62 GWD/MTU for its VANTAGE+ fuel assemblies.

2.0 REGULATORY EVALUATION

Part 50 to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR Part 50), establishes the fundamental regulatory requirements with respect to the domestic licensing of nuclear production and utilization facilities.

2.1 Background In January 2001, the NRC staff published Report No. NUREG/CR-6703, entitled Environmental Effects of Extending Fuel Burnup Above 60 GWD/MTU, to support the burnup increase. The KPS reactor core contains Westinghouse VANTAGE+ fuel design with a 14x14 rod array. The VANTAGE+ fuel design features ZIRLO cladding and was approved by the NRC in Westinghouse Topical Report WCAP-12610-P-A, entitled VANTAGE+ Fuel Assembly Reference Core Report. The VANTAGE+ fuel design, including the KPS fuel, was approved to a peak rod average burnup limit of 60 GWD/MTU. In letter dated May 25, 2006 (ML061420458), the NRC staff approved a request by Westinghouse that the VANTAGE+ fuel burnup limit be increased to 62 GWD/MTU, provided that the evaluation of the fuel performance is performed using the Westinghouse fuel performance code PAD 4.0. The PAD 4.0 Code, as described in a Topical Report WCAP-15063-P-A, entitled Westinghouse Improved Performance Analysis and Design Model (PAD 4.0), was approved by the NRC to a peak rod average burnup limit of 62 GWD/MTU.

2.2 Proposed Change to Operating License The licensee has proposed to delete the current license condition 2.C (5), Fuel Burnup, which states:

The maximum rod average burnup for any rod shall be limited to 60 GWD/MTU until completion of an NRC environmental assessment supporting an increased limit.

2.3 Regulatory Requirements As stated in the KPS Updated Safety Analysis Report (USAR), the plant was designed to comply with the original owners (Wisconsin Public Service Corporations, WPSCs) understanding of the intent of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) General Design Criteria (GDC) for Nuclear Power Plant Construction Permits, as proposed on July 10, 1967. In a letter dated October 2, 1967, the Atomic Industrial Forum (AIF) distributed comments on the July 1967 AEC GDC. This AIF document was adopted as WPSCs understanding of the method for complying with the AEC GDC. In addition, the licensing basis for KPS is based on the AEC safety evaluation dated July 24, 1972. In Section 3.1, Conformance with AEC General Design Criteria, the staff performed a technical review to assess the plant against the revised GDC, issued in 1971, and found that a re-analysis of the plant was not required and that the plant design generally conformed to the intent of the criteria.

KPS USAR Section 1.3 provides a list of applicable AEC GDC, as proposed on July 10, 1967.

In particular, Criterion 6, Reactor Core Design, states that the core, with its related controls and protection systems, shall be designed to function throughout its design lifetime without exceeding acceptable fuel damage limits, which have been stipulated and justified. The core and related auxiliary system designs shall provide this integrity under all expected conditions of normal operation with appropriate margins for uncertainties and for specified transient situations which can be anticipated.

3.0 TECHNICAL EVALUATION

3.1 Staff Position In the past, the NRC staff has approved various burnup limits for Westinghouse fuel designs and fuel performance codes. The VANTAGE fuel series, including VANTAGE+, was approved to the burnup limit of 60,000 megawatt-days/MTU (MWD/MTU; same as 60 GWD/MTU), and more recently, Westinghouse fuel performance code, PAD 4.0, was approved to the burnup limit of 62,000 MWD/MTU.

Recently, the NRC staff conducted an audit of the Westinghouse documents describing the fuel data, analytical models, and the fuel change procedures. The staff reviewed documents including several plant reload analyses. The reload analyses provided the results for all the specified acceptable fuel design limits (SAFDLs), as described in 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix A, GDC 10.

Criterion 10--Reactor design. 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 during any condition of normal operation, including the effects of anticipated operational occurrences.

The analyses were typically performed at bounding conditions such that plant thermal-mechanical safety evaluations were not required for each reload cycle. The SAFDLs include rod internal pressure, clad stress and strain, corrosion, clad fatigue, fuel melting temperature, rod growth, creep collapse, etc. The results showed that all SAFDLs were met for the bounding conditions. The staff also recognized that the SAFDLs were analyzed using the PAD 4.0 code, which was approved to a peak rod average burnup of 62,000 MWd/MTU. Based on the audit results, the staff concludes that burnup limit for WCAP-12610-P-A can be increased to 62,000 MWD/MTU provided that the evaluation of the fuel design performance is performed with PAD 4.0.

By letter dated May 25, 2006 (ML061420458), the staff approved the burnup increase for the VANTAGE fuel series. Therefore, the burnup limit of the VANTAGE+ fuel design including the Kewaunee fuel can be increased to 62,000 MWD/MTU peak rod average.

3.2 Mechanical Design The KPS fuel is comprised of a VANTAGE+ fuel design, and the design bases and methodology conform to the approved WCAP-12610-P-A. The licensee performed mechanical design analyses using the approved PAD 4.0 code. The design analyses included all SAFDLs. The results showed that all SAFDLs were met for the bounding conditions. Based on the approved PAD 4.0 code, which complies with the staff position, the NRC staff concludes that the KPS fuel burnup can be increased to 62,000 MWD/MTU peak rod average.

The new burnup limit of 62,000 MWD/MTU will be maintained through the licensees Updated Safety Analysis Report which contains the 62,0000 MWD/MTU limit, and by WCAP-12610-P-A, which has been incorporated into the Core Operating Limits Report (COLR) as described in TS 6.9.a.4.B.

3.3 License Condition 3.4 Summary The NRC staff has reviewed the licensees proposed license amendment to delete a license condition regarding fuel burnup. Based on its evaluation, as set forth above, the staff concludes that the proposed license amendment to delete the license condition 2.C (5) is acceptable.

4.0 STATE CONSULTATION

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

5.0 ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATION

Environmental Assessment The NRC staff assessed the environmental impact of extending peak rod average burnup at operating plants. In January 2001, the staff published NUREG/CR-6703, entitled

Environmental Effects of Extending Fuel Burnup Above 60 GWD/MTU. The staff concluded that there were no significant adverse environmental impacts associated with increasing peak rod average burnup to 62,000 MWd/MTU. Based on the environment assessment, the staff concludes that the Kewaunee fuel can be increased to 62,000 MWd/MTU peak rod average.

Pursuant to 10 CFR Part 51.21, 51.30, 51.32, and 51.35, an Environmental Assessment and finding of no significant impact was prepared and published in the Federal Register on ,

2008 (73 FR 36134). Accordingly, based upon the environmental assessment, the Commission has determined that the issuance of this amendment will not have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment.

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 this amendment will not be inimical to the common defense and security or to the health and safety of the public.

Principal Contributor: S.Wu Date: July 2, 2008