ML110260217
| ML110260217 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Byron  |
| Issue date: | 01/12/2011 |
| From: | Division of Operating Reactor Licensing |
| To: | |
| Norton, Charles, DORL -415-7818 | |
| References | |
| 2.206, NRC-661 | |
| Download: ML110260217 (18) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
10 CFR 2.206 Petition Review Board Byron Unit 2 Docket Number:
(n/a)
Location:
(telephone conference)
Date:
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 Work Order No.:
NRC-661 Pages 1-16 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 1
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 1
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 2
+ + + + +
3 10 CFR 2.206 PETITION REVIEW BOARD (PRB) 4 CONFERENCE CALL 5
RE 6
BYRON UNIT 2 7
+ + + + +
8 WEDNESDAY 9
JANUARY 12, 2011 10
+ + + + +
11 12 The conference call was held, Ted Quay, 13 Chairman of the Petition Review Board, presiding.
14 15 PETITIONER: BARRY QUIGLEY 16 17 PETITION REVIEW BOARD MEMBERS:
18 TED QUAY, Chairman, NRR/DPR 19 CHARLES NORTON, Petition Manager, NRR/DORL 20 STACEY ROSENBERG, On behalf of Tanya Mensah, 21 2.206 Coordinator 22 23 24 25 26
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P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 1
2:30 p.m.
2 MR. NORTON: Is Barry Quigley on line?
3 MR. QUIGLEY: Yes, I am.
4 MR. NORTON: Okay. I'd like to thank 5
everybody for attending this meeting.
6 My name is Chuck Norton and I am a 7
Project Manager in the NRR Division of Operating 8
Reactor Licensing.
9 We are here today to allow the 10 Petitioner, Barry Quigley, to address the Petition 11 Review Board regarding the 2.206 Petition concerning 12 Byron Unit 2, dated January 2nd of this year.
13 Mr. Quigley included David Lochbaum on 14 the Petition distribution.
15 On January 6th of this year Mr. Lochbaum 16 responded to Mr. Quigley's email and included Mr.
17 Bill Borchardt, the EDO, on his email response.
18 From my discussion with Mr. Quigley on 19 Friday January 7th of this year, the NRC's Petition 20 Review Board will treat Mr. Lochbaum's response as a 21 supplement to the Petition.
22 I am the Petition Manager. The Petition 23 Review Board Chairman is Ted Quay.
24 As part of the Petition Review Board's, 25
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or PRB, review of this Petition, Barry Quigley has 1
requested this opportunity to address the PRB.
2 This meeting is scheduled from 2:30 to 3
3:30 Eastern Time. The meeting is being recorded by 4
the NRC's Operations Center and will be transcribed 5
by a court reporter. The transcript will become a 6
supplement to the Petition. This transcript will also 7
be made publicly available.
8 I'd like to open this meeting with 9
introductions. As we go around the room, please be 10 sure to clearly state your name, your position and 11 the office that you work for within the NRC for the 12 record.
13 I'll start off. I'm Chuck Norton, 14 Project Manager NRR in the Division of Operating 15 Reactor Licensing.
16 CHAIR QUAY: I'm Ted Quay, the Petition 17 Review Chairman. I work in NRR in the Division of 18 Policy and Rulemaking.
19 MS. ROSENBERG: I'm Stacey Rosenberg.
20 I'm a Branch Chief in the Division of Policy and 21 Rulemaking.
22 MR. FELIU: I'm Luis Feliu, Mechanical 23 Engineer in NRR, Division of Component Integrity 24 MR. BILLERBECK: I'm John Billerbeck, a 25
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Mechanical Engineer in Division of Component 1
Integrity, Component Performance and Testing Branch 2
MR. McMURTRAY: I'm Tony McMurtray. I am 3
the Chief of the Component Performance and Testing 4
Branch in the Division of Component Integrity in the 5
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
6 MR. DiFRANCESCO: I am Nick DiFrancesco, 7
Project Manager on Braidwood and Byron. Division of 8
Operating Reactor Licensing.
9 MR. NORTON: We have completed the 10 introductions at NRC Headquarters. At this time, are 11 there any NRC participants from Headquarters on the 12 phone?
13 MS. JAMES: Yes. Lois James. I'm the NRR 14 Office Allegations Coordinator.
15 MR. NORTON: Are there any NRC 16 participants from the regional office on the phone?
17 MR. ORTH: Yes, there are. This is Steve 18 Orth. I'm the Regional Enforcement Officer out here 19 in NRC Region III.
20 MR. DUNCAN: And my name is Eric Duncan.
21 I'm the Branch Chief for the Divisional Reactor 22 Project here in Region III. I have oversight at both 23 Byron and Braidwood.
24 MR. HILLIARD: And I'm Jim Hilliard. I 25
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am the Region III Allegation Coordinator.
1 MR. BARTLETT: Bruce Bartlett. Inspector 2
for Byron Station Region III. And John Robbins, 3
Resident Inspector, Byron Station Region III.
4 MR. NORTON: Are there any Exelon 5
representatives on the phone?
6 MR. ENRIGHT: Yes. At Byron Station we 7
have Dan Enright, the Site Vice President, Brad Adams 8
the Plant Manager, Ben Youman, Site Operations 9
Director, Elmer Hernandez, the Engineering Director, 10 Dave Gudger, the Regulatory Assurance Manager, Scot 11 Greenlee, Corporate Engineering Director, Patrick 12 Simpson, Corporate Licensing Manager and Darin 13 Benyak, Corporate Licensing Director.
14 MR. NORTON: Mr. Quigley, would you 15 please introduce yourself for the record?
16 MR. QUIGLEY: My name is Barry Quigley, 17 I'm the Petitioner. I work at the Byron Plant in the 18 Design Engineering Department.
19 MR. NORTON: Are there any other, such as 20 members of the public, on the phone.
21 MR. FERRARO: This is Don Ferraro, F-E-R-22 R-A-R-O. I'm another Exelon representative calling 23 from Kennett Square, PA.
24 MR. NORTON: Is there anyone else 25
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attending the meeting on the phone.
1 I'd like to emphasize that we each need 2
to speak clearly and loudly to make sure that the 3
court reporter can accurately transcript this 4
meeting. If you do have something that you would 5
like to say, please state your name first for the 6
record.
7 For those dialing into the meeting, 8
please remember to mute your phones to minimize any 9
background noise or distractions. If you do not have 10 a mute button, this can be done by pressing the keys 11 star 6. To unmute, press the star 6 keys again.
12 Thank you.
13 AT this time I'll turn the meeting over 14 to the Petition Review Chairman, Ted Quay.
15 CHAIR QUAY: Good afternoon. I am Ted 16 Quay.
17 Welcome to this meeting regarding the 18 2.206 Petition submitted by Mr. Quigley.
19 I'd like to first share some background 20 on our process. Section 2.206 of Title 10 of the 21 Code of Federal Regulations describes the petition 22 process, the primary mechanism for the public to 23 request enforcement action by the NRC in a public 24 process. This process permits anyone to petition the 25
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NRC to take enforcement-type action related to NRC 1
licensees or licensed activities.
2 Depending on the results of this 3
evaluation, NRC could modify, suspend or revoke an 4
NRC issued license or take any other appropriate 5
enforcement action to resolve a problem.
6 The NRC staff guidance for the 7
disposition of 2.206 Petition requests is in 8
Management Directive 8.11, which is publicly 9
available.
10 The purpose of today's meeting is to give 11 the Petitioner an opportunity to provide any 12 additional explanation or support for the Petition 13 before the Petition Review Board's initial 14 consideration and recommendation.
15 This meeting is not a hearing, nor is it 16 an opportunity for the Petitioner to question or 17 examine the Petition Review Board on the merits or 18 the issues presented in the Petition request. No 19 decision regarding the merits of this Petition will 20 be made at this meeting.
21 Following this meeting, the Petition 22 Review Board will conduct its internal deliberations.
23 The outcome of this internal meeting will be 24 discussed with the Petitioner.
25
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The Petition Review Board typically 1
consists of a Chairman, usually a manager at the 2
Senior Executive Service level at the NRC. It has a 3
Petition Manager and a Petition Review Board 4
Coordinator. Other members of the Board are 5
determined by the NRC staff based on the content of 6
the information in the Petition request.
7 At this time I would like to introduce 8
the Board. I am Ted Quay, the Petition Review Board 9
Chairman.
10 Chuck Norton is the Petition Manager for 11 the Petition under discussion today.
12 Tanya Mensah is the NRC's Office of 13 Petition Review Board Coordinator. Due to her 14 absence today, we have Stacey Rosenberg, her Branch 15 Chief filling in.
16 Our technical staff includes:
17 John Billerbeck from the Division of 18 Component Integrity, Component Performance and 19 Testing Branch.
20 Luis Feliu from the Division of Component 21 Integrity, Component Performance and Testing Branch.
22 As described in our process, the NRC may 23 ask clarifying questions in order to better 24 understand the Petitioner's presentation and to reach 25
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a reasoned decision whether to accept or reject the 1
Petitioner's request for a review under the 2.206 2
process.
3 I would like to summarize the scope of 4
the Petition under consideration and the NRC 5
activities today.
6 On January 2, 2011, as supplemented by 7
David Lochbaum on January 6, 2011, Mr. Quigley 8
submitted to the NRC a Petition under 2.206 regarding 9
untimely Corrective Action and failure to follow 10 procedures at Exelon's Nuclear Byron Unit 2. In this 11 Petition request, Mr. Quigley identified the 12 following areas of concern:
13 (1) Seat leakage past the Unit 2 14 pressurizer safety valve, and the number on that 15 valve is 2RY8010A, establishes conditions that could 16 delay the time before the safety valve would be 17 effective in reducing reactor coolant system 18 pressure; 19 (2) Leaking steam could cause internal 20 temperature changes and result in valve lift 21 pressures outside the allowable band; 22 (3) The possible presence of two-phase 23 leakage may alter the valve lift pressure since the 24 flow characteristics in the huddling chamber would 25
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(4) The continuous operation of the 2
pressurizer backup heaters on Unit 2 increases the 3
pressurizer vapor space hydrogen concentration. The 4
presence of increased noncondensible gases reduces 5
heat transfer and could be preventing reformation of 6
the loop seal; 7
(5) There's an unwritten management 8
expectation that issue reports will not be written 9
until written assurances can be provided to 10 Operations that the components are operable such that 11 new issues have not been entered into the Corrective 12 Action process; 13 (6) The informal Exelon Differing 14 Professional Opinion Program lacks the necessity 15 necessary horsepower to shutdown a 1200 megawatt 16 electric unit; 17 (7) A constantly alarming tail pipe 18 temperature alarm could mask safety valve degradation 19 and delude the operators into thinking an open safety 20 valve is closed following actuation with a failure to 21 reclose, as happened at TMI; 22 (8) As of January 2, 2011, the 23 operability section of Issue Report IR-1144179 has 24 not been completed contrary to the 24 hour2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> procedural 25
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1 Mr. Quigley requests that the NRC issue 2
the appropriate level of violation for failure to 3
comply with 10 CFR Appendix B Criterion XVI as it 4
applies to pressurizer safety valve 2RY8010A leakage, 5
issue the appropriate level of violation for failure 6
to document operability for Issue Report 1144179. As 7
the basis for this request Mr. Quigley stated that 8
high temperatures downstream of the Byron Unit 2 9
pressurizer safety valve 2RY8010A were noted in June 10 of 2010. High tail pipe temperature alarm occurred 11 and cleared over the summer, but the tail piece high 12 temperature alarm has been in soldid without clearing 13 since late October.
14 On October 24, 2010 Mr. Quigley wrote 15 Issue Report 113085 titled "Concerns with 2RY8010A 16 Operability. Mr. Quigley performed the operability 17 evaluation for the valve on October 29, 2010 and 18 selected November 29, 2010 as the Corrective Action 19 date, and provided reasons for selecting that date.
20 The Corrective Action date was subsequently changed 21 to February 7, 2011 without Mr. Quigley's input.
22 On November 23, 2010 Mr. Quigley wrote 23 Issue Report 1144179 to disagree with 2RY8010A OP 24 evaluation CA extension. In this Issue Report, Mr.
25
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from the original operability evaluation effective 2
midnight on November 29, 2010. Contrary to a 3
procedural requirement to perform an operability 4
evaluation within 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> on January 2, 2011 when 5
this Petition was filed Issue Report 1144179 had not 6
been reviewed for operability.
7 On January 6, 2011, Mr. Quigley requested 8
the opportunity to address the Petition Review Board 9
prior to its initial meeting. The purpose of today's 10 meeting is to provide an opportunity for Mr. Quigley 11 to discuss his Petition before the Petition Review 12 Board.
13 As a reminder for the phone participants, 14 please identify yourself if you make any remarks as 15 this will help in the preparation of the meeting 16 transcript that will be made publicly available.
17 Thank you.
18 And at this time, I'd like to turn it 19 over to you, Mr. Quigley.
20 MR. QUIGLEY: Thank you.
21 This is Barry Quigley.
22 One point in your summary you made 23 mention about the informal DPO not having the 24 horsepower. I have no issue with the DPO. That was 25
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intended to be part of the Petition.
2 CHAIR QUAY: Okay. Thank you.
3 MR. QUIGLEY: Okay. You summarized it 4
very well. The pressurizer safety valve has been 5
leaking over the summer. I was concerned with it 6
over the summer. I spent some amount of my own time 7
looking into it, trending the date [data], talking to 8
the other engineers about it. And then my concern 9
started to grow, and I tried to find out when the 10 safety valve would be replaced. And I was not able 11 to get a clear answer of when the valve would be 12 replaced.
13 I started doing quite a bit more research 14 and, which led to my writing on October 24th last 15 year of the IR-1130085. Prior to that, I fulfilled 16 the unwritten management expectation when I wrote the 17 IR, and provided what I thought would be reasonable 18 arguments for operability. However, those took me 19 about two weeks to develop before I wrote the Issue 20 Report.
21 I asked that the IR led to a formal 22 operability evaluation, which I anticipated would 23 come to me, and this would allow me to have input 24 into the replacing date that I couldn't get any 25
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1 I selected the date of November 29th for 2
the reasons outlined in the Petition, and I would 3
like to point out that that rationale is based on an 4
NRC RIS for operability.
5 I selected a due date of 11/29, as I 6
said. When I attempted to process the operability 7
evaluation with that date I met with resistance on 8
the part of management. It was all very 9
professional, but it was resistance, nonetheless. I 10 eventually stated that as the OP valve preparer, I 11 would not sign the operability evaluation with a due 12 date past November 29th. The date was agreed to, and 13 I signed the operability evaluation.
14 Our process requires that this be a 15 Corrective Action in our CAP process. I was mistaken 16 in my belief in how a Corrective Action due date 17 could be changed, and it turns out that it doesn't 18 take a whole lot to change a Corrective Action due 19 date. And then when I found out that the date had 20 been changed to early February, I wrote the second 21 Issue Report.
22 Well, that is my additional clarifying 23 information. And if anybody has any questions, I'd 24 be happy to respond.
25
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(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com 15 CHAIR QUAY: Thank you, Mr. Quigley.
1 At this time does the staff here at 2
Headquarters have any questions for Mr. Quigley?
3 Seeing none, does any NRC member on the phone, do NRC 4
staff and Headquarters? Lois, do you have any 5
questions?
6 MS. JAMES: No, I don't. Thank you.
7 CHAIR QUAY: Okay. Does the Region III 8
staff have any questions?
9 MR. ORTH: No, we don't. Thank you.
10 CHAIR QUAY: Okay. Before I conclude 11 this meeting, members of the public may provide 12 comments regarding the Petition and ask questions 13 about the 2.206 process. However, as stated at the 14 opening, the purpose of this meeting is not to 15 provide an opportunity for the Petitioner or the 16 public to question or examine the Petition Review 17 Board regarding the merits of the Petition request.
18 At this time, I didn't hear anybody else 19 join the call, but I will ask one more time if there 20 are any members of the public on.
21 Okay. Mr. Quigley, thank you for taking 22 the time to provide the NRC staff with clarifying 23 information on the Petition you've submitted.
24 Before we close, does the court reporter 25
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transcript?
2 CHAIR QUAY: Okay. One little 3
administration thing for everybody on the phone call.
4 Mr. Carlson, who is a Branch Chief in Reactor 5
Projects joined us. Okay.
6 Does Exelon have any questions for the 7
Petitioner?
8 MR. ENRIGHT: No, we do not.
9 CHAIR QUAY: Okay. Thank you.
10 And with that, I'm going to conclude the 11 meeting. And thank you for all involved.
12 (Whereupon, at 2:59 p.m. the Petition 13 Review Board Conference Call was adjourned.)
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
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