ML19199A428
| ML19199A428 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 04/24/1979 |
| From: | Stello V, Vollmer R, Wisner C NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION IV), Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7905020128 | |
| Download: ML19199A428 (26) | |
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thEC PUBLJC DC4UMENT ROO )
,j UNITED' STATES OF AMEhtICA 1
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COM tISSION 2
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PRESS BRIEFING.
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THREE MILE ISLAND NUCLEAR STATION 5 i 1
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i Middletcun, Pennsylvania g
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Tuesday,l April 24, 1979 I
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12 The press briefing was donvened at one o' clock 13 14 p.m., Messrs. CLYDE WISNER, VICTO STELLO, AND DICK VOILMER, I
of the Nuclear Regulatory Ccitrtission Staff, presenting 15 16 the material.
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2 MR '. WISNER:
Good afterncon.
I am Clyde Wisnc r.
3 I would'like to introdued to you, first, before i
4 I turn this over to vic S tello, I would like to first intro-1 5
duce Dick Vollmer, who is Vic Stelio's assistant out at the i
6 plant site.
Dick Vollmer, V O L L M h R.
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TheonlycommentIwishhomakeat this point is 8
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that we'd like to have Vic make a homplete statement before 10 any questions; and once he has completed his statement,'
we II will cntertain questions.
And we iould like to have them one so that we can r.aintain soco sort of' 12 at a time, please, I
I 13 civility.
14 At this time, Vic Stelld.
15 MR. STELLO:
Thank you, Clyde.
thought I would dtart with is to give you 16 What I Ii 17 a brief summary of the current status of the plant.
18 The~ reactor is essentia:.ly operating at the name 19 conditions as it has been for the past several days.
fhe is running at about 175 degrees, 20 primary cooling temperature l
and the hotest thermocouple is rehding about 272 degre es.
21 22 The. question of iodine,, which we've talked a pout 23 in the past, I would like to address again just very 24 briefly for the moment:
AceFederal Repoe+o.1, trx.,
25 The first chart that you can see on my left, lv t.
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represents two existing systems tdat are in the plant which i
3 have charcoal filters in them for removing the iodine.
4 On the left side of the chart is the auxilia:y building filter system.
Some tim ago the filter bank 5
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in that system were changed and ndw charcoal replaced.
7 Immediately af ter replac ement and putting thc t line 8
in service, we found significant improvenent in the reJ ease L
9 rates of the iodine from the stac.
10 This morning at 6:30 the filter train in the 11 fuc1 handling building had been replaced with new filtc rs
.lts 12 and it has been placed in service q and preliminary rest 13 also suggest a significant improvement in the iodine r+ lease 14 rates.
15 I will rentien, since the chart is up there, that i
163 there's a completely new, independent system that is boing 17 constructed on the top of the auxLliary building roof.
18l As you can see from the chart, there are four filter trains; 19 two of them represent a 100-percent system; that is, i' is e from both the auxil.ary 20 designed to handic the full volum 21 and fuel handling build 4.ngs.
, 22 These systems arc cxpec;ed to be placed in survice o f i'. s available la ;er 23 partially, that is -- 100-percent 24 this weck, and by May 2nd, the remainder of that systeu sede,olao,wmW.l o
n 25' will be made operational.
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We expect when all of these filter systens a) e 3
in place and the remaining two fiJ ter systems in the 4
auxiliary building and fuel handling building, that the 5
iodine release ates will reduce even further.
6 The iodine release rate as of four o ' clock this 7I l
morning, the measurements on the stack, indicate that the 8l
-8 release rate is 4.9 x 10 microcuries per cc, which 9
represents an overall improvement of about a factor of 10, 10 l since last week.
l 11 I'll do the conversion, or I'll ask Dick to c o lo it and give you the number a bit :.ater.
13 Now, let me get on to th e purpure of this 14 conference today, and that is to describe the timrenblo 30 for the various activities that are going on in the plant.
I0 I have mentioncd one of them already, that ia, the 17' installation of the new filter synten on the auxiliaryi 18 building roof 19 This morning I had the pleasure and honor of 20\\
meeting with the. Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and hia timetable al nd whatthe plans ara for staff, to tell hin the 22 the next several weeks with Three Mile Island Unit 2
'3 facility.
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i Briefly, as I have indicated on previous occltsions,
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that natural circulation in the primary [e it is possibic l
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primary system to be started in the present mode of 3
op eration.
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(Chart.)
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You recall that we talked briefly about the i I
offgassing operatior that was completed some time ago;l 6'
7 the reacter had been cooled down
- o a level which is t
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certainly-adequate for natural circulation.
It could be 9
considerably higher than that and still present no 10 difficulty.
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11 Those two planned activities are now c'
'let3 12 and now comes the question of when you initiate natural 13 circulation.
14 As I said, it could be done if you lock at he 15 chart -- that's tha present schertatic of the operatinc 16 code of the reactor.
One steam c enerator, steam geneKator-A, 17 is operating in a steaning mode, with the circulatinci pump k
18i in operation, removing the heat from the core.
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19 The plan to get us to natural circulation Ls 20 l
to take the stcam genera tor not uhown on this diagram!
the 21 3 steam generator, to a water solid condition.
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22 We expect that to be accompli shed on April lt9.
23 The B steam generator is one for which there have f
24 been questions in our minds as to whether or not ther2 iscal Reotnteet, Inc.
1 25 was sufficient leakage in there to whethc:: or not we inay or i -
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2 may not have a problem with respect to of fsite doses if 3
that stean generator were put in service.
We have obedLned i
4 samples, made measurements of the amount of activity thit's generator, and analp!ted 5
in the secondary side of the steam 6'
what might be the offsite result if it were placed in l 7:
operation.
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-Me reached the conclusion based on these 9
analyses that the amount of activi,ty that would be contributed 10 to the stack would be on the order of 10-11 microcuries 11 per cc.
f 12 You recall that I mentioned earlier that the, stack i
13 was now operating at a level of abou'. 4.8x10-8, and th$ b 14 is several orders of magnitude; and it represents a le al 1
15 to the stack which are below the acceptable levels offsLte.
16 There will be considerable dilution and the offsite pro.alem i
17 from that would be negligible.
That number would be reduced i
18 about 10,000 times more before it got into the environm:nt 19 by atmospheric pollution.
20 The follcwing day on Apr.il 30th the steam gen.rator l
21 shown on the diagram would also be placed in a solid wa' tar 22 condition.
The plant would then be brought to a stable; 23 operating node balancing the heat removal rates from t' e
n 24 steam generators and during this time interval starting with a +.in.po % tu.
25 the past several wccks, and hoping to conclude on May 1st j ^,
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s will be the upgrading activity associated and in deconthminst-2 3
ing decay heat pits which house the decay heat removal i
4 system.
That system will be upgraded and additional 5
instrumentation will have been added, so that if that in 6
ever needed for a contingency, it will be in a high stake 7
of readiness.
systemwillbenehled, 8,
.We do not expect that that 9
but it seems prudent that that action be a tailable 10 before we initiate natural circula bion.
II On May 2nd, the pump tha t is currently in 12 operation now would be stopped, and the system allowed to 1
13 go into a natural circulating cool ing mode.
14 At that point is when I aculd believe that ig would 15 be appropriate to call the reactor in its long-tern l
16 cooling condition.
I don't -- and I have avoided using sincq I don't believe, vi h the 17 the words " cold shutdown" 18 reactor in the configuration that we would like it to be i
U 19' in, that that word is appropriate to describe the heat 20' removal systems that will be in operation by thedate tee 21 natural circulating heat removal systems will provide that
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22 identi cal.and equivalent capability.
i 23 (Chart.)
e 24 When the unit is to be placed on natural
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25 circulation, there will be a contingent of personnel in the cl n
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control rocm.
It will include myself, Mr. Vollmer, and' 3
various scientists from the licensee's team of speciali'its 4
who have been pulled togethe'_ for this purpose.
They i
5 include representatives from GPU and their organizationjl, I
6 the industrial advisory group, and some others.
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I might remark at this tame that the activity 8
that we are about to undertake is a result of the 9
cxcellent team of scientists that
- he licensee has pulled 10 together here at the site to do th<2 analyses and look a t
11 all of the possiblo problems that might result and assure c
12 that this is the best course of action; and this course 'of 13 '
action is the course recommended b y those scientists, a s 14 well as our inlependent evaluation formed by the NRC.
15 Now, let me go on to scoe additional changes 16 that will be made over the next several weekc to try t) l 17 complete the timetable to the best of my ability to dolbhat 18 at this time.
19 What I am about to describe are some changes 4
20 that are fairly complex in the facility in terms of 21 equipment that will be added.
Thase schedules are the best 22 schedules that I think are appropniate at this time; heaever,
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23 I need to comment that should they change'somewhat, I 24 certainly would not be surpri sed.
And I think that that l
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25 should be allowed for.
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The A steam generator, as you can see on the r ew 3
chart, is to be nodified, and those nodifications are b6ing 4
made now, and have been made for the last several weeksm 5
Those modifications will allow the steam generator to l
6 continue to be operated in the scL.d water condition, but 7
in addition to operating in che solid water condition, 1;here i
8 will be a heat exchanger as shown en this picture, which i,
will provide an additional barrier to the environment tlat 9
10 will be one additional heat exchanger to the one that n w
Il exists in the plant, which will be tied to the heat exchanger 12 shown herc.
o 13 With that heat exchange t there will be two 14 barriers which -- the steam genera tor providing. the thikd, 15 to,.ssure that the radioactive materials are confined within 16 the reactor building which is our objective.
17 There wiJ1 be a redundant pressure volume centrol 18 system that is cu ;rently under construction which will 19 allow the plant At that point to be operated in a mode Where 20 none of the equipment now inside o f the reactor building i
21 will be needed from that point on.
22 -
The pressure volume control system is considered 23 to be a prudent course to take to allow the most effective i
I 24 use of the systems that I have been describing.
-leaeral RepoMen, Inc.
25 There are modifications that are also being cdde
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made to the onsite power distribution system.
Those 3
modifications consist of adding two 2.5 megawatt dieseln 4
to the existing diesel system that 's already onsite. That 5I equipment will be used to provide a power source for 6'
the various pumps and equipment that I have been descriling l
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that will be added in the next several weeks.
8 And that system will be available for service, on 1
t 94 April 27.
10 Chere are a number of activities as to which '
11 will not go into detail that have been ongoing and will, 1
12 continue for perhaps another conth o f two :
13 These activities are associated with decontamj.natic a 14 of the auxiliary building, the fabrication of a new 15 water processing system to treat the contaminated water and 16; remove the radicactivo me rials from then; a new decay l
system with its own chemical plrocessing system thah 17 heat l
18 can be used to process the water fIom the primary systen 19 and remove all the radioactive material as would.be needed i
20 for the long-tcrm recovery and restoration of the plant 21 The capacity to store waterhasbeeninprovedfby 22 adding additional tank capacity.
That additional capacity
~23 is being extended by putting addit;.onal storage tanks i:
the 24, fuci pool, which will provide suff:.cient space for
-Federn! Reporters, lac-l 25!
processing the water that will be dsed for the decentam natica l
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activities, for handling the contaninated water in the 3
reactor building, and for the primary system, as needed 4
Welt., that concludes the timetable to get to 5
natural circulation.
6 I have one more comment
- hat I wanted to make' 7
about natural circulation:
That i 4 we have reached a 8,
conclusion that the appropriate tine to do this is 9
-- to accomplish the natural circulation objective -- ia on 10 May 2nd.
11 However, wehave also con sidered that if a pump 12 were somchow tripped, as it bs be 3n in the past, and hat 13 happened, or if instrumentation started to becom e 14 unreliable, at that point we would also initiate natura l 15 circulation; since the best time do that is a time vr.en a
,_able and operable.
you have the normal plant equipmen's 16 17 I don't believe that that's likely, but if itl 18 did happen, it is possible to happen, we would initiate 19 natural circulation if any of those conditions I spoke of arise or ifore May 2nd.
20,'
1 21 Now, if you have questicns, I guess now is abtut 22 the best time.
23 MR. WISNER:
First, just one r.oment -- beforg
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24 you have the ques tions, I want to'make mention that Ji.T
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Hanchet, the gentleman sitting over here on the step, I
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in the blue shirt, has a press stahecent outlining the things 3,
that Vic has just ncntioned; and also following this ncia 4
conference, we will have a transcr ipt.
5 Okay?
6, QUESTION:
You have two new heat exchangers 7
installed herc, one for A and one Ear B, I take it thesat 8
heat exchangers are linked to a second or an existing 9{
heat exchanger?
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MR. STELLO:
Existing hea. t exchangers that ar t
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il now presently PLrt of the normal p.Lant; right.
12 QUESTION:
Now, intstead of having the two 13 cooling towers be the primary way of removing heat from this 14 plant, you are going to use these?
15 MR. STELLO:
That will be part of the river water 16 system.
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17 QUESTION:
Is that goir.g to increase the temperatur es 18 of the water in the river?
Isthahgoingtocause i
19 environmental problems as far as ygu know?
MR. STELLO:
No.
20 21 The temperature rise that would result from 22 operating these pumps is the temperature rise that recu: ts 23 now.
The amount of heat that's in'tk reactor is an extremely 24n small quantity of heat.
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2S' By the time natural circulation is established, i
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n the amount of heat that will be removed will be under two
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megawatts, which, indeed, is a very, very small fractio n i
of the amount of heat that is nordally removed from thi s S
reactor.
6 As you recall, normal operating power level is 2,772 megawat.ts in etch c..i'.;
and this represents, indeed, 7
8 a tiny fractier
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acr quc;stion, if I may, wher i
I 10 you go to natula] c4
. c ior,. you said before you were 11 not completely su:
-tha t P' d o f c onfiguration you havc inside the core, how much damage, iwhat it looks like, whether 12 13 you have " popcorn", how badly the circulation proble=s are 14 in therc.
15 Suppose you turn off ths pump, and the natural 16 circulation does not do the job?
Is this a contingency ycu have thought about?
Can you
- urn the pump back on, get 17 18 it going agin?
What sort of contJ.ngency plan do you huvo 19 for that?
theh,ontingencieswouldf arst "O
KR. STELLO:
- Well,
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consist of, ifforsomereasonnahuralcirculationapoeared 21
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to not work as we had planned, thpn the pump that has Neen y
i stopped would be restarted; and the plant would be 23 I
I 24 restored to the condition that it: is in now, with data y
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- 5 from that used to evalua.te what had actually
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happened, and decide where to go, how to go, in the future.
3 There are additional con ingencies beyond ther e 4
that could be followed, including supplying water with the 1
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high pressure injection systems, wgere there are three piumps 1
6 that can be used with effective flg,w from the normal charging l
1 system which would provide sufficifnt flow to the systerl i
to keep it operating under that mo$e.
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And ultim.,tcly, if the need arose, we would
--6 h
E 10 could use the decay heat removal system.
11 QUESTION:
Mr. Stello, you said May 2 is the t
12 target date to put the reactor in natural circulation, b ut 13 you say you are hesitant to use the words " cold shutdown".
When would that word be appropriat'e?
14 i
MR. STELLO:
Cold shutdo$1n, as normally defined, 15 16 in a plant is a plant for which the cooling system is i
I 17' placed on the decay heat removal system so that the tem pera-is controlled using that sys em, with the outlet and ture l
19 inlet temperaturoc approximately dhe sano, that your de:ay l
t 20 heat level is fairly small; and then the core temperatures I
21 are approximately the same as the average of those, the
' 22,
average temperature in the core being the average of th a 1'
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inlet and outlet temperature.
i 24 f E., he m.d sn f Ms cre, @.e democa es
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j 25' inside the core are expected to remain elevated above i
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-- th a t is, above the average bulk temperature for some!
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time.
They eventually, of course,j will be cooled down.
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The temperatures will be reduced tjo the same levels that i
y u would have if you were on a.dpay heat system.
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However, the system con iguration that's being 6
i used is different than the configuration that is normally 7
applied; and 'that's why I've sugge'sted that when we go %o 8
natural circulation, this is the equivalent of " cold shut-9 i
down".
It is the long-term cooling mode for this plane; and 10 jj it, indeed, will get cold in the same sense.
Tho question of how fast will it cool down is 12 i
a legitimate question to ask in tyls case, since the 13 hottest thermocouple inside the ccre will indeed read somewhat ja i
L highcr than the bulk temperatures for some time.
Now, how 15 1 ng they will stay that way, we ill need to make an 16 analysis of that situation af ter de've achieved natural j7 circulation and look at what temperature response we get jg u
from t hase thermocouples.
79 OUESTION:
Would it be weeks, months, years?
.70 MR. STELLO:
I think it s in the timeframe o 21 w cc.6 s, when the temperatures will be reduced to low levels, 22
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to levels for which if you used 212 degrees as the critsrion; 23 ag in a complete answer, as I saic we 'll need analysi::,.
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itbillbeweeks; this i s 2
circulation; so in my judgment 3
scmcwhat of an educated guess.
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I will give a full and complete answer after te've S
achieved natural circulation.
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QUESTION:
Will there eger be a time when the I
reactor is cooled and no longer gdncrating heat?
7 8
MR. STELLO:
The decay process in a reactor is one for which the heat load drdps f airly quickly for'the 9
l 10 first several weeks, and then aftdr that time begins to 11 drop very slowly.
But even for a period of months tnere wil.'. bc 12 i
heat generation, even for years beyond that with some of 13 I
14' the isotopes that produce the decay heat having halflives t
15 that are f airly long.
16 But, however, the heat..oad asscciated with dhat 17 would be very, very low, down int the kilowatt range.
18 To give you a rough feel, af ter about 180 days you wil.\\
I 19 have a heat generation rate under one megawatt, and -
20 we will then start characterizing the heat load in terts s
21 of kilawatts; and then it will cohtinue to decav slowlt 22 from that_ point on.
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23 QUESTION:
Is this reac or under control now, i
24 or can it still get out of contral?
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-Federei Reporters. Inc. f 25 I MR. STELLO:
The reactar is under control.
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It is being adequately cooled, aad it is clearly shut ddwn i
3 f rca the criticality point of view.
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4 QUESTION:
Is there any danger of anything I
5 occurring on May 2nd that might cahse it to go out of l
6 control?
t 7
- 1R. STELLO:
The only qupstion on May 2nd tha b 8
you need to address is whether or f.ot the natural circulation 9l will be as effective as we would like it to be.
If it does 10 not produce the result that we think it should, the rea btor II would be returned to the state th !t it's in now.
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And that is the only ishue that I see appropriate 12 13 for that time.
There will be no raneuvering of the plant I4 in such a way Chat I see any question of releases.
The l
15 only issue is the temperature response of the syster rouch l
16 natural circulation.
When do ycn elxpect i
to begin pumping 17,
QUESTION:
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18 contaminated water < at of the containment?
How much dc you i
h 19 calculate is in there?
And just what risks are involve 20 with that operation?
I 21 3R. STELLO:
The water Will not be pumped f rcn 22 the containment until there are suitable systems available I
l 23 to put that water in; se that theje will be no risk frc tm
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I taking that contaminated water frba its present system 24
-Eederal Reporter % inc.
25 into either storage tanks or processing Gystems.
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2 The water that would be removed from the reacbor l
3 cooling system and processed, that will most likely not 4
begin until this new system I referred to is installed 5
and in place and opera tionally chepkca and tested; and at 6
I that time then a decisien can be made to start processing 7 {
tha t water.
8
-The timetable for that, hsItoldyoubefore, l
9 I wasn't prepared to get into spec [fic dates on those.
10' These are what I consider to be thi2 longer-term operation II for the restoration of tho. plant.
I2 QUESTION:
What time sequence might it be?
13 MR. STELT.0:
If I had to say, it would be a ecuple 14 l
of months.
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15 QUESTION.
You mentioned,som2 thing about leakage i
16 in the steam generator; has there been a leak in steam 17 generator B since the beginning?
I8 MR. STELLO:
There is activity on the secondary 19 side of the steam generator.
The a,nly way it could have 20 gotten into the secondary side is if there was a leak.
21 It is expected that when the steam henerator was operating j
i 22 at high pressure, there was a very,i very small leak; we I
23j conclude this by the fact that af teb 24 days we are oper tting i
24 in this mode, andwecertainlydon'hsee the increas 4
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25' activity which would suggest that there's a continued,1cak.
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QUESTION:
Is there ins rumentation to tell hu l
3 there is a leak in that steam generator?
4 MR. STELLO:
Yes, the instrumentat ' on that yap 5
use i s by actually going in and taking a sample of that, I
6 water and measuring the amount of activity in it and by 7
looking at that over a period of time, you can -- and that f
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will be done -- you can monitor whether or not there is l
9 continued leakage of contaminated ! water.
10 Should that occur, that ste&m generator could 11 be easily isolated and the leak sdopped.
l 12' QUESTICN:
Could we go back to the matter of 13 iodine emissions?
14 Would you put that into laymen's terms?
What 15 does it mean, now, would you compare that with the accepted 16 levels?
Okay.
18 The accepted level that[we've talked about mc:s t,
19 are the accepted levels of concentration of radioactivei l
20 material offsite.
That number -- Dick, listen carefully 1
21 so I get it richt -- is 100 picociries p';r cubic meter f Another term is 10-10 microcuries per cc.
22 23 Those represent Part 20 allowables in unrestricted i
24 areas, to the general pcpulation.
sa.,a n.,m. iac.
25 We have not been able to, with the instruments l
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2 we are using to detect tha actual quantity that's out tSere.
3 The measurements we have taken are such that the amount !of 4
iodine out there is below what has been referred to as 5
the minimum detectibic level.
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Yes, sir?
7 QUESTION:
You said earlier if there is anothbr i
8 pump trip or the instrumentation boccmes unreliable -- are 9
you going to initiate natural cirdulation?
Is there any
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10 urgency in doing that, if the instrumentation starts td i
Il fail, or if the pump trips?
12 And what dangers are inherent in doing that?'
13 MR. GTELLO:
Well, that 's the point in doing 'it.
14 If you suspect that the instrumentation will become 15 unreliable, you initiate natural circulation before it 16 becomes unreliable so you can accurately track the events 17 that are going on with the best instrumentation avail 6ble.
i 18 QUESTION:
Is it possible it may occur befor e t
19 May 2nd?
20 Ma. STELLo:
Is it poss ible?
I've already 1
21 indicated that clearly is a poss$bility; anc that's utkI i
that if iy did happen, that's Ehat 22 wanted to mention it:
23; we would do.
24I Nith respect to the pump trip part of your l
-racoi awm. anc.
25 cuestion, if the pump tripped, what we have done in tle past i
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l 2,
is to restart it.
3 What now scens like the prudent thing to do waitandsee!if you do indeed ach Leve 4
is if the pump trips, i
S natural circulation before you res' tart it; since if you ldo, 6
then you no longer need to rely on the pump if you have 7
passed that stage of 7perations.
8
.It clearly seens like the correct and best t
9 engineering approach to the problem.
~
I 10' QUESTION:
Exactly what is making the heat in the 11 core?
12 And a second question:
what is the rush in 13 initiating this new process?
l 14 Some critics say you shculd run the way you ate 15 running now for a year at least bqcause of plutonion I
i 16 oxide creating hydregen in the redctor; there is a potehtial 17 for that?
18 MR. STELLO:
The original transient that the plant 19 went through was a transient that produced high temperatures k
20 and it is our judgment that a condiderable portion of I
\\
21 the zircaloy cladding has already been fully oxidized.
22 However, you can set limits on the allowed tqcpera-j 23 ture that you will permit the core to go through during f
natural circulation to assure that you preclude any furkher 24 5.own! Reporters, Inc.
25 degradation of the core.
t
/
I 16 i
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i 22 i
I RAW TRANSCRIPT - UNCDRRECTED 2
The damaged portion of the core is not likely ! to 3
have any unoxidized zirconium left in it; if any, very small 4
amounts.
l 5
The metal-water reaction does not become exothermic E
at very high rates until the temperatures are in excessIof 0
l about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit; add even under those 7
8 conditions, those temperatures wot ld more likely be in the I
9 part of the core which is most sederely damaged, and 't would l
be very unlikely that that high tdmperature would cr.ase 10 II any further damage to the already-damaged fuel.
12 QUESTION:
Assuming, suppose We go to naturak I3 circulation on May 2nd and everything goes well; did I l'
understand you to say you would continue in natural 15 circulation for perhaps a couple of months?
i 16 If that is true, then w at do you do af ter that?
I7 MR. STELLO:
I hav,e already indicated that ag i
I8 some point, when it's appropriate, there will be a new system installed, c. decay system with its own chemical I9 processing equipnent.
When that nystem is ready, whenIthe 20 21 conditions are correct, then you would transfer over td usinc 22 that system to start processing and cleaning up the t
23 radioactive material in theprinahysystem, as well as the 1
24 material that's in the barement ccepartment of the reactor Wwat Reporters, lac.
25 l b;ilding.
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QUESTION:
How many men, or how many personnel arti 3
still on the island in this recovery team, and are they 4
being exposed to a dangerous level of radiation?
5 MR. STELLO:
The exact number I don't know.
Ef bo the NRC personnel that are here, we are approximately l 6
in number; and we'll remain in sddstantial numbers at l east 7
8 for the immediate future, hoping that as we continue to get t
the reactor into the mode I've des lcribed, that we at that 9
10, time will be abic to start decreas ing the number of NRC' 11 personnel.
12 The workers in the plant, are following the T3 practices and standards that are required by the regulations 14 of the Commission in the amount of exposure that they are I
15 permittod to get.
3 16 And, as I recall, so far since the accident, 17 believe there were three individuals working in the plhnt It 18 wh c had exposures in excess of oar limi ts.
1 have a 19 reserva tion, I don' t know if the number is three; but
- hat-20 is my memory at the moment.
L af ter{t ycu 21 CUESTION:
I would like to follow up:
I 22 go to natural circulation, then you go to decay heat i.
23 system; and start cleaning it up; then what is next?
l what point do you get disassembly?
Arc Gu 24 At
- r=3 a a...n.n, i.e.
25 talking about months, year s?
i
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f1R. STELLO:
I wish I could give a complete 3
answer to that question.
I have ract devoted very much if 4
our effort to trying to evaluate that long a term solut on 5
to restoration of the plant.
l 6
I think that that will be some time in the 7
future as wc look to see what it w ill take t.2 decontami bate l
8 and clean up these systems.
And I unfortunately, cannot I
I 9'
give you even a very good guess at the moment.
10 QUESTION:
We are talkir.g about months or years 11 in the decay heat removal?
12 MR. STELLO:
I've answered it to the best of uy 13 ability.
14 QUESTION:
When President Carter visited here,, I 15 understand he walked through the auxiliary building to he 3
16 control room without any particular attire.
17 Nos, I understand now that to reach the controls 18 employces must wear special clothfng, and respiratory I9 equipment?
20 MR. STELLO:
That's not a true statement.
I 2ve 21, been in.here several times.
You don't need anything 22 special.
I go in just as I am now.
23
'here's no contaminated area you need to pass 24l through to equire that.
s,suoi n. pore.ri iae..
25!
QU. 'STION :
h' hat do you nean by water solid conditic n?
l tv g
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RAW TRANSCRIPT IUNCORRECTED 2
MR. sTELLO:
Asteangenfrator,byitsname, I
usually means that it's transferrid'g heat with water on 3
one side of the steam generator and the water that's injected 4
t I
f 5
on the other side, being transform 4d into steam, and then And under norm 41 6
being rencved from the r, team generator.
k 7
conditions, that steam is supplied ' to the turbine, whic3 is used to produce the electricity.
8 I
9 Water solid neans that that side o f the steam instead of operating in a steaming mode, would 10 generator, h
11 operate with solid water; that is, water would not be permitt ed 12 to turn into steam.
i 13 QUESTION:
The fuel rodd that are damaged, or 14 bent, are you able to remove them7 Are there standard i
15I procedures to get to that stage?
16 MR. STELLO:
On, no.
To determine exactly how I
I
,the the core will need to be disassembled and removed from 17 18 reactor vessel, is not a question that can be completely f
answered until the head of the ve ssel is removed and the 19 20 actual condition of the core is o;oserved visually, to 21 determine what best approach one ought to take.
But it may require using tools and methods that 22 f
23 are not the normal procedures used for that purpose.
24 Normally, you just lift out an assembly and move it over l
[
%mi repo% rac 25 to the fuel pool, and store it there.
This may require b
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1 RAW TRANSCRIPT -. UNCORRECTED I
2 considerable deviation from that procedure.
i I
3 QUESTIOM:
Do you know uhen that will be?
4 MR. STELLO:
That's the same ques tior. I have 5
answered:
I don't know.
I have pot evaluated that part of i
6 the recovery process yet.
i' 7
MR. WISNER:
Thank you very much.
That l
8-concludes the conference for the day.
(Whereupon, the press briefing was adjourned' 9l I
TOI at 1: 40 p.m.,
Tuesday, 24 April 1979.)
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