ML19211A830
| ML19211A830 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Atlantic Nuclear Power Plant  |
| Issue date: | 10/12/1979 |
| From: | Gossick L NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO) |
| To: | Pryor D SENATE |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19211A831 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7912210164 | |
| Download: ML19211A830 (4) | |
Text
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Dock.et No. STN 50-437 007 LLig79 The Honorable David Pryor United States Senate Washington, D. C. 20510
Dear Senator Pryor:
This is in reply to your letter of September 6,1979, to which you attached a letter from your constituent, Mr. Bill Peters, dated August 6,1979.
Since 1973, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has been actively reviewing an application by Offshore Power Systems (OPS), a subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric Corporation, to manufacture up to eighc identital floating nuclear power plants (FNPs).
If the application is approved, the plants would be constructed using assembly line techniques at a shipyard facility at Blount Island in Jacksonville, Florida.
The NRC has not made a final decision regarding the granting of a manufacturing license to OPS, although the NRC staff recomended issuance, subject to specific conditions to protect the environment, in a three-part Final Environmental Statement (enclosure 1). The Commission will not take any action on granting the license until: a) The NRC safety review is completed and Supplement No. 3 to the staff's Safety Evaluatten Report is issued, b) the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board authorizifs the issuance of the license following the closing of environmental and safety license hearings, and c) the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards makes a finding regarding the safety of the proposed FNP design.
It should be noted that if the Atemic Safety and Licensing Board authorizes the issuance of a manufacturing license to OPS, and if a party to that proceeding desires to challenge the Licensing Board's initial decision, that party may file exceptions to the decision and request cral argument before an Atomic Safety and Licensing Appeal Board panel. This Appeal Board would consider the safety or environmental issues raised and render a decision with regard to those issues. The Appeal Board's decision may then be challenged before the NRC Comissioners and ultimately in the Courts.
Your constituent's concern regarding the capability of the FNP to withstand the hazards of the sea environment is well taken. We believe the statf has adequately addressed this issue in its Safety Evaluation Report and supplements (enclosure 2).
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The Honorable David Pryor Cur general safety objective is to assure that no undue risks to the health and safety of the public result from FNP operation.
External events which have been considered in the staff review include severe environmental phenoinena such as tsunamis, storm surges, hurricanes, tornadoes, icing, earthquakes, and possible accidents involving airplane crashes, ship collist,pns, explosions, flammable vapor clouds, fires and liquid spills. For each of these postulated events, the NRC has required OPS to define a plant site Jesign envelors limit (see enclosure 2, Table 1.2 of Supplement 2 to the Safety Evaluation Report) which cannot be exceeded by the utility / owner of an FNP at a specific site. The design, siting, and operation of FNPs will be within the limits set furth in the plant site design parameters (Table 1.2) and thus will assure that the FNPs will meet the safety objective of the NRC. Based upon the review to date, the staff has found that an FNP could be operated safely in the sea environment.
We understand your constituent to believe that the operation of FNPs would be more dangerous than existing land-based nuclear power plants.
The staff has made a comparison of the overall risk from accidental releases of radioactivity to the environment for floating and land-based nuclear plants.
(See enclosure 1, Final Environmental Statement, Part III, NUREG-0502, December 1978, p xii.) Staff conclusions in the FES, Part III included: a) the overall risk associated with radioactiv.e releases to the environment from design basis accidents at an FNP is low, and comparable to that of land-based plants; b) the overall ' risk of a core-melt accident at an ocean-sited FNP fails near the upper portion of the range of risk for existing land-based designs, but that tht's ri,sk, for the presently designed ocean-sited FNP, may not compare as-mell with recent and future land-based designs; c) the overall risk of radioactive releases to'the environment from core-melt accidents is greater for the FNP sited in an estuary than for the ocean-sited FNP. So as to further reduce the risk of radioactive releases to the e!.vironment from a postu-lated core-melt accident at an FNP, the staff has required, and the applicant is implementing, a redesign of the FNP reactor base-mat. (See enclosure 1, FES, Part III, p. xv, Item No. 4.) With respect to the specific siting of FNPs, the staff has also set forth environmental siting requirements which must be complied with by applicants who wish to locate an FNP at a specific site. These include measura.s to ensure further protection to the public and the environment in the event of a core-melt accident at an FNP. (See enclosure 1, FES Part III, p. xv.)
We trust this information will prove useful to you and your constituent.
Sincerely, ORIGINAL SIGNED BY R.G. SMIT 14 Lee V. Gossick Executive Director for Operations
Enclosures:
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See next page.
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The Honorable David Pryor 3-
Enclosures:
1.
FES, Parts I, II and III and Addendum to Part II 2.
Safety Evaluation Report related to OPS and Supplements 1 and 2 3.
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August 6,1979 The Honorable David Pryor United States Senate Washington OC 20510
Dear Senator Pryor:
have recommended that a manufacturing liIt is my System of Jacksonville, Florida, a Westinghouscense be issued omission staffers to build eight floating nuclear 01 ats i e subsidiery OPS plans Mexico, using pressurized water reactors n the Atlantic and 'the Gulf of These plants w supertankers, ould be subject to storms, horricanes, ~collis ion and would be even more dangerous than the existin based reactors.
Global waters would be threatened by radioa ti land-This (nove must be nipped in the bud before it c
ve products.
appears that the Nuclear Regulatory Commissionis It Irresponsibility in our national nuclear polic
, even in the wake of TMI, r
rather than " controller".
y must be reversed.
Your cooperation in responding to this pleain pa you.
general, is urged.
Thank g
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Cordirlly ou l
l'e Bill Peters BP/lb cc Cousteau Society Cogwocd Alliance Ark. Energy Department P.A.S.E.
NFIB A.S.E.
Governor Clinton t636 05,.3 President Carter 1
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