ML15028A029

Email to ACE from NRC Re 2.7 Earthquake in Ramapo Fault Near Limerick 1-25-15 - Questions (EDATS R1-2015-0029)

ML15028A029
Person / Time
Site:	Limerick
Issue date:	01/27/2015
From:	Fred Bower Reactor Projects Region 1 Branch 4
To:	Cuthbert D Alliance For A Clean Environment
BOWER, FL
References
EDATS RI-2015-0029
Download: ML15028A029 (4)

Text

From: Bower, Fred Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2015 5:00 PM To: aceactivists@comcast.net Cc: Evan Brandt; Sheehan, Neil; Klukan, Brett; Thompson, Margaret; Pinkham, Laurie; Barber, Scott; Nieh, Ho; Scott, Michael; Screnci, Diane; Tifft, Doug; McNamara, Nancy; Ennis, Rick; DiPaolo, Eugene; Montgomery, Richard; Lin, Brian; Turilin, Andrey; Khanna, Meena; Rutenkroger, Scott; Bower, Fred; Krohn, Paul; Hughey, John

Subject:

RE: ACE - 2.7 Earthquake in Ramapo Fault Near Limerick 1-25 Questions [EDATS R1-2015-0029]

The Alliance for A Clean Environment (ACE)

ACE 25 USGS Reported a 2.7 Earthquake In The Ramapo Fault Near Limerick [EDATS R1-2015-0029]

Donna Cuthbert (ACE)

Thank you for your inquiry. I appreciate that you raised these questions to me in lieu of the resident inspectors at Limerick. The resident inspectors primary responsibility is to perform onsite inspection and oversight of the licensee in accordance with the Reactor Oversight Program. This is crucial to the NRCs mission of protecting public health and safety. As such, I would prefer that you direct any inquiries that you have about Limerick to me.

In response to your inquiry, we checked the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) website. On the USGS website, we found a USGS Community Internet Intensity Map for Pennsylvania that indicates that on Sunday, January 25, 2015, at 6:25:10 PM local time (23:25:10 UTC) a magnitude 2.7 seismic event occurred at coordinates 39.999 N, 75.6573 W at a depth of 2 km.

We believe this to be located near Downingtown, Pennsylvania. The USGS assigned this event the following identifier: ID60041203. This map can be located at the following web link:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/ld/60041203/us/index.html. From our review of this map, it appears that Limerick and Pottstown, Pennsylvania were beyond the area where the USGS map indicates that this seismic event was felt. Our interpretation of the map indicates that this event was weak with no damage caused.

Conversations with the resident inspectors confirmed that this event was not noticed at the site and it did not cause any operational impacts or nuclear safety concerns. Thus, we plan no further action on any of these matters. Since this seismic event did not impact Limerick or nuclear safety, I suggest that you address any further questions that you may have regarding this seismic event to the USGS using the contact information available on their website:

http://answers.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/gsanswers?tmplt=2/

We would also like to thank you for informing us that the NRCs public website was out of date regarding the inspectors assigned to Limerick. We took action yesterday to have the webpage at the following links updated to reflect the current resident inspectors assigned to Limerick:

http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactor/lim1.html

http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactor/lim2.html The resident inspectors phone numbers are available on this page and an email address can be obtained by clicking on their titles. However, to avoid having the resident inspectors distracted from their primary responsibilities to provide onsite inspection and oversight, I have directed the resident inspectors to forward to the regional office any public inquiries that cannot be resolved in a brief phone call. The appropriate NRC staff will be engaged and respond when possible or we will refer you to another more appropriate contact.

Again, thank you for the opportunity to respond to your inquiry.

Sincerely, Fred Bower Chief l Projects Branch 4 l Division of Reactor Projects l Region I l U.S. NRC 2100 Renaissance Boulevard, STE 100, King of Prussia, PA 19406 l (W): (610) 337-5200 l BB: (610) 731-1920 l Email : Fred.Bower@nrc.gov From: aceactivists@comcast.net [1]

Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 3:43 PM To: Bower, Fred Cc: Evan Brandt

Subject:

2.7 Earthquake in Ramapo Fault Near Limerick 1-25 Questions 1-25 USGS Reported a 2.7 Earthquake In The Ramapo Fault Near Limerick.

1-26-15 Mr. Bower, Not being able to get names and e-mail addresses for current Limerick resident inspectors from you or Neil Sheehan this afternoon, we prepared questions below and ask you for the answers.

FYI - Names for Limerick's resident inspectors on NRC's website are incorrect, listing Gene and Justin who to our knowledge are no longer there. This page wasn't updated since 4-14.

Thank you in advance for timely answers to our questions below.

Donna Cuthbert The epicenter of the 2.7 earthquake in the Ramapo Fault at 11:30 P.M.

last night was in Downington, not far from Limerick Nuclear Plant.

The earthquake is map-wise, in line within the fault that heads to Limerick.

We have several questions for NRC resident inspectors at Limerick:

1. Were NRC inspectors aware of this? If so, were any actions taken?

2. Does USGS send any kind of automatic reports on regional earthquakes to NRC residents inspectors for Limerick? If not, why not?

3. Were all Limerick's seismic monitors working before, during, and after 11:30 last night (1-25-15)?

• If Exelon claims seismic monitors were all working accurately, how do NRC's resident inspectors verify Exelon's claim?

• If Limerick's seismic monitors were inoperable yet again, what does NRC plan to do about that?

• We are extremely concerned. After the 8-23-11 Virginia earthquake that jolted Limerick, we learned that Limerick's seismic monitors had been left inoperable for one year and four months.

• One of Limerick's seismic monitors wasn't even repaired until 12-24-11, three months after the 8-23-11 earthquake.

• It is not clear if NRC even issued a violation notice for Limerick's inoperable seismic monitors.

4. Did Limerick's seismic monitors detect the earthquake or were any seismic alarms triggered?

• If so, please e-mail a copy of the seismic report for the 2.7 earthquake at 11:30 P.M. on 1-25-15.

From: aceactivists@comcast.net To: "NRC - Fred Bower" <fred.bower@nrc.gov>

Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 1:49:04 PM

Subject:

Limerick Resident Inspector E-mail Addresses Mr. Bower, We have important questions for Limerick resident inspectors.

Please send names and e-mails addresses for the current Limerick resident inspectors.

Thank you, Donna Cuthbert