ML18059A993
| ML18059A993 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Palisades  |
| Issue date: | 05/13/1994 |
| From: | Zwolinski J Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | Sinclair M AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 9405200025 | |
| Download: ML18059A993 (4) | |
Text
UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Dr. Mary Sinclair 5711 Summerset Drive Midlandr~Michigan 48640
Dear Dr. Sihclair:
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555--0001 May 13, 1994 Thank you for you~ fax of April l, 1994, transmitting a report on the four lic_ensed power plant sites in Michigan, and you*r letter of April 14, 1994, in which you bring to our attention a report on fluctuating water levels in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin and a report on Berrien County, Michigan.
This information has been forwarded to our technical staff for appropriate action.
/
I have also received your letter of April 20, 1994, in which you responded to my observation (in a-letter to you dated March 25, 1994) th.at most of the numerous issues.thit you raised in a telephone call to the Inspector General of the Department_rif Energy were the same issues that-yo~ had raised in the VSC-24 rulemaking; th~t were responded to by the NRC in its notice of final rulemaking; and that are now before the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Your letter of April 20, 1994, contends that each of these issues received inade.quate treatment inthe pertinent portions of that NRC rulemaking notice.
While I appreciate your taking the time to provide.a detailed explanation of your position, I am not sure that it ts productive for us to continue to debate the soundness of the NRC's resolution of those issues.
The agency offered its best technical judgment in the fin~l rule; the petitioners,
- including your 6~n group,* Don't Waste Michigan, have presented the Court of
. Appeals with their best reasons for believing that judgment to be flawed; and now it is up to the Court to hear argument and decide the case.* Until the matters are resolved by the Court, therefore, I respectfully suggest that we should agree to disagree with regard to the issues addressed in the final rul~.
\\.
That said, ho~ever, I wish to point out a few particulars which reveal an apparent misunderstanding of the agency's position-. For example, you suggest that there ii a contradiction between the NRC's stated positi~n that the casks have been evaluated. to assure their safety if tipped over and the statement that a tip-over "is not an acceptable occurrence and must be prevented."
In fact; the NRC's final notice made clear, in the responses to issues #1-10, that the VSC-24 cask was evaluated conservatively for its resistance to being dropped from both vertical and horizontal positions which represent more severe accidents than a tip~over, and that some damage -- such as cracking of ceramic tiles (response to comment #3) and denting of the shell of the multi-assembly sealed basket (response to comment #4) -- was possible. While such damage would~not compromi'e safety and would normally be reparable, the NRC does not consider it "acceptable" for casks needlessly to incur damage requiring* repair.
(See also the response to comment #44, in which the NRC stated that a tip-over or drop acCident might result in a decision* by the licensee or the NRC that the cask should be taken out of service.) Thus there is no contradicti~n between stating that the casks could resist a tip-ov*r 180022(*
9405200025 94051"3 PDR ADDCK_. P5000255 p
. 'PDR.
J _
)
r
1 Dr. Mary Sinclair 2 -
e May 13, 1994 accident and that tip-over accidents are unacceptable; such a regulatory approach provides defense in depth.
The answer to your request for documents on the safety of the casks if tipped over is that the information may be found in the final rule and supporting safety analyses themselves.
Likewise, you ask why it is necessary to have vents at all, if the cask can operate safely even if all vents are blocked.
Here again, the answer is to be found in the final notice of rulemaking, in the response to comments #17 and
- 18.
The distinction to be drawn is between temporary and permanent vent blockage.
Air circulation is necessary to ensure cooling of the spent fuel, and tests showed that if "both the inlet and outlet vents were blocked for a 30 hour3.472222e-4 days <br />0.00833 hours <br />4.960317e-5 weeks <br />1.1415e-5 months <br /> period, there would still be no loss of safety function or any immediate threat to the health and safety of the public."
(Emphasis added.}
Long-term blockage of the vents, the notice explained, could lead to a heatup of the concrete and cladding that could ultimately lead to degradation, though "not an imminent loss of safety function." It was precisely to ensure against blockage that the NRC, in response to a commenter's suggestion, instituted a requirement to supplement daily visual monitoring of the cask vents with periodic measurement of the cask thermal performance.
With regard to your request for "all the correspondence and any other documentation" that is associated with the evaluation of new questions on the cask pad and site, we are treating your request as a Freeqom of Information Act request and will respond to you shortly.
I would also like to take this opportunity to advise you that the NRC has scheduled a meeting, held in the vicinity of the Palisades plant and open to the public, to discuss matters relating to the storage of fuel in casks at Palisades.
At that meeting, the utility will present its findings regarding seismic and other issues; the NRC will offer its independent assessment of the same issues; and members of the public will be afforded an opportunity to ask questions.
The meeting is set for Monday, May 23, 1994, between 7:00 and 10:00 p.m., at Lake Michigan College, 2755 East Napier Avenue, Benton Harbor, Michigan.
I hope that your schedule will allow you to attend, and I look forward to seeing you.
OFFICE NAME CJ am DATE OFFICE OGC NAME PCrane DATE S I 11>/94 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY OGC Sincerely, Original signed by John A. Zwolinski, Assistant Director for Region III Reactors Division of Reactor Projects - III/IV Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
~'; 1'3/94 ADR3 JZwolinski 7
94
- J*
Consumers Power Company cc:
Mr. Robert A. Fenech Vice President, Nuclear Operations Consumers Power Company Palisades Plant 27780 Blue Star Memorial Highway Covert, Michigan 49043 Mr. Thomas J. Palmisano Plant General Manager Palisades Plant 27780 Slue Star Memdrial Highway Covert, MI 49043 Mr. David W. Rogers Plant Safety and Licensing Director Palisades Plant 27780 Blue Star Memorial Highway Covert, Michigan. 49043 M. I. Miller, Esquire Sidley & Austin 54th Floor One First National Plaza Chicago, Illinois 60603 Mr. Thomas A. McNish, Secretary Consumers Power Company 212 West Michigan Avenue Jackson, Michigan 49201 Judd L. Bacon, Esquire Consumers Power Company 212 West Michigan Avenue Jackson, Michigan 49201 Regional Administrator, Region III U.S. _Nuclear Regulatory*commission 801 Warrenville Road Lisle~ Illinois 60532-4351 Jerry Sarno Township Supervisor Covert Township 36197 M-140 Highway Covert, Michigan 49043 Office of the Governor Room 1 - Capitol Building Lansing, Michigan 48913 Palisades Plant U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Resident Inspector Office Palisades Plant 27782 Blue Star Memorial Highway Covert, Michigan 49043 Nuclear Facilities and Environmental Monitoring Section Office Division of Radiological Health Department of Public Health 3423 N *. Logan Street P. 0. Box 30195 Lansing, Michigan 4890~
Gerald Charnoff, Esquire Shaw, Pittman, Potts and Trowbridge 2300 N Street, N. W.
Washington DC 20037 Al ora Davis Commitment Tracking System Coordinator Palisades Plant Consumers Power Company 27780 Blue Star Memorial Hwy.
Covert, Michigan 49043-953~
... April 1994
DISTRIBUTION FOR DR. MARY SINCLAIR LETTER DATED:
May 13, 1994 Docket File (50-255)
NRC & Local PDRs WRussel 1, 12G18 FMiraglia, 12G18 AThadani, 12G18 LReyes, 12Gl8 RBernero, 6E6 JMartin, Riii HMiller, Riii E. Greenman, Riii GGrant, Riii RLandsman, RII I JRoe JZwolinski LMarsh AHsia CJamerson OGC OPA OCA CReamer, OGC, 15818 PCrane, OGC, 15818 CHaughney, 6H3 FSturz, 6H3 WDean, l 7G21 G. Bagchi, 7Hl5 M. Parker, SRI Palisades H. Miller, RIII G. Grant, Riii W. Kropp, Riil R. Landsman, Riil ACRS (10)
TGibbons PD31 Rdg.
cc: Licensee & Service List