ML19246B923
| ML19246B923 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Atlantic Nuclear Power Plant  |
| Issue date: | 06/05/1979 |
| From: | Harold Denton Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | Tooher J AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19246B924 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7907190208 | |
| Download: ML19246B923 (9) | |
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UNITED STATES j
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
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a a: J Mr. J. L. Tooher 1450 Valencia Road Schenectady, New York 12309
Dear Mr. Tocher:
This is in ~~1y to your letter of May 8,1979 addressed to kfr. Joseph M.
Hendrie, unairman, United States Nuclear Regulatory Comission expressing your views regarding the Of fshore Power System floating nuclear plant design. The Off: ]re Power System application for a license to manufacture eight floating.
nuclear plants is currently in the hearing process before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.
Since the decisions of the Boarc are subject to review by the Comission, it would not be apgopriate for the Chairman to comment on the details of the review at this time.
Accordingly, your letter has been referred to me for reply.
May I begin by saying that we do have your letter of April 8,1979 which you refer to in your current May 8,1979 letter.
Your earlier letter provided us with coments regarding the siting of floating nuclear plants but did not pose a question or request to which we could respond.
Your specific interest and questicn was made apparent in your May 8th letter.
Allow me to briefly describe our responsibility regarding the regulation of nuclear puer plants. The Nuclear Regulatory Comission (Comission), in its review of applications for licenses to conr.ruct and operate nuclear power plants, is required by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, to consider tnose measures necessary for protection of the health and safety of the public.
To carry out this responsibility, the Comission's stiff conducts a detailed review of all nuclear power plant applications to assure that they can be built and operated at the proposed locations without undue risk to the' health and safety of the public.
This includes assuring that all structures, systems and components important to safety will be designec and constructed to withstand the effects of various postulated environmental phenomena and natural phenomena such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and tidal waves without loss of capability to perform their safety functions.
Nuclear power plants, whether land based or a floa::ing type, must be designed so that the plants remain in a safe condition in the event of the most severe environmental event that can reasonably be predicted to occur at a site, including the severe meteorological conditions mentioned in your letter.
Our design requirements provide assurance that uncontrolled release of radioactivity as a result of environmental phenomena will not occur.
Further details of how the Comission fulfills its responsi-bilities for the regulation of ruclear power plants are discussed in the enclosed docui:ent "The Reactor Licensing Process."
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Mr. J. L. Tooher Offshore Power Systems has ;ubmitted an application to manuf acture up to eight floating nuclear pome plants at a manufacturing facility located in Jackson-ville, Florida.
The applicant proposes to manufacture these plants at Jackson-ville and upon completion and approval by the Connission, would transport (tow) each plant to a pre-selected and Cocmission approved site.
There has been no application to locate such a plant off the coast nf Florida. The Public Service Electric and Gas Company of New Jersey had filed an application for the Atlantic Generating Station which had been proposed to be located off the coast of southern New Jersey.
This application however was withdrawn in December 1978. Currently there are no floating nuclear plant site applications before the Conni ssion.
The current proceeding before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board relates to the request by Offshore Power Systems for a license to manufacture floating nuclear plants. Prior to issuing such a manufacturing license, we must be convinced that all credible safety and specific environmental concerns that you mentioned have been satifactorily resolved. That is, on the basis of our review, the Cccmission must make the finding that the proposed plants will not pose an undue risk to the health and safety.of the public. Unless we make such a finding, the plants cannot be licensed.
I trust that the above informa' ion has been responsive to your letter.
Sincerely, Onginal Sved by li, R. Deaty ;
Harold R. Denton, Di rector Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
Enclosure:
"The Reactor Licensing Process" 0,}
THE REACTOR LICENSING PROCESS The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is responsible fc, arong ot er things, the licensing and regulation of nuclear power ol29ts _Jefort a nuclear power plant can be built at a particular site, the applica t must obtain a construction permit from the NRC. As a maj:r part of :he application for a construction permit, an applicant must #ile a Preliminary Safety Analysis Report (PSAR).
This document presents t e design criteria and preliminary design information for the procosed reactor and comprehensive cata on the proccsed site.
The recort als:
discusses various hypothetical accident situations and tns safety features which will be provided to prevent accidents or, if they sho;1d occur, to mitigate their effects en both the public and t9e facility's employees.
In addition, the apolicant must submit a comr ehensive Environmental Report providing a basis for the esaluatior o' :ne environmental imoact of the proposed plant.
Further. ini:rmation mus t be submitted by the apolicant for use by the Attorney Gersral and ths NRC staff in their reviews of the antitrust aspects of the proposed plant.
An applicant for a construction permit for a nuclear powe olant may tender the required informaticn in three parts.
One part is acccmpanied by the Environmental Report (ER) and site suitability information and another part by the PSAR. Tendering of the first part may precede the tendering of the other by no longer than six (6) months. Whichever of the above parts is tendered first must also include he fee and other general and financial information.
The third part, consistin; of antitrust information, is tendered 9-36 months prior t; the other information in order for the Attorney General and the NRC staff to begin the antitrust review.
Some time curing the period that the applicant is preparing its acplication for a construction permit, usually about 6-12 months prior to tendering, the NRC scaff holds a general introductory meeting in the ar?a of the precosed site in order to familiarize the public with the safety and environmental aspects of the proposed application, including the planned location and type of plant, the regulatory process, and the provisions for public participation in the licensing process. Additional public meetings of this kind, that is, those which are conducted specifically for the convenience of public observation and participation, are held during the course of the reactor licensing process.
When an application is submitted, it is first suojected to an acceptance review by the NRC staff to determine whether it contains suf#icient infor-mation to satisfy the Commission requirements for a detailec review.
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the application is n.ot suf #iciently ccmolete. tne staf' rises specif':
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.-t requests for additional informaticn.
The application is formally accepted by NRC only if it reets certain minimum acceptance criteria.
In addition, when the PSAR is submitted, a substantive review and inscecticn of the applicant's qtelity assurance program, covering design and procurerent, is conducted. Guides for the preparation of the documents have been developed by the NRC Staff to aid applicants in oreparing acceotable applications.
As soon as an application for a construction permit is received by NiC, copies are placed in the NRC Public Document Rocm.
A soon as the ER or PSAR or early site information is received, copies are u.30 placed in Public Document Rocms local to the proposed site.
Copies of all future correspondence and documents relating to the application are olaced in these locations and are available to every member of the public.
Al so, a press release announcinc receipt of the application is issued by the NRC.
' ton docketing (acceptance) of the applicant's aoplication for a con-struction permit, copies are sent to Federal, State, and local officials and a notice of its receipt is published in the Federal Register.
The application is reviewed to determine that the plant design is consistent with NRC requirements. Design methods and procedures of calculations are examined to establish their validity. Checks of actual calculations and other procedures of design and analysis are made by the staff to establi:
the validity of the applicant's design and to determine that the applicant has conducted his analysis ar.d evaluation in sufficient depth and breadth to support required findings with respect to safety.
During the staff's review, the applicant is required to provide such additional information as is needed to complete the evaluaticn.
The principal features of the staff's review can be su:~arized as follows:
1.
A review is made of the population density and use characteristics of the site environs, and the physical characteristics of the site, including seismology, meteorology, geolcgy and hydrology, to deternine that these characteristics have been evaluated adeouately and have been given appropriate consideraticn in the plant design, and that the site characteristics are in accordance with the siting criteria (10 CFR Part 100), taking into consideration the design of the facility including the engineered safety features provided.
2.
A review is performed of the preliminary f acility design, and of proposed progra s for fabrication, ccnstruction and testing of the clant structures, systems, and ccmponents important to safety to determine that they are ir accord with NRC recuire ents and that any departures from these requirements have been identified and justified.
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97; 3.
Evaluations are made of the anticipated response of One reactor tc various costualted operating transients and to a broad stectrum of hypothetical accidents.
The potential consequences of these hypothetical accidents are then evaluated conservatively to determine that the calculated potential offsite doses that mignt result, in the very unii>ely event of their occurrence, would not exceed the NRC guidelines for site acceptability.
4.
A
! view is nade of the applicant's proposed plans for the conduct of plant operations including the organizational structure, the technical qualifications of operating and technical support personnel, the measures taken for industrial security, and the planning for emergency actions to be taken in the unlikely event of an accident that might affect the general public.
An important aspect of this review includes an assessment of the aDDliC3nt's Cro:Osee prograns for quality assurance and quality control to assure concliance witn the Commission's requirements. These. reviews form the basis for deternining whether the applicant is technically qualified to operate the plant and whether it has established effective organizations and plans for safe operation of the plant.
5.
Evaluations are made of the design of the proposed cystems provided for control of the radiological effluents from the plant to determine that these systems can control the release of radioactive wastes from the plant within the limits specified by NRC requirements and that the applicant will operate the plant in such a manner as to reduce radioactive releases to levels that are as lov, as is reasonably achievable.
This review is conducted by members of the NRC staff and its consultants over a period of about one to two years.
The staff and applicant interact frequently during the course cf the review in working ty e meetings.
At these meetings information is exchanged, problems are discussed and resolved and ;taff positions are clarified.
Intervenors and other interested members of the public are gererally invited to staff-applicant reetings as observers.
The review process includes the consideration of programs proposed by an applicant for a construction permit to verify plant design features and to confirm design margins. The review process includes consideration of basic research and development programs necessary to assure the resolutien of safety questions associated with safety features or ccmconents.
The applicant must identify any research and development work that will be conducted to confirm the adequacy or to resolve any safety questions associated with the design of a particular facility, along with a schedule for ccmoletion of that research and develocment work.
- i. I such safety questions must be resolved Drior to operatia of the facility A f te r n
completion of consturction, nuclear cower ;iants are subject to ocerating license precedures and recuirements.
Data obta4^ed fro-esear:b and development prograns en particular facilities and frcm t e Commission's safety research crogram are factored into tnese licensir; reviews.
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When the review and evaluation of the applicatien crogresies to the point that the staff concludes that acceptable criteria, cr;iir' nary design information and financial information are documented adecuately.in the application, a Safety Evaluation Report is prepared.
This re; ort recresents a summary of the review and evaluation of the apolication bv the staff relatike to the anticipated effect of the proposed facility on the ;utlic health and safety.
The Advisory Comnittee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS), an indecendent statutory committee established to provide advice to the NRC cn reactor safety, reviews each application for a construction permit for a nuclear power plant. The ACRS is composed of a maximum cf fifteen members who, though not NRC employees, are appointed by the NRC f:r ten,s of four years each. The members are experienced, technicall; trained individuals selected frcn various technical disciplines. a cing ap licable experience in industry, research activities, and in the 2: ace-ic area.
The ACRS also makes use of censultants it. specialized tec'r.ical disciplines.
As soon as an application for a construction permit is decketed, ccpies of the PSAR are provided to the ACRS.
Each apolicatien is assigned to an ACRS subcommittee, usually made up of four to five ACRS members.
.uring the course of the review by the staff, the ACRS is kept Hforred of the staff's requests for additional information frcn the applicant and of meetings held, so that the subcommittee is aware of any developments that may warrant a change in the plant.
In those cases wnere the plant is a " standard design" and the site appears generally acceotable, the subcommittee review does not begin until the staff has nearly completed its detailed review of all the safety-related features of '.he plant.
Where new or modified concepts or soecial site ccisideraticns are involved, the ACRS subccmmittee begins its forral resiew earlier in the process, selecting approcriate stages in the staff review to begin a series of meetings with the applicant and staff Normally, before the full Committee considers a prcject, the staff provides its Safety Evaluation Report (SER) for the Committee's informaticn-This staff report and the report of the ACRS subcommittee form the basis for Committee consideration of a project.
Special attention is given to those items which are of particular safety significance for the reactor involved and any new or advanced features procosed by the applicant.
The full Committee meets at least once with the staff and with the applicant to discuss the application.
These neetings are ocen to the public. When the Comnittee has comoleted its rc.iew, its recort is submitted to the NRC in the form of a letter to the Chairman, which is made public.
The sta#f prepares cne or more supelements to tne Safe::. Evaisa ic-Re;crt to address the safety issues raised by the A:RS i-i s reocr and to include any other inforraticn made 'available s'ncs 'ss,arce of the original Safety Evaluaticn Recort.
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u <. m Either concurrently with or separately from the radiolog" cal safety review, an environmental review is performed by the staf' and its consultants to evaluate the pctential environmental im act of the proposed plant, as well as to provide ccmparisons between the benefits to be derived and nie possible risk to the environment.
After completion of this review, a Draf t Environmental Statement (CES), containing conclusions on environmental matters, is issued.
The CE5 is circulated for review and ccer.ents by the appropriate Federal, State and local agencies as well as by private individuals and organizations.
Af ter receipt of all comments and resolution of any outstanding issues, a Final Environmental Statement (FES) is issued and also is made public. The SER and its supplements and the FES constitute the staff's primary evidence at the subsequent public hearings.
The law requires that a public hearing be held before a construction permit may be issued for a nuclear power plant.
Soon af:er an application is docketed
e NRC issues a notice of the hearing t.hich will be held af ter ccmph an of the NRC staff safety and environmental reviews.
In addition, 'the hearing is noticed in several newspapers in the vicinity of the proposed plant and a public announcement is issued by the NRC.
Opportunity is afforded for members of the public to participate in the hearing. Members of the public may submit written state er.ts to the licensing board to be entered inte the hearing record, tney may appear to give direct statements at the hearing, or they may petition for leave to intervene as full parties in the hearing.
At an early stage in the review process, potential intervenors are invited to meet informally and discuss with the staff their concerns with respect to the prcoosed facility.
The public hearing is conducted by a three-me~'ber Atomic Safety and Licensing Board appointed from the N:'C's Atomic Safety ard Licensing Board Panel The board is composed of one lawyer, who acts as chair-person, and two technically qualified persons. The hearing may be a ccmbined safety and environmental hearing or, in the case of a split application, separate hearings.
The board considers all the evidence which has been presented, together with findings of fact and conclusions of law filed by the parties and issues an initial decisien.
If the initial decision regarding NEPA and safety matters is favorable, a con-struction permit is issued to the applicant by the Director of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. The board's initial decision is subject to review by an Atomic Safety and Licensing Appeal Board and the C m ission.
NRC regulations provide that the Director of Nuclear Reactor RegHaticn may authorize li-'ited construction work to be carried cut orior to the issuance of the construction ;ermit.
This autn0rizatic is Moe as a Limited Work Suthcrization (LWa),
The regulaticns pr:'.'de for the authorization of two types of work.
One tyce may authorize site creparati:n
..t r k, installation of ter::orary cons truction sut:crt #a:;i
- t'es, exca tatic-construction of service facilities and certain otne : r_: uctior. nct subject to the cuality assurance recuirerents.
The se:: c tre of L'<.;
may authorize the installatien of structural fcundati:ns.
An LWA may be cranted only af ter the licensing cart m~,~ e.,11,,,..n:_
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National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) findings requirid by the Comnission's regulations for the issuance of a construct on cermit and has determined that there is reasonable assurance that the procosed site is a suitable location for a nuclear power reacter cf the.
general size and type proposed from a radiological healt and safe *.y standcoint.
The second type may be granted if, in adcition to the findings described above, the bearing board determines trat tnere are no unresolved safety issues relating to the work to be a;:norized.
The law requires that antitrust aspects of a nuclear ccwer plant license application must be considered in the licensing process. The antitrust informaticn submitted by the applicant is sent to the Attorney General for advice on whether activities under the procosed lica,se would create or maintain a situation inccnsistent with the ant trust laws.
Upon receiot, the Attorney General's advice is Orctro'.ly ;;tlished and opportunity is provided for members of the public to raise antitrust issues.
An antitrust hearing may be held based on the recemrenda: ion cf the Attorney General or on the petition of an interested party.
In any event, the NF.C must make a finding on antitrust matters.
Antitrus t hearings are held separately from hearingr on environmental and safety matters.
When the ccnstruction of the nuclear plant has progressec to tne point where final design information and plans for operation are ready, the arplicant submits the Final Safety Analysis Report in succort of an application for an operating license.
The FSAR sets forta the pertinent deta'Is on the final design of the facility, 'aciuding final containment design, design of the nuclear core, and waste
.ndling system. The ESAR also provides plans for t,3 ration and procedures for co;ing with erergencies.
Again the staff makes a detailed review of the infonnatic, A.me n dmen ts to the. application and reports may be submitted from tim to time.
The staff again prepares a Safety Evaluation Report (re the crereting license) and, as during the constructicn permit stage, the ACRS makes an independent evaluation and presents its advice to the Com7issicn.
A public hearing is not mandatory with respect to an ocer3 ting license
- application. However, socn af ter acceptance for review of the operating license application, the Ccmnission publishes notice that it is considering issuance of the license.
The notice provides that any person whose interest might be affected by the proceeding may petition the NRC for a hearing.
If a public hearing is held, the same decision process described for the construction permit hearing is applicable.
Each license for operation of a nuclear reactor contains Technical Specifications, nhich set forth the particular safety arc environrental protection easures to be imc0 sed ucon tne plant, ard -hi c:n:itions of its coeration that are to te ret in order to assure or;ti; tion of the health anc safety of the Oublic and of the surrcuncir; environment 320t
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T Through itS inspection and enforcement crogram, the NRC raintains Surveillance
.n r construction and operation of a plant throughout its lifetime to SSSJre CCCDliance with CommiS5 ion regulations for the protection of public health and safety and the environmen;.
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