ML15264A437
| ML15264A437 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Oconee  |
| Issue date: | 11/14/1986 |
| From: | Stolz J Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | Tucker H DUKE POWER CO. |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8611210333 | |
| Download: ML15264A437 (3) | |
Text
Dockets Nos. 50-269, 50-270 November 14, 1986 L'
and 50-287 Mr. Hal B. Tucker Vice President -
Nuclear Production Duke Power Company P. 0. Box 33189 422 South Church Street Charlotte, North Carolina 28242
Dear Mr. Tucker:
SUBJECT:
PROPOSED REMOVAL OF CERTAIN CYCLE-DEPENDENT CORE OPERATING LIMITS FROM THE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS Re:
Oconee Nuclear Station, Units 1, 2 and 3 By letter dated June 30, 1986, you proposed a change to your Technical Specifications (TS) that would remove the cycle specific parameters from your TS to eliminate the necessity of TS amendments with each cycle reload. You also stated that you would submit Core Operating Limits Reports with each cycle to the NRC staff for our information.
The staff has reviewed your proposed TS changes and finds that they cannot be approved under present NRC regulations because the process variables (i.e.,
moderator temperature coefficient, etc.) remaining in the TS are not sufficient to ensure that LOCA and rod ejection accident analyses assumptions, as well as core safety limits, are met, if controls on the rod insertion and/or power peaking limit curves are removed. However, the staff would be willing to consider alternative approaches for controlling such process variables if you wish to propose them. One such approach would be to specify an approved method of calculating the numeric values of the process variables in the TS that would allow you to make changes to the values of the process variables without prior approval (i.e., license amendment) so long as the approved method is followed. The staff believes that these specific findings apply to other similar cycle-dependent core operating limits (COLs) as well.
The staff must consider the following when reviewinglicensee requests to remove cycle-dependent COLs from TS:
- 1. If the staff requires the review of any safety limit or curve change before its implementation, such a revision requires a license amendment.
- 2.
10 CFR 50.36 requires that safety limits and/or Limiting Conditions for Operations (LCOs) be placed on the process variables which are required for safe operation of the plant.
- 3. The staff's proposed policy for improving TS, delineated in SECY-86-10, "Recommendations for Improving TS", states that a PDR ADOCK 05000269 PPDR
-2 process variable which is an initial condition of a Design Basis Accident (DBA), or a structure, system or component that is part of the primary success path of a safety sequence analysis and functions or actuates to mitigate a DBA, must be controlled by LCO's in the TS.
This policy allows such process variables to be controlled by specifying them numerically in the TS or by specifying the method of calculating their numerical values if the staff finds that the method provides adequate assurance that the correct limits will be followed in operating the plant.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your Project Manager.
Sincerely, John F. Stolz, Director PWR Project Directorate #6 Division of PWR Licensing-B cc:
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M!r' H.' B. Tucker Oconee Nuclear Station Duke Power Company Units Nos. 1, 2 and 3 cc:
Mr. William L. Porter Mr. Paul F. Guill Duke Power Company Duke Power Company P. 0. Box 33189 Post Office Box 33189 422 South Church Street 422 South Church Street Charlotte, North Carolina 28242 Charlotte, North Carolina 28242 J. Michael McGarry, III, Esq.
Bishop, Liberman, Cook, Purcell & Reynolds 1200 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C.
20036 Mr. Robert B. Borsum Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Power Generation Division Suite 220, 7910 Woodmont Avenue Bethesda, Maryland 20814 Manager, LIS NUS Corporation 2536 Countryside Boulevard Clearwater, Florida 33515 Senior Resident Inspector U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Route 2, Box 610 Seneca, South Carolina 29678 Regional Administrator U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 101 Marietta Street, N.W.
Suite 3100 Atlanta, Georgia 30303 Mr. Heyward G. Shealy, Chief Bureau of Radiological Health South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control 2600 Bull Street Columbia, South Carolina 29201 Office of Intergovernmental Relations 116 West Jones Street Raleigh, North Carolina 27603 Honorable James M. Phinney County Supervisor of Oconee County Walhalla, South Carolina 29621