ML19353A860
| ML19353A860 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Pilgrim |
| Issue date: | 11/22/1989 |
| From: | Taylor J NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO) |
| To: | Glenn J SENATE |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19353A861 | List: |
| References | |
| CCS, NUDOCS 8912060309 | |
| Download: ML19353A860 (3) | |
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UNITED STATES o
'l NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION r.
W ASHING TON. D. C. 20666 l
November 22, 1989
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.i The Honorable John Glenn United States Senate Washington, D.C.
20510
Dear Senator Glenn:
I am responding to your request of October 20, 1989, for information addressing concerns about nuclear power plant safety. The third party letter you enclosed with your request stated that technical specifications do not meet the regulations and cited several concerns in support of this statement.
However, all of these concerns are encompassed by what I view as the letter's main concern, which is that analyses hsve not been done to support the technical specifications and prove that they meet the regulations.
The regulation, 10 CFR 50.36, states that the " technical specifications will be derived from the analyses and evaluation included in the safety analysis report." The safety analyses for a plant are provided in the Safety Analysis Report, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) Safety Evaluation Report provides our a) proval of these safety analyses. NRC relies on these analyses to support t1e conclusion that the plant is designed to operate safely. The technical specifications for the plant (1) are derived from these design safety analyses, and (2) define the operating conditions for which the safety analyses are valid. Therefore, the technical specifications define the conditions for operating the plant safely.
In1974,thefirstStandardTechnicalSpecifications(STS)weredevelopedon the basis of our experience with technical specifications that had been tailored to each plant. These STS are based on the common reactor design and are used as the starting point for development of technical specifications for a new plant. The STS are adjusted for each new plant to account for design differences and differences in safety analyses. The technical basis for the allowed outage times and surveillance intervals is in some cases derived from calculational analyses. However, in most cases these times are based on engineering judgment of operating experience, which includes many years of nuclear operations and the much larger store of knowledge from similar non-nuclear operations.
Experience over the last 15 years has proven that these judgments are good ones. Very few significant problems have been identified, and the STS are adjusted when any problems do arise.
Probabilistic rick assessment has been used to examine the allowed outage times and surveillance intervals for many l
systems.
In almost all cases, the risk analyses have shown that the limitations set by engineering judgment are conservative with respect to safety.
In 1987, the Commission issued a policy statement calling for improvements in technical specifications. The program to implement this policy statement is well under way. One of the objectives of the program is to provide better documentation of the bases for the technical specifications. The vendor owners groups have submitted proposed improved STS to us, and the review is progressing towards its scheduled completion in spring 1990.
FULLTEXT ASCO SOM 8912060309 891122 CCSA PDR ADOCK 05000293 i
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4 The Honorable John Glenn The enclosed letter suggested that the technical specifications for the San Onofre plant are not adequate. These technical specifications are based on the plant's safety analyses, and therefore, they are adequate to support the safe operation of the plant. The NRC and licensees are constantly in the process of pursuing improvements in plant technical specifications for all nuclear power plants in the United States. As part of that process, several proposed modifications to the San Onofre technical specifications are currently under review by the NRC.
I would like to make one final point. We encourage anyone at any time to bring specific infonnation about nuclear safety to the attention of the NRC; this infonnation can be supplied confidentially either in person or over the telephone. From the letter, we were unable to determine precisely which system concerned the author. Therefore, please encourage the author of the letter to contact the NRC with infonnation about the specifics of the author's concern.
I assure you that we will take appropriate action to correct any safety problems that may exist.
Sincerely.
/
M a s M. "ay ting Exec cive Director for Operations
Enclosure:
Third party letter, dated September 29, 1989 i
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UNITaD STATa8
<o' NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASMlleG 708d, D. C. 30808 I
4 November 22, 1989 l
The Honorable John Glenn United States Senate Washington, D.C.
20510 l
Dear Senator Glenn:
I am responding to your request of October 20, 1989, for information addressing i
concerns about nuclear power plant safety. The third party letter you enclosed i
with your request stated that technical specifications do not meet the regulations i
and cited several concerns in support of this statement. However, all of these concerns are encompassed by what I view as the letter's main concern, which is that analyses have not been done to support the technical specifications and prove that they meet the regulations.
The regulation, 10 CFR 50.36, states that the " technical specifications will l
be derived from the analyses and evaluation included in the safety analysis report." The safety analyses for a plant are provided in the Safety Analysis Report, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) Safety Evaluation l
Report provides our approval of these safety analyses.
NRC relies on these analyses to support tie conclusion that the plant is designed to operate safely. Thetechnicalspecificationsfortheplant(1)arederivedfromthese design safety analyses, and (2) define the operating conditions for which the safety analyses are valid. Therefore, the technical specifications define the l
conditions for operating the plant safely.
In1974,thefirstStandardTechnicalSpecifications(STS)weredevelopedor
(
the basis of our experience with technical specifications that had been tailored l
to each plant.
These STS are based on the common reactor design and are used i
as the starting point for development of technical specifications for a new olant. The STS are adjusted for each new plant to account for design differences DISTRIBUTION:
l TEMurley/JH5niezek OTSB R/F Making (89-127) i FJMiraglia DOEA R/F LKokajko JGPartlow CERossi Central Files (w/ enc 1)
DMCrutchfield JACalvo SECY JFScinto, OGC CJHaughney CA l
FPGillespie CH8erlin er ED0-4853 DFMossburg(0004853)
EDO R/F RLEnch RMLobel 1
d DOCUMENT NAME:
LTR JOHN GLENN EMCH
- see previous concurrence REVISED IN NRR DIRECTOR'S OFFICE 11/15/89 i
- 0TSB:00EA:NRR *C:0TSB:DOEA:NRR
- Tech Editor
- D:00EA:NRR
- ADT:NRR RLEnch: pac JAcalvo BCalure CERossi FJMiraglia 11/09/89 11/ /89 11/14/89 11/13/89 11/14/89 CA ey lor 89
/A//89 11/4/89 1
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