ML19294C116
| ML19294C116 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 02/22/1980 |
| From: | Rehm T NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO) |
| To: | |
| References | |
| WIR-800215, NUDOCS 8003060743 | |
| Download: ML19294C116 (26) | |
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February 22, 1980 For:
The Commissioners From:
T. A. Rehm, Assistant for Operations, Office of the ED0
Subject:
WEEKLY INFORMATION REPORT - WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 15, 1980 A sumary of key events is included as a convenience to those Commissioners who may prefer a condensed version of this report.
Contents Enclosure Administration A
Nuclear Reactor Regulation B
Standards Development C
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards D
Inspection and Enforcement E
Nuclear Regulatory Research F*
Executive Legal Director G
International Programs H
State Programs I*
Management and Program Analysis J
Controller K
Analysis and Evaluation of Operational Data L*
Items Approved by the Commission M**
/
T. A.
...., Assistant for Operations Office of the EDO
- No input this week.
- Deleted from Comissioners and PDR copy
Contact:
T. A. Rehm, 49-27781 8008000 7%5
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SUMMMY OF KEY EVENTS WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 15. 1980 Peach Bottom 3 On Februaiy 15, 1980, Peach Bottom 3 had a small release of radioactive gas due to a leak in the hydrogen analyzer on the recombiner. Although the release was not considered significant, Philadelphia Electric is issuing a press release in view of the publicity surrounding the leaks at Calvert Cliffs and TMI-2 this past week.
Yankee Rowe On February 15, 1980, during operations to return the unit to power, Yankee Rowe experienced a turbine failure. The reactor did not experience a transient as a result of the turbine failure.
Yankee Atomic Electric has contracted Westinghouse to perform an investigation of the turbine failure and to do the repairs. The licensee anticiptes a prolonged shutdown of the facility.
Mainee Yankee On February 7,1980 limiting conditions of operation as to water quality and other aquatic monitoring requirements were deleted from the Maine Yankee Technical Specifications. This is the first action implementing the Yellow Creek decision for an operating reactor. Actions on additional applications for such deletion are iminent.
B&W Parks Township (Leechburg), Pennsylvania Site B&W has informed the Fuel Cycle staff that it plans to submit a license amendment request for approval of additional waste storage areas at its Parks Township site. The need for such storage is due to an increasing inventory of low-level wastes which they are unable to ship offsite for disposal.
Washington State Radioactive Waste Ban Moves Forward The Washington State House of Representatives voted 96-0 last week for a Bill that would ban disposal of most radioactive waste within the state after July 1,1981. The Bill would provide exceptions for medical wastes until January 1, 1984, and for waste from states with a regional compact with Washington State.
Two U.K. Reactors Shut Down In January, the U.K. Central Electricity Generating Board (CECB) shut down the Dungeness Unit 2 reactor following discovery of welding defects in an expansion bellows of the primary coolant system.
In February, similar defects were found at the Bradwell Unit 1 reactor, and CEGB has taken it out of service also.
OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION Week Ending February 15, 1980 ADMINISTRATION OF THE FREEDOM 0F INFORMATION ACT STATUS OF REQUESTS Initial Appeal of Request Initial Decision Received 154 12 Granted 81 1
Denied 23 2
Pending 50 9
AC_TI0r!S THIS WEEK Received Jack E. Pevenstein, Requests a copy of the winning technical proposal NUSAC for contract solicitation RFP No. RS-MPA-79-353, (80-68)
" Evaluation of Eleven (11) MPA Information Products."
(An NRC employee)
Requests seven categories of information relating to (80-69) the complaint of reprisal filed by [a named employee ~,
Robert P. Read, Requests information on the Clamshell Alliance.
New Hampshire Research Project (80-70)
(An individual requesting Requests information regarding his Reactor Operator information about himself) license written and oral examination results.
(80-71)
Dean Hansell, Requests all records relating to the requested State of Illinois extension of construction completion dates for (80-72)
North Anna, Unit 3 and 4.
Craig McIntyre, Requests information relating to Texas Nuclear, Inc.
Kay-Ray Inc.
Ohmart, Inc. and Kay-Ray, Inc.
(80-73)
(An individual requesting Requests a transcription of the taped conversation information about himself) between himself and Region III on the Kewaunee (80-74)
Nuclear Power Plant.
(An individual requesting Requests information regarding his Reactor Operator informationabouthimself) license written and oral examination results.
(80-75)
CONTACT:
J. M. Felton 492-7211 ENCLOSURE A
2 Received Cont'd (An NRC employee)
Requests information on the selection of Vacancy (80-76)
Announcement 80-0347.
(An NRC employee)
Requests information relating to the selection of (80-77)
Vacancy Announcement 79-576.
Thomas Qubeck Requests a copy of the Kemeny Comission Report.
(80-78)
Peter L. Gustafson, Requests six categories of information relating to Attorney-At-Law inspections at Velsicol Chemical Corporation and (80-79)
Velsicol Chemical Corporation Rare Earth Burial Site in Michigan.
Granted David Winship In response to a request for documents concerning (80-53) the Nuclear Fuel Services fuel processing plant, informed the requester this information is available at the PDR.
Judith Fain.
In response to a request for documents regarding Attorney-At-Law
" gamma scans" conducted upon the Nuclear Fuel (80-57)
Service's area at Erwin, Tennessee from August 1979 to the present, made available a copy of an Inspection Report.
Denied Lisa Heckman In response to a request for infonnation regarding (79-69) the award of contract NRC-10-77-140 issued to Damans & Associates, denied eight documents in their entirety and portions of two documents containing advice, opinions and recomendations.
Norman Quist, In response to a request for a copy of 13 listed University Publications closed Commission meetings, denied nine documents of America, Inc.
in their entirety containing classified and (79-542) personal privacy information.
Denied portions of four documents, the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
ENCLGSURE A
DIVISION OF CONTRACTS Week Ending February 15, 1980 PROPOSALS UNDER EVALUATION RFP RS-NRR-80-104 Title - Core Melt Materials Interaction Evaluations Description - Technical Assistance in the area of materials interactions following postulated core meltdown accident in connection with staff evaluations for Floating Nuclear Plants and in response to the TMI-2 accident.
Period of Performance - Three years Sponsor - Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Status - Discussions scheduled for the week of February 18, 1980, with each offeror in the competitive range.
CONTRACTS CLOSED 0'JT (All administrative action completed and final payment made)
Contract No.
Contractor Close-Out Date NRC-10-77-046 Teledyne Materials Research 2/11/80 NRC-04-76-366 Massachusetts Institute of 2/11/80 Technology ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS Contract No. NRC-02-79-025 with Dames and Moore entitled, "EIS For Low-Level Waste Regulation." Sponsor: NMSS.
The second stop work order issued under the contract on January 8, 1980, was revoked, effective February 4, 1980.
This order was issued primarily because of contractor loss of key personnel on the project.
Acceptable substitutions have been proposed and the contractor is proceeding with the work.
The contractor also withdrew its request for equitable adjustment resulting from the first stop work order issued for the period November 12, 1979, to November 29, 1979.
(Previously reported in the Peekly Information Report of January 4,1930. )
ENCLOSURE A
0:FICE OF NUCLEAR REACTOR REGULATION WEEKLY ITEMS OF INTEREST (Seek Ending February 15,1980)
Seabrook The Director of NRR, on Monday, February ll, denied the petition of SAPL requesting suspension or revocation of the Seabrook construction pemits.
Brunswick At 9:50 a.m., this morning, the operators received a seismograph alarm (activation level.01
.02g). At around noon, IE was informed that data analysis had shown a spike of.75 - 1.0g had been received, although no one at the site reported feeling any earth motion. A check with the National Earth Qeake Information Center at Boulder, Colorado proved negative. Three mechanical peak recorders at Unit No. 2 are being sent out for analysis.
It is currently thought that some electiical Anomoly (welding, etc.) caused the spike on the seismograph.
Celvert Cliffs 1 Baltimore Gas and Electric (BG&E) has completed the lessons learned modi-fications requiring shutdown (#ith the exception of items where equipment is not available) for Calvert Cliffs 1.
As previously presented in earlier Daily Highlights, BG&E was to chemically clean the reactor coolant system with hydrogen peroxide at cold shutdown conditions. This crud removal attempt was completed on January 30, 1980.
Although indications of a crud rer: oval occurred, BG&E is making plans for a possible high Lithium concentration treatment (up to 15 ppm) at hot standby conditions before startup.
J ENCLOSURE B
- Peach Bottom 3 At about 11':00 a.m., February 15,'1980, Peach Bottom Unit 3 had a small release n' *adioactive gas. The amount of release was about 1/3 of that allowable by L..e Technical Specifications. The cause was due to a leak in the hydroaren analyzer on the recombiner. Although the release was not considered significant, Philadelphia Electric is issuing a press release in view of the publicity surrounding the leaks at Calvert Cliffs and THI-2 this past week. Region I has decided to issue a PN.
s Pilgrim Unit 1 GE discovered 2 indication:: by UT on the B rotor 4th stage Low Pressure turbine end wheel caring a scheduled turbine disc inspection. The indications are
- v. the keyway on the upstream side near each conier, approximately.1.14" uep extending axially about 1.5" from the hub face. GE is reconnending inspecting the A mtor during the current refueling outage. Boston Edison Company is in the process of reporting this finding via the LER system. A joint NRR/IE team is planning to witness the A rotor inspections as they are perfortned at the Ptigrim Station. SECo is currently developing the inspection schedule for A rotor.
Zion Units 1 and 2 On February 14, 1980 the ASLB issued favorable initial Decision on the Zion Spent Fuel Storage with regard to CEC's request to increase the capacity of the spent fuel pool. The order directs the licenses to be conditioned to require that:
(1) Fuel stored in the spent fuel pool shall have a U-235 loading less than or equal to 40.6 grams per axial centimeter.
(2) No loads heavier than the weight of a single spent fuel assembly plus the tool for moving that assembly shall be carried over fuel stored in the spent fuel pool. The. spent fuel handling tool, the burnable poison tool, the rod cluster control changing fixture and the thimble plug shall not be carried at heights greater than two feet over fuel stored in the spent fuel pool.
These conditions are consistent with the starr Safety Evaluation on this matter.
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S ENCLOSURE B 4g 3
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Troian The Safety Evaluation Report relating to the Control Building structural 14, 1980. This report states that modifications was issued on Febrcary the staff is unable to conclude at'this time that the Control Building modi-fications proposed by PGE meet the intent of the Order for Modification of License which required that sodifications be made to substantially rest" the originally-intended seismic design margins.
YANKEE ROWE The following initial infonnation was received on February 15, 1980, concerning a turbine failure at Yankee-Rowe. The plant had been shutdown since January 19 1980, to implement the Lessons Learned Category A itms. All work was completed and on February 14, 1980, operations to return the unit to power were underway.
All turbine testing was completed showing all conditions to be noma 1..The reactor was at 2-3% power to provide suf ficient steam for turbine startup. The turbine was rolled, brought up to 1800 rpm fu11 speed,and put on governor control. At 3
11:35 AM conditions were achieved to synchronize the generator and load the turbine. Before synchronizing, a thump was heard from an apparent severe jarring of the turbine. The turbine coasted down for about 25 minutes ccnpared to the nomal coastdown time of 45-60 minutes. It is believed that the turbine tripped automatically on thrust bearing float. There was severe turbine vibration.
The vibration meters on No. 3 and No. 4 bearing read off scale (10 mils upper scale limit). ihe cther bearingsread between 6 and 7 mils. Nomal vibration is 1 mil or less. Attmpts to put the turbine on turning gear failed to turn the turbine. Observation at the inspection ports indicated no apparent damage to the 8th stage. With the cover rmoved at the 3rd point extraction line come debris was seen, and a section of disc, about 1 ft. long, with one blade sheared at its dovetail, another blade twisted.
The reactor did not experience a transient as a result oT the turbine failure.
There was negligible decay heat in the core because of the long period of shutdown and no condition to cause a reactor trip. The reactor was left critical for about 1/2 to 1 hour1.157407e-5 days <br />2.777778e-4 hours <br />1.653439e-6 weeks <br />3.805e-7 months <br /> then was shutdown _ noma 11y and is being placed in a cold shutdown condition. There was -no_ loss of condenser vacuum.
Conditions in the reactor cooling system and the secondary system appeared normal. Yankee Atomic Electric Company (licensee) has contracted Westinghouse to perfom an investigation of the turbine failure and to do the repairs. The licensee anticipates a prolonged shutdown of the facility.
R. E. GINNA Amendnent 31, which authorizes receipt and storage of four plutonium-uranium oxide (MOX) fuel assablies in the R. E. Ginna Spent Fuel Pool, was issued on February 13, 1980.
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ENCLOSURE B
Cooper. Nuclear Station We have requested Nebraska Public Power District to meet with us the morning of Tuesday, February 19, 1980 to discuss why continued operation of the Cooper Nuclear Station is safe, considering Westinghouse turbine problems. Cooper is presently scheduled to shutdown. and inspect both low pressure turbine discs March 15, 1980.
Mne 'Tankee With the concurrence of de,hecutive Legal Director Wit'h. respect to' deletion
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of limiting conditions o.f operation as to water quality requirements and other aquatic monitoring requirements from operating licenses these requirements were deleted from the Maine Yankee Te3nical Specifications on February 7,1980. This
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is the first action implementing tM Yellow Creek decision for ar. operating reactor. A:tions on additional app lications for such deletion are iminent.
Oconee Unit No. 1 During hydrotesting of the primary sy: em, a leak developed past a steam generator manway "Flexitallic" gasket. The licensee on investigating the leak, detemined that the gasket was :.ted for 900 p,si service; the primary system operates up to 2300 psi and has been hydrotested, cold, to 3125 psi.
The gaskets were originally supplied by B&W and the plants reorder them using the part number of the original gasket.
Duke infomed IE that the 900 psi gasket is also 5nstalled in the other five Oconee steam generators.
Duke Power is contacting B&W, with IE auditing the phone call, to verify the type of gaskets in the other five steam generators and te detemine if any 900 psi gaskets are installed in any B&W steam generator other than Oconee.
Calvert Cliffs As the result of high radiation alarms, the Calvert Cliffs operating staff declared a Plant Emergency and evacuated the Auxiliary Building at 5:15 pm on February 11,1980.
The source of the high radiation was the vent piping from No. 21 deborating ion exchanger. The, operators were preparing to transfer spent resin to the radioactive waste handling system.
Pressuri-zation of the ion exchanger, resulting in radioactive water being forced into the vent piping, occurred because the outlet valve to the volume control tank was not fully closed.This valve had some wire wrapped around the valve stem preventing closure. The vent valves were closed and access restored to the auxiliary building by 8:05 pm.
Since the vent line is connected to the stack, a small release occured. We estimate that this "
release was about 371/2% of the instantaneous limit authorized by our Technical Specifications.
Dn February 12, 1980, a second similar event occurred.
This plant emer-gency was declared at 7:17 am and cleared at 7:25 am. The operators were in the process of pbcing an ion exchanger in service. When the auxiliary Avilding radiation alams sounded, the operators imediated recognized
-the problem, closed an open vent valve and the radiation a~larms cleared.
An NRC investigation team has been at Calvert Cliffs since the afternoon
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of February 12, 1980.
This team is evaluating the licensee's actions related to our reporting requirements as well as other aspects of these events.
ENCLOSURE B
. PALISADES PLANT On February 7,1980 Consumers Power Company (CPCo) infomed us at a meeting that they propose to return Palisades Plant to operation about March 1,1930, with piping systems which do not conform to FSAR seismic design acceptance criteria. CPCo and its A-E, Bechtel, have concluded on the bases of analyses and evaluations perfomed to date that no pipe failures would occur under OBE or SSE conditions. CPCo first reported the design problem by mailgram dated January 9,1930. The plant has been shutdown since September 8,1979, for refueling, work in response to IE Bulletins 79-02 and 79-14. TMI lessons learned impleentation, and review of checklists and procedures in response to the NRC Order of November 9,1979.
CPCo will submit analyses and evaluations for justification of continued operation by February 13, 1980.
It is our understanding that CPCo would file an application for amendnent to the Palisades License this week if NRC determined that course of action was needed. We are in the process of determining the necessary course of action.
Pilgrim At 3:34 p.m. on Sunday, February 10, 1980, Pilgrim experienced a loss of all normal offsite power while shutdown for refueling.
While one of the 345 KV lines was out for maintenance, the other was lost near Boston. One diesel generator started and supplied one 4160 volt emergency bus. The second diesel generator was out for maintenance but the other emergency bus was powered as designed by automatic switching to a 23 KV system. The normal 345 KV supply was restored at 6:55 p.m.
As expected Spent Fuel Pool Cooling was lost during the event and pool temperature increased from 850 to 960F.
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ENCLOSURE B
1
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Fort Calhoun - Request for Hearing Withdrawn On October 9,1979, Alan Kirshen, et al., of Omaha, Nebre va, filed a request for a hearing on Omaha Public Power District's (OPPD's) application for a power increase at Fort Calhoun. Subsequent to this request, the PM suggested to OPPD that they arrange an infomational meeting in Omaha with Mr. Kirshen.
OPPD subsequently arranged a meeting in the Omaha Civic Center on January 16, 1980. At this meeting, OPPD presented their plans for the power increase while P. Erickson and R. Lobel (NRC) told those present how the NRC was reviewing this perticular application.
OPPD and NRC participants responded to questions from Mr. Kirshen, his associates and many members of the public. About 150 people attended and the meeting lasted form 7:15 p.m. to 12:00 p.m.
A retired Judge, J. C. Burke, chaired the meeting per agreement between Mr. Kirshen and OPPD.
Following the meeting (~ January 30) Mr. Kirshen petitioned the Board to with-draw his request for a hearing. The Board has now agreed to this second petition from Mr. Kirshen. Mr. Kirshen and many of his associates expressed their opinion that this method of public participation was much more useful than a formal hearing.
Some also recomended that the NRC use this fom of public participation for all actions at reactors that would be of significant interest to the public.
Indian Point, Unit Nos. 1, 2 and 3 On February ll,1980 a Show Cause Order was issued for Unit 1, Confimatory Orders were issued for Units 2 and 3, and the Director's Decision Under 2.206 was issued in response to the petition filed by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) concerning the Indian Point plants.
The Show Cause Order for Unit 1 requires the licensee to show why the operating authority of the license should not be revoked and why a plan to decomission the facility should not be submitted.
The Confimatory Orders for Units 2 and 3 confim and establish schedules for the extraordinary interim measures comitted to by letters dated February 1, 1980. The extraordinary measures are required because of the relatively high population surrounding the Indian Point site, and the disproportionately high contribution of these plants to the total societal risk from reactor accidents.
Thus, the UCS petition was granted in part (concerning Unit 1) and denied in part (Units 2 and 3 were not ordered to suspend operation, but instead ordered to take extraordinary measures). Also, the Director did not recoarnend to the Comission that it institute t hearing an the matters touched upon in the UCS petition.
ENCLOSURE B Point Beach 1 The staff met with the licensee (Wisconsin-Electric Power) on February 6 to review the licensee's proposal,to continue operation until November 1980 with one keyway crack. As a result of its analysis of this crack, Westinghouse recomends reinspection of the turbines within 12 months (approximately November 1980). On the basis of its independent analysis, the staff advised the licensee that it would not place any restrictions upon continued operation of Unit 1 if the licensee will comit to inspecting both sides of each of the first five discs and the inlet sides of discs f 6 on both rotors in November 1980. This staff position could change, however, depending on the results of other turbine disc inspections and evaluations in the staff's ongoing review of this problem. The licensee agreed to document the results of its inspection and analysis and to comit to inspecting the rotors of both Unit I low pressure turbinesin November 1980 or earlier if an extended outa,ge occurs.
Westinghouse has postulated both keyway.and bore cracks in the uninspected 1'
rotors of Point Beach Unit No. 2 low pressure turbines. On the basis of its review of Westinghous's analysis and its independent analysis, the Staff, based on infonnation available at this time, advised the licensee that we did not plan to restrict operation of Unit 2 because of lack of inspection of the rotor discs pending the scheduled March 1980 refueling shutdown.
Fort Calhoun Both LP turbines (manufactured by General Electric) of this PWR plant will be inspected for disc cracks during the weeks of February 4 and 11. The licensee (Omaha Public Power District) has invited the staff to observe these tests.
U ENCLOSURE B
STATUS OF SHUTDOWN PLANTS (Feb.13,1980)
Restart Date Arkansas 2 THI Modifications 2/19/80 Beaver Valley Refueling Browns Ferry 1 -
7/1/80 Dresden 1 Refueling 2/28/80 Decontimination Dresden 3 Unknown Refueling Duane Arnold Unknown Refueling Farfey'l -
Early May 1PI Modifications Fort Calhoun 2/17/B0 Retsteling Fort St. Vrain March Heltuia Circulator Ripair App. 4/9/80 Humboldt Bay Seismic Evaluation Unknown Indian
- Unknown Refueling Oconee 1 App. 3/1/80 SG Gasket Repair Oyster Creek Unknown Refueling and Maintenance Palisades 3/15/80 Refueling Pilgrim 1 Early March Refueling 4/80 Prairie Island 2 Refueling Quad Cities 2 Unknown Refueling Rancho Seco Mid-March Refueling Surry 2 Unknown St. Gen. Repair 4/80 Three Mile Island 1 Order Unknown Three Mile Island 2 Accident Zion 1 Unknown Refueling & FW Nozzles Unknown Yankee Rowe TMI Modifications Unknown ENCLOSURE B r="'
OFFICE OF STANDARDS DEVELOP"ENT IMPORTANT EVENTS FOR THE WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 15, 1980 Publications to be Issued in the Near Future
Title:
Standard Format and Content Guide - Physical Protection of Strategic Special Nuclear Material In Transit (Reg. Guide 5.XX)
Expected Issuance Date: March 1980
==
Description:==
The guide describes the standard format and content suggested by the NRC for use in preparing physical security plans to protect strategic special nuclear material in transit.
Contact:
L. C. Solem 443-5904
Title:
Criticality Accident Alarm Systems (Reg. Guide 8.12)
Expected Issuance Date: April 1980
==
Description:==
The guide describes a criticality accident alarm system acceptable to the NRC staff for meeting the requirements in 670.24 The proposed revision is a relatively minor change to incorporate by reference a revised ANSI standard, ANS I/ANS-8.3-1979.
Contact:
Stephen McGuire 443-5970 ENCLOSURE C
OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY AND SAFEGUARDS Items of Interest Week Ending February 15, 1980 DOE Public Scoping Meeting at West Valley, New York On Saturday, February 2,1980, the Department of Energy conducted a public scoping meeting at the l'est Valley Central School in West Valley, New York. NMSS and ELD staff members attended the meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to receive public comments as part of the scoping process associated with the preparation of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a processing facility to immobilize the high-level liquid radioactive wastes at the NFS reprocessing plant in West Valley, New York.
The public input obtained during the meeting was primarily in the form of five minute speeches given by approximately 65 speakers.
Approximately 200 people attended the meeting. The overall tone of the meeting was less emotional and antagonistic as compared to other recent public meetings on West Valley.
Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W) Parks Township (Leechburg), Pennsylvania Site B&W has informed the FC staff that it plans to submit a license amendment request for approval of additional waste storage areas at its Parks Township site. The need for such storage is due to an increasing inventory of low-level wastes which they are unable to ship offsite for disposal.
Plutonium wastes will not be accepted by commercial burial ground operators and the volume of other wastes (primarily enriched uranium wastes) that will be accepted has been significantly reduced.
The proposal will include a request to permit the storage of plutonium wastes generated at the B&W Lynchburg Research Center site where decontamination and decommissioning of the piutoniun fuel R&D laboratory has resulted in several large containers of waste. Alternatives being considered are expanded storage in the B&W Parks Township plutonium fuel facility, use of the building formerly used for Type II high enriched uranium operations, and designated outside storage areas. The staff has advised the licensee to consider appropriate fire protection features, particularly for plutonium waste storage areas, and necessary protection of packages from the elements for any outside storage that may be proposed.
ENCLOSURE D
2 Split Rock FES Issued The Final Environmeatal Statement (FES) prepared in consideration of a renewal of Source Material License No. SUA-56 for Western Nuclear, Inc.'s Split Rock Uranium Mill has been issued by the Uranium Recovery Licensing Branch. The Split Rock Mill, located in Fremont County, Wyoming, is designed top process 1540 MT (1700 tons) of ore per day. Tailings produced will be disposed of in the existing impoundment. The statement contains conclusions concerning what specific steps must be taken by the mill operator to minimize seepage which is occurring from the tailings impoundment as well as steps which must be taken in final reclamation and stabilization of the tailings area upon site decommissioning.
Washington State Radioactive Waste Ban Moves Forward The Washington State House of Representatives voted 96-0 last week for a Bill that would ban disposal of most radioactive waste within the state af ter July 1,1981. The Bill, HB 1412, would provide execptions for medical wastes until January 1,1984, and for waste from states with a regional compact with Washington State. The Bill has been referred to the Ecology Comittee in the Senate, but the Energy and Utilities C)mittee reportedly doubts that the 1981 deadline is realistic. Comittee staff say they want to achieve the objectives of the Bill in a more realistic manner, allowing more time for the development of a regional compact and the licensing of sites in other states.
Antcipating the Illinois experience with the Sheffield LLW disposal site, the Bill also provides that a license may not be terminated until a plan for decommissioning and stabilization has been approved by the state Department of Social and Health Services, which administers licenses.
The Senate Majority Leader was reportedly quoted by Seattle newspapers as expecting early Senate action on the Bill.
100 rem /hr Exemption Criterion The final 50W for the study on the 100 rem /hr physical protection exemption criterion is undergoing staff concurrence. This study will investigate the technical basis for allowing an exemption from physical protection rquirements because of the inherent radioactivity of the nuclear material invol ved. Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory will arform the study.
ENCLOSURE D
3 Value/ Impact Assessment of Qualifying and Training Requirements for MC&A Personnel Work has started on development of an action plan for assessment of issues related to training and certification of MC&A personnel, including development of criteria for determining categories of personnel to be trained, measures of adequate training, criteria for which types of training are best, and administrative alternatives for assuring that training is adequate.
Fundamental Nuclear Material Control Plan A Division of Safeguards staff member is visiting with SNM management personnel at Babcock and Wilcox in Apollo, Pennsylvania to discuss revisions to their Fundamental Nuclear Material Control Plan and the status of HEU cleanout and shutdown.
Use of Structured Assessment Approach and the Safeguards Vulnerability Analysis Program A representative of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory visited with Division of Safeguards personnel to discuss the use of the SAA (Structured Assessment Approach) and the SVAP (Safeguards Vulnerability Analysis Program) in licensing the Part 73 Fixed Site Upgrade Rule requirements.
Ongoing Conracts at ORNL On February 8, members of the NMSS staff met with members of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (0RNL) staff to discuss the progress of ongoing contracts at ORNL. One of the subjects discussed was the possibility of having the ORNL team that is currently performing radiological surveys of DOE sites perform similar surveys of former licensee sites. ORNL stated that the routine surveying of sites was of no interest to the laboratory unless there was a research problem involved. ORNL pointed out that they had a manpower ceiing and that unless a program had research potential they could not afford to divert personnel from R&D programs to do routine evaluations that can be performed by other organizations.
Information Exchange Members of the Material Certification and Procedures Branch, FC, met with members of the Division of Compliance, Bureau of Radiological Health, for the purpose of information exchange relating to the review, certification, and registration of medical devices containing NRC licensed radioactive material s.
Information communication lines were established and provisions were made to exchange information relating to certification, registration, and recall of such medical devices.
ENCLOSURE D
4 Radioactive Material Transports A representative of NMSS along with representatives of IE, met with citizens and state and local representatives in the Municipal Building in Janesville, Wisconsin, to discuss protection of citizens during radioactive material transports. The meeting was arranged by Congressman Les Aspin's office.
The federal coordination, regulatory scheme, studies conducted in the transport area, and the 00T proposed rule on the highway routing of radioactive material was discussed with copies of pertinent documents provided to the City. The matter of advance notification for the shipment of radioactive material was extensively discussed.
ENCLOSURE D
OFFICE OF INSPECTION AND ENFORCEMENT Items of Interest Week Ending February 15, 1980 1.
The following Notifications of Significant Enforcement Action were dispatched:
a.
EN-80-02 Atomic Disposal Company, Inc., Tinley Park Illinois - On February 12, 1980, a Notice of Violation and a Notice of Proposed Imposition of Civil Penalties in the amount of $500 were issued to the subject licensee. This action is based on one alleged item of noncom-pliance relating to the possession of radioactive waste for a period of time in excess of the six-month limit authorized in the license.
b.
EN-80-03 Boston Edison Company (Pilgrim) - On February 15, 1980, a Notice of Violation and a Notice of Proposed Imposition of Civil Penalties in the amount of $5,000 were issued to the subject licensee. This action is based on an alleged item of noncompliance relating to the delivery of radioactive waste to the State of South Carolina without complying with all applicable NRC regulations.
c.
EN-80-04 Portland General Electric Company (Trojan) - On February 15, 1980, a Notice of Violation and a Notice of Proposed Impositien of Civil Penalties in the mount of $13,000 were issued to the subject licensee.
This action is based on three alleged items of noncompliance associated with the implementation of the physical security prrgram.
2.
Preliminary Notifications relating to the following actions were dispatched during the past week:
a.
PNO-I-80-23 Babcock and Wilcox, Apollo, PA - Fire in the Residue Drying Hood b.
PNO-I-80-24 Pilgrim Unit 1 - Loss of Offsite Power c.
PN0-1-80-25 & -25A Calvert Cliffs Units 1 & 2 - Plant Emergency, Evacuation of Auxiliary Building d.
PNO-I-80-26 Oyster Creek - Leakage of Radioactive Water From Underground Piping e.
PNO-I-80-27 Salem Unit 1 - Reactor Trip f.
PN0-I-80-28 Yankee Rowe - Turbine Failure 9
PNO-II-80-21 McGuire Units 1 & 2 - Termination of QC Inspectors h.
PNO "I-80-22 Brunswick Units 1 & 2 - Seismic Event Recorders Activated i.
PNO-II-80-23 Brunswick Unit 2 - Reactor Trip and Reactor Buildtag Evacuation ENCLOSURE E
. j. PNO-II-80-24 Oconee Units 1, 2, & 3 - Use of Improper Steam Generator Manway Gaskets k.
PNb-II-80-25 Number not used.
1.
PNO-II-80-26 Turkey Point Unit 4 - Reactor Trip m.
PNO-III-80-26A Davis-Besse Unit 1 - Reactor Trip - Steam Generator Feedwater Rupture Control System Trip n.
PNO-III-80-29 Quad Cities Unit 2 - Industrial Accident o.
PNO-IV-80-07 South Tens Unit 2 - Containment Liner Bulge p.
PNO-V-80-04A Providence Hospital, Anchorage, Alaska - Lost Iridium-192 Seeds - Update q.
PNO-V-80-09 Nuclear Engineering Company Burial Site, Beatty, Nevada -
Banning of Radiation Safety Engineers, Tempe, Arizona for Radioactive Waste Shipments r.
PNO-V-80-10 Nuclear Engineering Company, Richland, Washington Burial Site - Radiation Levels in Excess of Department of Transportation (DOT)
Regulation 49 CFR 173.393(j) s.
PNO-TMI-80-03 Three Mile Island Unit 2 - Primary Water Leak t.
PNS-II-80-04 St. Lucie Unit 2 - Bomb Threat ENCLOSURE E
OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE LEGAL DIRECTOR ITEMS OF INTEREST For the Week Ending February 15, 1980 North Anna Nuclear Power Station, Units 1 and 2 In a Decision issued on February 11, 1980 (ALAB-578) the Appeal Board con-cluded that there was reasonable assurance the public health and safety would not be endangered by a settlement - induced failure in the service water system of the North Anna facility and terminated its jurisdiction over the pumphouse settlement issue. However, the Appeal Board retained jurisdiction over the turbine missile issue pending further order.
North Anna Nut..c Power Station, Units 1 and 2 In a Memorandum issued on February 12, 1980, the Appeal Board tentatively scheduled an M camera evidentiary hearing for February 21, 1980 to consider whether continued operation of Unit 1 should be pennitted pending the out-come of future inquiries into the turbine disk cracking and missile energy This action was prompted by the recently discovered turbine disk matters.
cracking at a number of operating nuclear plants and by the recent infor-mation that Westinghouse, the turbine manufacturer, was engaged in a re-analysis of the turbine missile problem. The Appeal Board subsequently cancelled the tentatively scheduled hearing after receiving additional information from the NRC staff and the licensee.
Zion Station, Units 1 and 2 14, 1980, the Licensing Board issued an Initial Decision in which On February it authorized the issuance of amendments to the Zion Station operating licenses which would permit the replacement of spent fuel storage racks. The Licensing Board directed that the license amendments be conditioned to assure that certain weight l' imitations are applied with respect to the spent fuel pools.
Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, Units 1 and 2 In a Decision issued on February 15,1980 (ALAB-580) the Appeal Board vacated so much of the Licensinn Board's Initial Decision of September 27, 1979 as related to the findir; Hat the applicant's physical security plan complies with all applicable ^
tgulations. The Appeal Board's action was based on its discovery that th: Jcensing Board had not examined the applicant's physical security plan and thus lacked a legal basis to make a finding re-garding the adequacy of the plan.
In the interest of expedition and under the circumstances of the case, the Appeal Board will conduct a hearing on the adequacy of tha applicant's physical security plan.
ENCLOSURE G
ITEMS OF INTEREST OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 15, 19E0 INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION Foreign Visits On Monday, Ms. Francoise Jean-Pierre, Mr. Philippe Chouard, and Mr. Alexandre Sokolovsky of the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and Mr. Jacques Betbeder of the French utility EdF met with L. C. Shao, C. Z. Serpan, other RES staff representatives, and H. Faulkner of IP to discuss (1) cold leg integrity evaluation and other programs related to piping, and (2) the seismic margin research program.
On Monday and Tuesday, Messrs. P Strohl, Deputy Director for Safety and Regulation, and Klaus B. Stadie, Director of the Nuclear Safety Division of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), met with D. Ross of NRR, J. D. Lafleur and R. Hauber of IP, H. K. Shapar of ELD, and R. Budnitz, C. N. Kelber, R. Bernero, and W. Vesely of RES, to discuss NEA and CSNI matters.
On Monday, Dr. Fernando de Mendoza, Executive Director of the Brazilian National Commission for Nuclear Energy (CNEN), met with J. D. Lafleur and W. LaVine of IP to discuss possible future assignments of Brazilian engineers.to NRC.
On Friday, Mr. W. S. Gronow, Deputy Chief Inspector of the U.K. Nuclear Installa-tions Inspectorate (NII), met with B. Grimes of D0R to discuss post-TMI emergency planning, D. Muller to discuss post-TMI siting, and B. Weiss of IE to discuss the operation of the Incident Response Center.
On Friday, A. L. Adams of the Safety and Reliability Directorate of the U.K.
Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) met with J. Buzy of OLB to discuss the selection, training and certification of research and demonstration reactor operators, J. Stone of IE to discuss the monitoring and inspection of research facilities, and C. N. Kelber of RES to discuss the safety of research and demonstration reactors.
On Friday, Messrs. Miguel Khair, Marcio Costa, and Wanderley Dezordi of the Brazilian utilty FURNAS met with W. Haas and L. Crocker of DPM to discuss NRC requirements for quality assurance and safety organizations within U.S.
utilities.
On Friday, Messrs. Michel Lecompt and Alain Calamand of the French utility Framatome met with J. k. Miller of D0R to discuss emergency planning, post-TMI.
IP Visit to Emergency Response Course Site In connection with the proposed Radiation Emergency Response Course for foreign nationals, H. Faulkner, IP, visited DOE and the Nevada Test Site to discuss security considerations and associated logistics. Representatives of Reynolds Electric Co., the course contractor, plan to visit IP in early March for further discussions.
ENCLOSURE H
_2 Two U.K. Reactors Shut Down In January; the U.K. Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) shut down the Dungeness Unit 2 reactor following the discovery of welding defects in an expansion bellows of the primary coolant system.
In February, similar defects were found at the Bradwell Unit i reactor, and CEGB has taken it out of service also. Both Dungeness and Bradwell are early Magnox, gas cooled reactors. Bradwell has been operating since 1962 and Dungeness since 1965.
This type of expansion bellows is unique to Magnox re. actors and is not i utilized in LWR's. (See Paris 4370 regarding shutdown of older French Magnox Reactors.)
International Nuclear Safety Conference At the invitation of the Government of Sweden, and as part of the expanded IAEA Safety Program, the IAEA has scheduled an international nuclear safety conference in Stockholm, Sweden from October 20-24, 1980. The conference is on Current Nuclear Power Plant Safety Issues and is intended to " clarify, discuss and assess the safety issues of current importance by bringing together the experience the international community has acquired during the past twenty years of commercial nuclear power."
Foreign Reports The following foreign reports were received at IP during the period of February 11 to February 15. The ** indicates the reports are in English.
For further information contact Maxine Johnson, (492-7788) IP.
I Deleted from PDR copy.
ENCLOSURE H
. 1 EXPORT / IMPORT AND INTERNATIONAL SAFEGUARDS US/IAEA Safeguards Agreement As described last week, IP received a letter from the State Department requesting Commission concurrence in comments responding to Senator McClure's testimony regarding implementation of the US/IAEA Safeguards Agreement.
A paper explaining the issues and recommending Commission concurrence on a proposed set of comments has been prepared through the Safeguards Agreement Implementation Group (SAIG), and has now been forwarded to the Commission for action.
ENCLOSURE H
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND PROGRAM ANALYSIS Items of Interest WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 15, 1980 Congressional Correspondence Sent (balance of) answers to Rep. Dingell's questions to Commission prior to authorization hearings.
Management Information Publication Distributed December issue of " Operating Unit Status Report" (Gray Book).
ENCLOSURE J
Office of the Controller Item of Interest Week Ending February 15, 1980 4
FY 1980 Supplemental Hearing On February 13, 1980, the House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, Chairman Bevill, conducted a hearing on fiRC's FY 1980 supplemental budget request. At the end of the hearing, the Committee staff provided us with written questions. Answers to the questions, as well as a corrected copy of the transcript are to be provided to the Committee staff the week of February 18, 1980.
Enclosure K