ML19261D946
| ML19261D946 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | South Texas  |
| Issue date: | 05/22/1979 |
| From: | Gossick L NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO) |
| To: | Schweiker R SENATE |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19261D947 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7906290271 | |
| Download: ML19261D946 (4) | |
Text
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Distribution w/o "The Reactor Licensing Process":
Docket File (STN 50-498/499)
R. Boyd E. Licitra NRC PDR Attorney, OELD M. Rushbrook Local PDR CA (3)
J. Yore, ASLB LWR #3 File G. Ertter (#05974)
IE (3)
ED0 Reading M. Groff SECY liail Facility (3)
NRR Reading E. Hughes (79-1096)
H. Denton B. Moore Jeanne CookI E. Case
- 0. Parr R. DeYoung R. Mattson The honorable Richard S. Schweiker V. Stello United States Senate Washington,D. C.
20510
Dear Senator Schweiker:
I am pleased to respond to your request of April 16, 1979, to provide our findings and views regarding concerns about nuclear plants stated in a letter, dated April 4,1979, to you from a Ms. Jill Lowry in Bay City, Texas.
In her letter, Ms. Lowry states that she lives about four miles from a nuclear plant (the South Texas Project, Units 1 and 2) that is under construction and wonders if you thought nuclear power plants are safe.
Ks. Lowry also states that since the ordeal in Pennsylvania (the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 incident near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), she has been worried about the South Texas plant.
She requests that you provide her with information on the " construction, working, etc.", of these plants and your opinion on them, if possible.
In response to your reo.uest, we are providing you with an enclosure, which is attached in duplicate, so that you may provide it as infor-nation in your response to Ms. Lowry's letter. The enclosure, entitled, "Stimary of Progress of the South Texas Plant", provides suncery information on the South Texas plant, including a brief de-scription of the plant, the key milestones for our review of the plant, and the role of the NRC inspection and enforcement program during construction and operation of a nuclear power plant.
With regard to the Harrisburg incident (Three Mile Island), the NRC staff is currently conducting a thorough investigation of the accident.
This investigation includes the study of potential design deficiencies in the plant, plant operator response to the accident including operator errors and/or misinterpretation of plant instrumentation, and all other a.spects of the accident which might lead to inforr.ation that would improve the safety of nuclear poter plants.
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The Honorable Richard S. Schweiker The major emphasis of the current staff effort is focused on nuclear pour plants that are presently licensed to operate. Howver, the results of the staff's invest 19ations will also be applied to plants that are currently under construction and plants for which construction permits have been applied for but not yet issued.
It should be noted that the South Texas plant will utilize a Westinghouse reactor (the Three Mile Island plant utilizes a Babcock and Wilcox reactor) and some of the results of the staff's investigation my not be directly applicable to the South Texas plant.
It is the intent of the Comission and the staff to assure that the plant design and method of operation affords a minimum of risk to the public health and safety.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide this information in response to your request.
If you would like further information on the South Texas plant, please let us know. As requested, we are returning P.s. Lowry's letter of April 4,1979.
Sincerely,
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ENCLOSURE 1 SUMPARY OF PROGRESS OF SOUTH TEXAS PLANT The South Texas Project, Units 1 and 2, which is under construction in Matagorda County, Texas, is being constructed by Brown & Root, Incor-porated for the Houston Lighting and Power Company (lead applicant), the City Public Service of San Antonio, the Central Power and Light Company, and the City of Austin. The nuclear steam supply system for each unit will be a four loop pressurized water reactor, rated at 3800 thermal megawatts (1250 electrical megawatts), to be supplied by the Westingho.se Electric Corporation (RESAR-41).
The architect / engineer for the plant is Brown & Root and Westinghouse will supply the turbine generator for each unit.
In a pressurized water reactor, such as for South Texas, heat is generated in the reactor core through a controlled fission process, is removed from the core by the primary coolant and is transferred to the secondary coolant in the steam generators.
The heat picked up by the secondary coolant produces steam which feeds the turbine generator and thus generates electricity.
As with other pressurized water reactors, the South Texas plant design includes various automatic safety and potection systems such as:
(1) the reactor protection system to terminate the fission process in the event of an unplanned transient; (2 ) The emergency core cooling system to maintain cooling water in the reactor core in the event of a loss-of-coolant accident; (3 ) the on-site power systems to provide electric power to safety-related systems in the event of a loss of offsite power; and (4 ) the containment building, including the containment heat removal and spray systems, to limit the containment pressure and to retain, within containment leakage limits, radioactive material that might otherwise we released in the event of an accident.
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. A description of the P;.. tor Licensing Process, which was followed for the construction permit review of the South Texas plant, is provided in Enclosure 2.
The key milestone dates for that review are as follows:
Application Docketed 07/05/74 11/27/74 Draft Environmental Statement 1ssued 03/28/75 Final Environmental Statement Issued Limited Work Authorization Issued 08/12/75 Safety Evaluation Report Issued 08/01/75 Supplement to Safety Evaluation Report Issued 10/29/75 12/22/75 Construction Permits Issued All of the above documents are available for public inspection at the NRC's Public Document Room,1717 H Street, N. W., Washington, D. C.,
and at the Matagorda County Court House, 1700 Seventh Street, Bay City, Texas.
On May 10,1978, the applicants submitted an application for operating licenses for the South Texas plant. Our review of this application is currently in progress and is being conducted in accordance with the procedure outlined in Enclosure 2.
At this time, we project that our review wi?1 be completed by June 1981.
Through its inspection and enforcement program, the NRC...aintains sur-veillance cver construction and operation of a plant throughout its lifetime to assure compliance with NRC regulations for the protection of public health and safety and the environment.
In the case of South Texas, inspections have been, and will continue to be, held on a frequent basis.
These inspections have included the inspection of the construction activities at the site, inspection of design activities at the office of the contractors and primary vendors and the inspection of the implementation of the quality assurance programs of the applicants and their contractors and primary vendors. Many of these inspections are unannounced. The reports of these inspections are also available for public inspection at the Public Docunent Rooms discussed above.
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