ML15188A340

Summary of Closed Meeting with Florida Power and Light Company and Areva Regarding Request for Additional Information for the License Amendment and Exemption Requests Re. the Transitioning to Areva Fuel

ML15188A340
Person / Time
Site:	Saint Lucie
Issue date:	07/13/2015
From:	Farideh Saba Plant Licensing Branch II
To:	Florida Power & Light Co, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
Gladney R, NRR/DORL/LPL2-2, 415-1022
References
TAC MF5494, TAC MF5495
Download: ML15188A340 (4)

Text

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-0001 July 13, 2015 LICENSEE:

Florida Power and Light Company FACILITY:

St. Lucie Plant, Unit No. 2

SUMMARY

OF JUNE 11, 2015, CLOSED MEETING WITH FLORIDA POWER AND LIGHT COMPANY AND AREVA REGARDING REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR THE LICENSE AMENDMENT AND EXEMPTION REQUESTS REGARDING THE TRANSITIONING TO AREVA FUEL (TAC NOS. MF5494 AND MF5495)

On June 11, 2015, a closed meeting was held between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff and representatives of Florida Power and Light Company (FPL, the licensee) and AREVA at NRC Headquarters, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the NRC staff's draft request for additional information (RAI) provided to the licensee by e-mail dated May 8, 2015, and the licensee's pr:oposed plan to respond to the RAI for the proposed amendment' and exemption requests regarding the St. Lucie Plant, Unit No. 2 (SL-2) transition to AREVA fuel. This*

meeting was closed to the public due to the proprietary information that was discussed. The meeting notice and agenda, dated June 1, 2015, are available in the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) under Accession No. ML15149A498. The meeting slides, dated July 11, 2015, are available in ADAMS under Accession No.. ML15182A126. A list of attendees is enclosed.

During this meeting, the RAI (SNPB-RAl-1 ), the proposed contents of the RAI response, and the planned schedule for its submittal were discussed. The licensee provided slides that were used as talking points for the discussion. The NRC staff reiterated to the licensee that no regulatory.

decisions would be made at the meeting. The NRC staff also reiterated that it will need the licensee to provide more clarification in the RAI response than what was provided in the original application, and the licensee indicated that it will provide more clarity and detailed responses.

The licensee indicated that a control rod ejection analysis was performed for Westinghouse fuel under Extended Power Uprate (EPU) conditions for SL-2 and that it plans to provide a similar analysis with the AREVA XN-NF-78 method and provide a comparison of ~esults in its response.

The NRC was very concerned that a point kinetics one-dimensional (1D) model was being proposed, which may not be capable of demonstrating that control rod ejection is.not affected by thermal conductivity degradation (TCD). Additionally, the NRC staff noted that the analysis results using the 1 D model provided in the license amendment request (LAR) are very close to the fuel design limits. The NRC staff indicated that it preferred a three-dimensional (3D) analysis using the ARCADIA code. The licensee indicated that it may be able to do this in several months with ARCADIA, when the code has been approved for control rod ejection analysis. The licensee also indicated that most approved methods are 1 D methods.

The licensee indicated that point-kinetics are conservative and offset the decrease in limits, and that the 3D method would provide further information that demonstrates that the point kinetics model is conservative. The NRC staff indicated that there would likely be another RAI involving effects to adjacent assemblies, TCD, and point kinetics modeling compared to 3D modeling.

The NRC staff asked the licensee to identify its expected path forward and the licensee's proposed response date. The licensee requested that the NRC staff allow 7 weeks from the date of the meeting for it to submit the information, which was acceptable to the NRC staff. The NRC staff also reiterated that due to the complexity of the license amendment and exemption requests, there will be additional RAls, including (but not limited to) one involving TCD and other subject matter as described above.

Please direct any inquiries to Robert L. Gladney at 301-415-1022 or Robert.Gladney@nrc.gov.

Docket No. 50-389

Enclosure:

List of Attendees cc w/enclosure: Distribution via Listserv

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Farideh E. Saba, Senior Project Manager Plant Licensing Branch 11-2 Division of Operating Reactor Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation

LIST OF ATTENDEES JUNE 11 I 2015, CLOSED MEETING WITH FLORIDA POWER AND LIGHT COMPANY AND AREVA ST. LUCIE PLANT, UNIT NO. 2 AREVA FUEL TRANSITION LICENSE AMENDMENT AND EXEMPTION REQUESTS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION FLORIDA POWER AND LIGHT COMPANY Jeremy Dean Mathew Panicker Robert Gladney Farideh Saba Shana Helton Jennifer Whitman AREVA Jerald Holm Rick Williamson Ahron Kercher Greg Kessler Kevin Segard *.

Tim Lindquist *

• By telephone William Cross Jay Kabadi Enclosure

Meeting Summary ML15188A340. Meeting Notice ML15149A498 M

f Sl"d ML15182A126 LAR ML15002A091

'I ee mg 1 es e-ma1 OFFICE DORL/LPL 1-2/PM DORL/LPL2-2/LA DSS/SNPB/BC DORL/LPL2-2/BC DORL/LPL2-2/PM NAME RGladney BClayton JDean*

SHelton FSaba (RGladney for)

DATE 07/10/15 07/10/15 07/10/15 07/13/15 07/13/15