ML19211A231
| ML19211A231 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Allens Creek File:Houston Lighting and Power Company icon.png |
| Issue date: | 12/06/1979 |
| From: | Sohinki S NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE LEGAL DIRECTOR (OELD) |
| To: | Doherty J AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19211A217 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7912170225 | |
| Download: ML19211A231 (8) | |
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 12/6/79 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD In the Matter of HOUSTON LIGHTING & POWER COMPANY Docket No. 50-466 (Allens Creek Nuclear Generating Station, Unit 1)
)
NRC STAFF'S RESPONSES TO JOHN F. DOHERTY'S SEVENTH SET OF INTERR0GATORIES The NRC Staff responds as follows to the seventh set of interrogatories pro-pounded by John F. Doherty to the Staff in the captioned proceeding:
7-l.
During the licensing process will there be an ACRS review of Applicant's plans?
Response
The results of the ACRS's review of the application for pennits to construct the Allens Creek Nuclea: Generatina Station, Units 1 and 2 s;ere included in a letter report of December 12, 1974 to the Honorable Dixy Lee Ray, Chairman, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. This report was included as Appendix I to Supplement No.1 to the Safety Evaluation Report, June 1975. As stated in Section 18.0 of Supplement No. 2 to the Safety Evaluation Report, "During its 217th meeting held on May 4-5, 1978, the Comittee discussed the Allens Creek amended application for one unit only and subsequently advised us that the Comittee saw no need to reopen its review of the Allens Creek plant, in view of its previous review and nature of the design changes being proposed."
1591 072 N
gget 0
. On October 10, 1979 the Staff forwarded a letter to Houston Lighting & Power Company on the subject, " Followup Actions resulting from the NRC Staff Reviews Regarding the Three Mile Island Unit 2 Accident." That letter stated that the Advisory Comittee on Reactor Safeguards had completed its review of the report titled, "TMI-2 Lessons Learned Task Force Status Report and Short-Term Recommendations" (NUREG-0578) and included the ACRS letter of August 13, 1979 to Chairman Hendie as Enclosure 1.
Other reports by the ACRS, on the TMI-2 accident are expected in the future. The Staff will continue to consider any future comments of the Conmittee in implementing any additional followup actions in the Allens Creek and other facilities.
Other than the continuing TMI-2 reviews, the Staff knows of no other review of the Allens Creek application planned by the ACRS. We will keep the Conmittee informed of any additional staff review, e.g., the Staff review of the Applicant's November 14, 1979 response to our letter of October 14, 1979.
7-2.
Has Applicant complied with Regulatory Guides 1.124 and 1.130 with regard to Class 1 linear plate and shell type supports?
Response
As stated in Section 5.2.1 of Supplement No, 2. to the Safety Evaluation Report the Applicant has provided a commitment that ASME Class 1 linear and plate-and-shell type supports will comply with the criteria contained in Regulatory Guides 1.lf4 and 1.130. This commitment is acceptable to the Staff at the 1591 073
. construction permit stage of review. The Applicant may be required to demon-strate ccmpliance during the operating license review, but in any case is responsible for assuring such compliance.
7-3.
If not, what alternative criteria have been proposed, if any?
(For clarity see p. 7 of 7/21/78 letter to HLP from S. Varga, NRC).
Response
Not applicable.
7-5.
In the PSAR, it says "...G. E. believes the Recirculation Pump Trip feature combined with the ability to manually shutdown the reactor by inserting rods or by initiating the SLCS provide sufficient protection in view of the very low probability of complete failure to SCRAM."
a.
Does Staff find this analysis acceptable?
b.
If not, for what reasons does it differ with the G. E. position?
c.
What is the probability of complete failure to SCRAM according to staff today?
d.
Does staff believe that low probability can be sufficient protection?
Response" a) See response to Interrogatory #6 of the first set of interrogatories, b) The ability to manually insert the rods assumes that the common mode failure disables the electrical portion of the scram system while the mechanical / hydraulic portion of the scram system is not disabled and the operator takes early action. Based on our observation of some potential common. mode failures in the control rod drive system, we conclude in NUREG-0460, Vol. 1 (p. 29) that the reliability of the rods and the rod drive systems cannot be demonstrated to be much better than the reliability of the electrical portions.
1591 074
. The Staff does not agree with GE that in the event of an ATWS the plant can be safely shutdown by manual initiation of the SLCS. The Staff judgment is based on the two reasons discussed in a 3/1/79 memo from R. Mattson, NRR, to T. McCreless, ACRS, and summarized here.
- 1) The operating BWR plants do not have the capability to insert sufficient rate of sodium pentaborate solution to assure that the acceptance criteria are not exceeded.
- 2) The Staff does not believe that there is high degree of confidence in the operator manually initiating SLCS in the first two minutes, especially in view of the high cost of cleaning up the reactor coolant water once SLCS has been initiated.
c) As discussed in NUREG-0460, Vol.1, p. 28, the Staff estimates the proba-bility of failure to scram on demand to be in the range of 10'#ru 10-5,
The Staff recognizes that this estimate of unreliability has considerable uncertainty and believes that this estimate may be less applicable to the hydraulic / mechanical portions of the scram system because of lack of ob-served failures in significant number of control rods.
d) It is clear that all conceivable events need not and should not be pro-tected against. The Staff believes that low probability of occurrence of an accident can be used as bases for reaching a conclusion not to require consideration of such an accident if adequate data base exists to support such low probability estimates.
Lacking adequate data base, the probability arguments can only be used to supplement engineering judgment regarding the credibility of an accident.
1591 075
. One or more of the following individuals will testify for the Staff with regard to ATWS related contentions:
C. Moon, A. Thadani, H. Richings, and W. Brooks.
1591 076 Dated at Bethesda, Maryland, this 6th day of December,1979.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD In the Matter of HOUSTON LIGHTING & POWER COMPANY
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Docket No. 50-466 (Allens Creek Nuclear Generating Station, Unit 1)
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AFFIDAVITS OF RICHARD W. FROELICH AND CALVIN W. MOON Richard W. Froelich and Calvin W. Moon depose and say under oath:
1.
I, Richard W. Froelich, am the NRC Staff's Environmental Project Manager assigned to the aoplication for a construction permit for the Allens Creek Nuclear Generating Station, Unit 1.
2.
I, Calvin W. Moon, am the NRC Staff's Licensing Project Manager for the above application.
3.
The foregoing NRC Staff responses to interrogatories propounded by John F. Doherty were prepared by us or under our direct supervision. We certify that the answers given are true and correct to the best of our knowledge, information and belief.
/
W' i ~j RiphardW.Froelich
/
b
$ &2mW Calvin W. Moon Subscribed and sworn to before me this [7d day of DEd(#BEr,1979
%/Am d2..dhj 1591 077 Notary Public My Connission expires:
O/fb /, /97R_
V U
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION BEFORE THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD In the Matter of 1
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HOUSTON LIGHTING & POWER r0MPANY'
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Docket No. 50-466
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(Allens Creek Nuclear Generating
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Station, Unit 1)'
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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that copite of "AFFIDA ITS OF RICHhRD W. FROELICH AND CALVIN W.
MOON," "NRC STAFF'S RESPONSES TO JOHN F. DOHERTY'S FIRST SET OF INTERROGATORIES,"
"NRC STAFF'S RESPONSES TO JOHN F. DOHERTY'S SECOND SET OF IliTERR0GATORIES,d "NRC STAFF'S RESPONSES TO JOHN F. DOHERTY'S JULY 17, 1979 SET OF INTERROGATORIES," "NRC STAFF'S RESPONSES TO JOHN F. DOHERTY'S FIFTH SET OF INTERROGATORIES," "NRC STAFF'S RESPONSES TO JOHN F. DOHERTY'S SIXTH SET OF INTERROGATORIES," and "NRC STAFF'S RESPONSES TO JOHN F. DOHERTY'S SEVENTH SET OF INTERR0TATORIES," in the above-captioned proceeding have been served on the following by deposit in the United States mail, first class, or, as indicated by an asterisk by deposit in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission internal mail system, this 6th day of December, 1979:
Sheldon J. Wolfe, Esq., Chairman
- Richard Lowerre, Esq.
Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel Asst. Attorney General for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission State of Texas Washington, DC 20555 P.O. Box 12548 Capitol Station Dr. E. Leonard Cheatum Austin, Texas 78711 Route 3, Box 350A Watkinsville, Georgia 30677 Hon. Jerry Sliva, Mayor City of Wallis, Texas 77485 Mr. Gustave A. Linenberger
- Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel Hon. John R. Mikeska U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Austin County Judge Washington, DC 20555 P.O. Box 310 Bellville, Texas 77418 R. Gordon Gooch, Esq.
Baker & Botts
- Mr. John F. Doherty 1701 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
4327 Alconbury Street Washington, DC 20u06 Houston, Texas 77021 J. Gregory Copeland, Esq.
Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Framson Baker & Boits 4822 Waynesboro Drive One Shell Plaza Houston, Texas 77035 Houston, Texas, 77002 Mr. F. H. Potthoff, III Jack Newman, Esq.
1814 Pine Village Lowenstein, Reis, Newman & Axelrad Houston, Texas 77080 1025 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20037 D. Marrack 420 Mulberry Lane Carro Hinderstein Bellaire, Texas 77401 8739 Link Terrace Houston, Texas 77025 1591 U78
Texas Public Interest Margaret Bishop Research Group, Inc.
11418 Oak Spring c/o James Scott, Jr., Esq.
Houston, Texas 77043 8302 Albacore Houston, Texas 77074 Glen Van Slyke 1739 Marshall Brenda A. McCorkle Houston, Texas 77098 6140 Darnell Houston, Texas 770/4 J. Morgan Bishop 11418 Oak Spring Mr. Wayne Rentfro Houston, Texas 77043 P.O. Box 1335 Rosenberg, Texas 77471 Stephen A. Doggett, Esq.
Pollan, Nicholson & Doggett Rosemary N. Lemer P.O. Box 592 11423 Oak Spring Rosenberg, Texas 77471 Houston, Texas 77043 Bryan L. Baker
't Charles Andrew Perez
,1118 Montrose 1014 Montrose Blvd.
Houston, Texas 77019 Houston, Texas 77019 Robin Griffith Leotis Johnston 1034 Sally Ann 1407 Scenic Ridge Rosenberg, Texas 77471 Houston, Texas 77043 Elinore P. Cummings Atomic Safety and Licensing
- 926 Horace Mann Appeal Board Rosenberg, Texas 77471 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Conmission Washington, DC 20555 Mrs. Connie Wilson
- 11427 Oak Spring Atomic Safety and Licensing
- Houston, Texas 77043 Board Panel U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comission Patricia L. Streilein Washington, DC 20555 Route 2, Box 398-C Richmon, Texas 77469 Docketing and Service Section
- Office of the Secretary Carolina Conn U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comission 1414 Scenic Ridge Washington, DC 20555 Houston, Texas 77043 Mr. William J. Schuessler Mr. Robert Alexander 5810 Darnell 10925 Briar Forest #1056 Houston, Texas 77074 Houston, TX 77042 Ste~phef M. Sohinki Counsel for NRC Staff 1591 079 7;-
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