ML19347D142
| ML19347D142 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Fermi, 05000452, 05000453  |
| Issue date: | 02/25/1981 |
| From: | Dircks W NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO) |
| To: | Mccarthy W DETROIT EDISON CO. |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19347D143 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8103110225 | |
| Download: ML19347D142 (2) | |
Text
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION f
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h Mr. Walter J. McCarthy, Jr.
President and Chief Operating Officer 4,/ g ff Detroit Edison 2000 Second Avenue N
de Detroit, Michigan 48226
Dear Mr. McCarthy:
As acknowledgment of your letter to Chairman Ahearne of January 29, 1981 regarding fission product release, I want to summarize actions underway at the NRC on this problem.
As you may know, the Commission was briefed on November 18,1980 on the general subject of fission product releases (particularly radioiodine) in nuclear reactor accidents by members of its staff and by several interested parties from national laboratories and the Electric Power Research Institute.
Except for Commission staff, the same parties appeared before the Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee about a meath later.
Following the Commission meeting, the Chairman held discussions with the staff to discover what information presented at the meeting was known to the staff, and where gaps and uncertainties existed in our state of knowledge. He then directed the staff to develop plans, as necessary, to resolve the issues with emphasis on an early report of results.
A staff report on the " State of Technology of Iodine Release" is due in March 1981. NRC contracters, consultants, and staff are contributing to this report. Specific subject areas are accident sequence characteristics, fission product release from fuel and transport in-plant, iodine and cesium iodide chemistry, fission product aerosol behavior, and effects of accident loads on typical engineered safety features. The status of existing compu-ter codes used to model various aspects of fission product behavior under accident conditions will also be treated, including the effects of the latest results from the Commission's fission-product aerosol research program.
I understand that the Electric Power Research Institute has been invited to participate in a peer review of this report.
Also, in March, the staff will hase a report of the imnact of fission-product iodine and fission-product aerosols on past licensing practice, present regulations, and possible future licensing application, including emergency preperedness considerations. This will include a preliminary estimate of the regulatory effect of the new iodine hypothesis.
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Mr. Walter J. McCarthy, Jr. We recognize the importance of the issues raised to the ongoing and proposed rulemakings in siting, engineered safety features requirements, and degraded core and core melt accidents and to our continuing efforts to set realistic safety goals. We will use the March reports to decide what next steps should be taken regarding rules and research.
Please be assured we share your concern about the costs and burdens of unnecessary and duplicative regulations.
Sincerely, (SipedPlli!Uam 1. Dircks William J. Dircks Executive Director for Operations f
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