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