ML16277A003

Summary of September 13, 2016, Meeting with Tennessee Valley Authority Regarding Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, Unit No. 2 Tritium Production Planning

ML16277A003
Person / Time
Site:	Watts Bar
Issue date:	10/20/2016
From:	Robert Schaaf Plant Licensing Branch II
To:
Schaaf R, DORL/LPLII-2, 415-6020
References
Download: ML16277A003 (6)

Text

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-0001 CX:tober 20, 2016 LICENSEE: Tennessee Valley Authority FACILITY: Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, Unit 2

SUMMARY

OF SEPTEMBER 13, 2016, MEETING WITH TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY REGARDING WATTS BAR NUCLEAR PLANT UNIT 2 TRITIUM PRODUCTION PLANNING On September 13, 2016, a Category 1 public meeting was held between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and representatives of Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) at NRC Headquarters, Two White Flint North, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The purpose of this meeting was for TVA staff to present information regarding its plans and schedule for requesting authorization to load tritium producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs) in the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant (WBN), Unit 2, reactor. The meeting notice and agenda, dated August 29, 2016, are available in the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) under Accession No. ML16252A164. A list of attendees for the meeting is enclosed.

TVA staff provided a presentation on the basis for the request, project scope, licensing strategy, and proposed schedule for the project. The presentation is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML16257A020.

TVA staff stated that the planned request is in response to a request from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to TVA to expand tritium production to support U.S. weapons stockpile needs.

TVA staff described the project scope, including plant modifications and engineering evaluations to be completed to support the request. TVA staff also identified key planning assumptions, including lessons learned from WBN, Unit 1, TPBAR licensing reviews and recent generic issues associated with reactor vessel and fuel rack analyses. Key milestones for the project include a planned submittal in November 2017, requested amendment issuance by May 2019, and beginning tritium production in WBN, Unit 2, in November 2020.

The NRC staff in attendance provided observations on key issues that should be fully addressed in the submittal, including control of effluent releases, post-LOCA (loss-of coolant accident) and fuel rack criticality analyses, affect of proposed plant modifications on required manual operator actions, and information needed to support the staff's environmental review of the proposed amendment.

No regulatory decisions were made at the meeting.

Several members of the public observed the meeting via telephone and provided questions or comments regarding environmental impact evaluations, monitoring of tritium releases, and expressed objections to the use of civilian power reactors for production of weapons material.

Members of the public questioned the NRC staff about the environmental review process that would be carried out to support the staff's review of the proposed tritium production at WBN, Unit 2. Some members of the public expressed concern that the NRC did not consider tritium production in the final environmental statement prepared for the licensing of WBN, Unit 2. The NRC staff responded that it would conduct an independent environmental review in the form of an environmental assessment for the requested license amendment and would consider prior findings documented in DOE's supplemental environmental impact statement related to the tritium production program, which TVA stated would be adopted.

Members of the public also questioned the NRC staff about monitoring programs in place to measure the air dispersion of tritium, deposition in soil, and uptake in vegetation. The NRC staff responded that monitoring programs conducted by TVA are described in the Offsite Dose Calculation Manual, and stated that TVA's monitoring programs include collection and monitoring of local vegetation for radioactivity.

The latest Watts Bar Annual Radioactive Effluent Release Report, dated April 29, 2016, is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML16120A330. TVA's latest Annual Radiological Environmental Operating Report, dated May 12, 2016, is available in ADAMS under Accession No. ML16133A535. These and prior years' reports for all operating nuclear power plants are available via the NRC's public Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/ops-experience/tritium/plant-info.html. General information regarding radiation monitoring at nuclear power plants is available at http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/radiation/protects-you/radiation-monitoring.html. The NRC periodically conducts focused inspections of nuclear power plants' environmental monitoring programs to verify that licensees are in compliance with NRC regulations.

Please direct any inquiries to me at 301-415-6020 or via e-mail at Robert.Schaaf@nrc.gov ldl-J Robert G. Schaaf, Senior Proje t Manager Plant Licensing Branch 11-2 Division of Operating Reactor Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-391 Enclosure List of Attendees cc w/encl: Distribution via Listserv

MEETING ATTENDANCE LIST Licensee: Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Plant: Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. Unit 2

Subject:

Information Meeting - Unit 2 Date: September 19. 2016 Tritium Production Planning Location: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Time: 9:00 a.m. -10:30 a.m.

(NRC) Headquarters. Two White Flint North Room T-7A01 NAME TITLE ORGANIZATION NRC/Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR)/Division of Jeanne Dion Acting Branch Chief Operating Reactor Licensing (DORL)/Plant Licensing Branch 11-2 (LPLll-2)

Robert Schaaf Senior Project Manager NRC/NRR/DORL/LPLll-2 Farideh Saba Senior Project Manager NRC/N RR/DORL/LPLI 1-2 NRC/NRR/Division of Risk Assessment (DRA)/Radiation Roger Pedersen Senior Health Physicist Protection and Consequence Branch (ARCB)

Kristy Bucholtz* Reactor Engineer NRC/NRR/DRA/ARCB NRC/NRR/DRA/Probabilistic Risk Vicotoria Huckabay Human Factors Engineer Assessment Operations & Human Factors Branch NRC/NRR/Division of Safety Systems Scott Krepel Nuclear Engineer (DSS)/ Nuclear Performance & Code Review Branch NRC/NRR/DSS/Reactor Systems Jennifer Whitman* Reactor Engineer Branch Enclosure

NAME TITLE ORGANIZATION NRC/NRR/Division of License Renewal (DLR)/Environmental Kevin Folk Acting Branch Chief Review & Project Management Branch (RERP)

Bill Rautzen Health Physicist NRC/NRR/DLR/RERP NRG/Office of Nuclear Material Safety Export/Import Licensing and Safeguards/Division of Fuel Santiago Aguilar Analyst Cycle Safety, Material Control and Accounting Branch Senior Manager, Regulatory Erin Henderson TVA Operations General Manager, Reactor David Brown TVA Engineering & Fuels Mark Burzynski Fuels Licensing Support TVA Jeff McGuire Tritium Program Manager TVA Program Manager, Coprorate Ben Hammergren* TVA Nuclear Licensing Deputy Program Manager, National Nuclear Security Thomas Rotella Office of Tritium & Materials Administration (NNSA)

Management Curtis Chamblin* General Engineer NNSA Cyndi Specht* Leidos, Contractor NNSA

NAME TITLE ORGANIZATION Project Manager, Tritium Cheryl Thornhill Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Sustainment Program Gary Morgan* Public Sara Barzcak* Southern Alliance for Clean Energy Donald Safer* Tennessee Environmental Council Gary Wright* Public

• via teleconference

Meeting Notice: ML16252A164; Meeting Summary: ML16277A003; Presentation: ML16257A020 OFFICE DORULP2-2/PM DORULP2-2/LA DORULP2-2/BC(A) DORULP2-2/PM NAME RSchaaf BClayton JDion RSchaaf DATE 10/18/2016 10/18/2016 10/18/2016 10/20/2016