ML15112A572
| ML15112A572 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Oconee  |
| Issue date: | 01/30/1998 |
| From: | Hoffman S NRC (Affiliation Not Assigned) |
| To: | Mccollum W DUKE POWER CO. |
| References | |
| TAC-M98117, TAC-M98118, TAC-M98119, NUDOCS 9802240020 | |
| Download: ML15112A572 (7) | |
Text
Z7 UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-0001 January 30, 1998 Mr. William R. McCollum, Jr.
Vice President, Oconee Site Duke Power Company P. 0. Box 1439 Seneca, South Carolina 27679
SUBJECT:
LICENSE RENEWAL ACTIVITIES FOR OCONEE NUCLEAR STATION, UNITS 1, 2, & 3 (TAC NOS. M98117, M98118, & M98119)
Dear Mr. McCollum:
Duke Energy Corporation's (Duke's) letter of November 5, 1997, provided the status of its activities supporting preparation of an Oconee license renewal application. Duke plans to submit for staff review in early 1998, a completed "Oconee License Renewal Technical Information Topical Report," OLRP-1001. To support preparation of the technical and environmental information needed for an Oconee license renewal application, Duke highlighted five key topics that it believes require attention in the coming months. Following are the staffs comments on each of the topics:
Topic 1: Containment Information Review The containment sections of OLRP-1 001 were submitted for staff review by letter dated March 12, 1997. Duke indicated the desire to receive the first round of staff requests for additional information (RAls) on this submittal. The staff issued its RAls by letter dated November 14, 1997.
Topic 2: Supporting Owners Group Information Review Duke informed the staff of its intent to incorporate into its application by reference, the owners group technical reports identified in its November 5 and May 19, 1997, letters. A number of these reports involve current operating plant topics and were not submitted to the License Renewal Project Directorate for review as license renewal reports. However, completing the review of these reports is needed to support the review of license renewal technical reports. The staff appreciates Duke's identification of the technical reports on which it intends to rely on for an application. The staff is tracking the status of the reports identified to ensure that the review of both the current operating plant reports and the license renewal reports are given the appropriate priority for completion.
9802240020 980130 PDR.
ADOCK 05000269 U 3 9 7 P
W. McCollum
-2 Topic 3: Generic Issues and Broader Industry Concerns Duke discussed a need to develop a process to address broader industry concern identified as part of a license renewal application. The staff agrees with Duke's statement that, in some cases, evaluation of the issues by industry organizations may require more time than is available to support an applicant's requested schedule for issuing a renewed operating license. Following is a discussion of the approach to be used for addressing these broader generic issues.
The license renewal rule requires that aging effects be managed and time-limited aging analyses (TLAAs) be evaluated for license renewal. Many times aging management issues are applicable to more than one plant. For issues that are documented as unresolved safety issues or generic safety issues (GSls) in the NRC's generic issues program described in NUREG-0933, "A Prioritization of Generic Safety Issues," the statements of consideration for the amended license renewal rule (at 60 FR 22484) discusses four approaches for addressing these issues in a license renewal application. Issues that may be generically applicable to other plants but are not yet part of the formal generic safety issues resolution process documented in NUREG-0933 are discussed in Section C.3.2 of the draft license renewal regulatory guide, DG-1047, and in Section B.3 of the Branch Technical Position PDLR 3.0-1 contained in the September 1997 working draft of the license renewal standard review plan. These documents state that an applicant must still address the issue in its application and demonstrate that the effects of aging are or will be adequately managed or that TLAAs have been evaluated for the period of extended operation. These newly identified issues would also be evaluated by the NRC staff for addition as new GSIs in NUREG-0933 and for potential impact on operating reactors.
If evaluation of a potential generic aging issue or TLAA is not complete when an applicant plans to submit its application, the applicant has the option to submit the application acknowledging that additional information in specific areas will be provided at a later date.
The supplemental information could be a generic resolution developed by an industry organization if available. If a generic resolution is not available to support completion of the staffs review, an applicant would need to propose a resolution for its plant based on what it believes is necessary and sufficient to demonstrate that the effects of aging will be adequately managed. An applicant could amend its approach in the future to incorporate a generic resolution subsequently developed by the industry and accepted by the staff.
For example, the staff reviewed the B&W Owners Group reactor coolant system (RCS) piping topical report addressing license renewal. In its review, the staff identified the need to manage cracking of small-bore piping in the RCS for license renewal. The staff expects an applicant referencing this topical report to provide an acceptable aging management program for small-bore piping in its renewal application. The industry always has the option
W. McCollum
-3 to develop and provide guidelines to address the issue on an industry-wide basis. If industry guidelines become available when an applicant submits its application, the applicant could reference the industry guidelines for staff review. If industry guidelines are under development but are not yet available when an applicant submits its application, the applicant may acknowledge that the industry is developing guidelines for the issue and that supplemental information to the application will be provided at a later date. However, the additional information should be submitted in a timely manner providing reasonable staff review time prior to the scheduled completion of the NRC review of the license renewal application. If industry guidelines are still not available at that time, the applicant should submit information describing a plant-specific aging management program to enable the staff to complete its review.
Topic 4: Evaluation of Alternatives to License Renewal As part of the NRC's obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the NRC is required to address in its environmental impact statement (EIS) for license renewal reasonable alternatives to the proposed action. The NRC recognizes the ongoing activities concerning the electric industry restructuring and deregulation discussed by Duke in its letter.
However, the deregulation of the electric industry does not relieve the NRC from the requirement to address alternative energy sources in its EIS for a license renewal application.
As with other environmental reviews that the NRC performs, the Commission will address alternatives and will rely on information provided by the applicant to determine the range of reasonable alternatives that exist including the no action alternative. The "Generic Environmental Impact Statement [GEIS] for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants" NUREG 1437, May 1996, provides a good starting point for applicants in considering alternatives.
The staff received the Duke comments dated January 29, 1998, on the Draft Environmental Standard Review Plan and look forward to Duke's comments on the Draft Regulatory Guide, when it becomes available.
Topic 5: Environmental Impacts of Transportation Staff options for addressing the cumulative and generic environmental impacts of transportation on high level waste (HLW) activities in the vicinity of a HLW repository were submitted to the Commission in SECY-97-279, dated December 3, 1997. The Commission concurred with the staffs recommendation to proceed with rulemaking as a long term solution in a Staff Requirements Memorandum dated January 13, 1998. The staff will revise 10 CFR Part 51 to classify transportation of HLW as a Category 1 issue. If a plant-specific application is received before rulemaking is completed and completion of the rulemaking will delay the licensing process for the plant, a discussion of the issue in the plant-specific environmental report will be necessary.
January 30, 1998 The staff encourages Duke to continue keeping the staff informed of the status of its activities, schedule for submittals, and generic issues that may need to be addressed. This information is useful to the staff in scheduling its workload and for developing implementation guidance for the license renewal rule.
Sincerely, ORIGINAL SIGNED BY:
Stephen T. Hoffman, Sr. Project Manager License Renewal Project Directorate Division of Reactor Program Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket Nos. 50-269, 50-270, and 50-287
Enclosure:
As stated cc w/encl: See next page R. Gill, Duke D. Walters, NEI DOCUMENT NAME: A:\\98117DUK.LTR (S. Hoffman/AVL Disk)
To receive a copy of this document, indicate in the box: "C" = Copy without enclosures "E" - Copy with enclosures "N" = No copy OFFICE PM:PDL 6 SC:PDLR DRPM D:PDLR NAME SHoffman PTKuo TEssig CGrimes(
DATE 0110198 01/
/98 01/i/98 01/
/9 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY
W. McCollum
-4 The staff encourages Duke to continue keeping the staff informed of the status of its activities, schedule for submittals, and generic issues that may need to be addressed. This information is useful to the staff in scheduling its workload and for developing implementation guidance for the license renewal rule.
Sincerely, Stephen T. Hoffman, Sr. Project Manager License Renewal Project Directorate Division of Reactor Program Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket Nos. 50-269, 50-270, and 50-287
Enclosure:
As stated cc w/encl: See next page R. Gill, Duke D. Walters, NEI
Oconee Nuclear Station Units 1, 2, and 3 cc:
Mr. Paul R. Newton Mr. Ed Burchfield Duke Power Company, PB05E Compliance 422 South Church Street Duke Power Company Charlotte, North Carolina 28242-0001 Oconee Nuclear Site P. 0. Box 1439 J. Michael McGarry, Ill, Esquire Seneca, South Carolina 29679 Winston and Strawn 1400 L Street, NW.
Ms. Karen E. Long Washington, DC 20005 Assistant Attorney General North Carolina Department of Mr. Robert B. Borsum Justice Framatome Technologies P. 0. Box 629 Suite 525 Raleigh, North Carolina 27602 1700 Rockville Pike Rockville, Maryland 20852 Mr. G. A. Copp Licensing - ECO50 Manager, LIS Duke Power Company NUS Corporation 526 South Church Street 2650 McCormick Drive, 3rd Floor Charlotte, North Carolina 28242-0001 Clearwater, Florida 34619-1035 Richard Fry, Director Senior Resident Inspector Division of Radiation Protection U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission North Carolina Department of Route 2, Box 610 Environment, Health, and Seneca, South Carolina 29678 Natural Resources P. 0. Box 27687 Regional Administrator, Region II Raleigh, North Carolina 27611-7687 U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atlanta Federal Center 61 Forsyth Street, S.W., Suite 23T85 Atlanta, Georgia 30303 Max Batavia, Chief Bureau of Radiological Health South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control 2600 Bull Street Columbia, South Carolina 29201 County Supervisor of Oconee County Walhalla, South Carolina 29621
January 30, 1998 HARD COPY Docket File PUBLIC PDLR R/F DLaBarge, 0-14H25 OEDO RIV Coordinator, 0-17G21 E-MAIL:
S. Collins/F. Miraglia (SJC1/FJM)
R. Zimmerman (RPZ)
J. Roe (JWR)
D. Matthews (DBM)
S. Meador (SAM)
R. Wessman (RHW)
J. Strosnider (JRS2)
S. Droggitis (SCD)
S. Peterson (SRP)
G. Lainas (GCL)
B. Morris (BMM)
J. Moore (JEM)
R. Weisman (RMW)
G. Mizuno (GSM)
G. Holahan (GMH)
S. Newberry (SFN)
B. Sheron (BWS)
M. Mayfield (MEM2)
A. Murphy (AJM1)
H. Brammer (HLB)
L. Shao (LCS1)
G. Bagchi (GXB1)
R. Johnson (REJ)
H. Berkow (HNB)
S. Shaeffer (SMS)
J. Vora (JPV)
J. Craig (JWC1)
T. Essig (THE)
M. Malloy (MXM)
C. Craig (CMC1)
D. Cleary (DPC)
J. Calvo (JAC7)
B. Gleaves (BCG)
PDLR Staff