ML111151449
| ML111151449 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | San Onofre  |
| Issue date: | 04/22/2011 |
| From: | Ryan Lantz NRC/RGN-IV/DRP/RPB-D |
| To: | Donchak L City of San Clemente, CA |
| References | |
| Download: ML111151449 (3) | |
Text
April 22, 2011 The Honorable Lori Donchak Mayor of San Clemente 100 Avenida Presidio San Clemente, CA 92672
Dear Mayor Donchak:
Thank you for your letter to Mr. Greg Warnick, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
Senior Resident Inspector at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), dated March 22, 2011. In your letter, you discussed the concerns that residents of your local communities have expressed with respect to the safety of SONGS, in light of the recent reactor accident event that is ongoing at the Fukushima Daiichi power station in northern Japan. In your letter, you requested the NRC; 1) and SONGS conduct a new safety assessment of SONGS as soon as possible, considering information gained from the reactor accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plants; 2) provide the results of this review and resultant action plans in writing to the San Clemente City Council (City); and 3) attend an upcoming community meeting (date TBD) to verbally report to the City and the public concerning this important issue.
The NRC believes the robust design of nuclear power plants, and the improvements to those designs that the NRC has required to be implemented in the last 30 years, ensures that SONGS is operating safely and with adequate designs to withstand severe natural, and non-natural, disasters.
The NRC has initiated a two-phase review of all operating U.S. nuclear power reactors with respect to the Japanese reactor accident event. The NRCs two-phase review will look at the lessons learned from the Fukushima reactor accidents and develop recommendations for short-and longer-term actions needed to ensure the continuing safety of the nuclear power plants in the United States. Also, the NRC is currently performing inspections at every operating reactor site. This inspection will review the ability of SONGS to safely shutdown and cooldown the reactors, and maintain spent fuel pool cooling, following events such as a large earthquake followed by loss of off-site and on-site AC power, and a resultant large tsunami. This inspection will be completed at SONGS by April 29, 2011, with a publicly available inspection report issued no later than May 13, 2011.
The City is on distribution for NRC generated publicly-available correspondence related to SONGS through our LISTSERV service. You will be receiving the results of the inspection described above through electronic mail, as well as any future correspondence that the NRC generates based on our continuing reviews related to SONGS.
UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION R E GI ON I V 612 EAST LAMAR BLVD, SUITE 400 ARLINGTON, TEXAS 76011-4125
The Honorable Mayor Donchak The NRC is receiving numerous requests for attendance at special meetings in public forums to discuss the concerns that you and your citizens have with respect to the continuing safety of local nuclear power plants. We are conducting a public meeting in the vicinity of SONGS on April 28, 2011, to discuss our assessment of SONGS performance during 2010. At that meeting we also plan to briefly discuss the Fukushima reactor accident and NRC response actions. If members of the City Council are available during the week of our planned public meeting, we could arrange for staff to meet with you or other members individually to address questions you may have. If your planned community meeting is not during the week of our public meeting, we may not be able to attend, based on the availability of our staff.
Thank you again for your letter, and please contact me at (817) 313-4398, or Mr. Greg Warnick at (949) 492-2641, if you have any questions concerning this letter.
Sincerely,
/RA/
Ryan E. Lantz, Chief Project Branch D Division of Reactor Projects cc:
Ken Calvert, U.S. Congressman
The Honorable Mayor Donchak The NRC is receiving numerous requests for attendance at special meetings in public forums to discuss the concerns that you and your citizens have with respect to the continuing safety of local nuclear power plants. We are conducting a public meeting in the vicinity of SONGS on April 28, 2011, to discuss our assessment of SONGS performance during 2010. At that meeting we also plan to briefly discuss the Fukushima reactor accident and NRC response actions. If members of the City Council are available during the week of our planned public meeting, we could arrange for staff to meet with you or other members individually to address questions you may have. If your planned community meeting is not during the week of our public meeting, we may not be able to attend, based on the availability of our staff.
Thank you again for your letter, and please contact me at (817) 313-4398, or Mr. Greg Warnick at (949) 492-2641, if you have any questions concerning this letter.
Sincerely,
/RA/
Ryan E. Lantz, Chief Project Branch D Division of Reactor Projects cc:
Ken Calvert, U.S. Congressman DISTRIBUTION (via E-mail):
RIV EDO Coordinator C. Mullins, OGC J. Piccone, FSME/DILR S. Easson, FSME/DILR K. Kennedy, RIV/DRP T. Pruett, RIV/DRP T. Vegel, RIV/DRS R. Lantz, RIV/DRP G. Warnick, SRI (SONGS) RIV/DRP R. Erickson, RIV/DNMS R. Browder, RIV/DNMS V. Dricks, RIV/PAO L. Uselding, RIV/PAO J. Weil, OCA R:_Reactors\\_SONGS\\SONGS Ltr to City Mayor Donchak.docx SUNSI Rev Compl.
- Yes No ADAMS
- Yes No Reviewer Initials RL Publicly Avail
- Yes No Sensitive Yes : No Sens. Type Initials RL RIV/DRP RIV/PAO RIV/DRP RIV/DRA RIV/RA GWarnick VDricks BMaier RLantz KKennedy
/RL for/
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