ML20035D880
| ML20035D880 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 10/16/1992 |
| From: | Ward D Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards |
| To: | Selin I, The Chairman NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| References | |
| ACRS-SL-0398, ACRS-SL-398, NUDOCS 9304140079 | |
| Download: ML20035D880 (6) | |
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UNITED STATES SL-0398 3
7, NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 5'
E ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REACTOR SAFEGUARDS
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October 16, 1992 The Honorable Ivan Selin Chairman U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D.C.
20555
Dear Chairman Selin:
SUBJECT:
SUMMARY
REPORT - THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-NINTH MEETING OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REACTOR SAFEGUARDS, SEPTEMBER 10-12, 1992, AND OTHER RELATED ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMITTEE During its 389th meeting, September 10-12, 1992, the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards discussed several matters and completed the reports and memorandum as noted.
REPORTS e
Dioital Instrumentation and Control System Reliability (Report to Chairman Selin, dated September 16, 1992)
NRC Staf f's Proposed Resolution of Issues in its Evaluation of e
Shutdown and Low-Power Operations (Report to Mr. James M.
Taylor, Executive Director for Operations, dated September 15, 1992) e Draft Conraission Paper, "Desian Certification and Licensing Policy Issues Pertainina to Passive and Evolutionary Advanced Licht Water Reactor Desians," (Report to Mr. James M. Taylor, Executive Director for Operations, dated September 15, 1992) e General Electric Nuclear Enerav Power Ucrate Procram/ Fermi.
Unit 2 Power Increase Recuest (Report to Mr. James M. Taylor.
Executive Director for Operations, dated September 17, 1992)
MEMORANDUM Proposed Generic Letter on Analoc-To-Dicital Replacererts e
Under 10 CFR 50.59 Rule (Memorandum for Thomas E.
Murley Director of Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, from Raymcnd F. Fraley, Executive Director of the ACRS, dated September :"
1992)
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i The Honorable Ivan Selin 2
HIGHLIGHTS OF KEY ISSUES CONSIDERED BY THE COMMITTEE 1.
Meetina with Thomas E. Murlev. Director. NRC Office of Nuclear Reactor Reculation i
Representatives of the imC staff briefed the Committee on the following topics:
NRR Actions Regarding the IPE for the Fitzpatrick Nuclear Plant.
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Status of Implementation of the Findings of the NRC Regulatory Impact Survey.
Planned Use of PRA in the Identification of Systems l
Important to Safety in the Implementation of the Maintenance and License Renewal Rules.
e NRR Position Regarding the Use of the Bayesian Statistical Method in TVA's Evaluation of Watts Bar Quality Assurance Records.
Accident Sequence Precursor Program.
e This was an information briefing.
No Committee action was taken with regard to this matter.
2.
Policy Issues for Certification of Evolutionary and Passive Plant Desians Representatives of the NRC staff and industry briefed the Committee on defense against common mode failures in digital instrumentation j
and control systems.
The Committee provided a report on this matter to you as noted above.
3.
Imolementation of ?GC Safety Goal l
The Committee discussed proposed action to respond to the t
Commission letter dated July 24, 1992 requesting the Committee's thoughts and suggestions on how the safety goal can best be applied in determining where unnecessary regulations exist.
The Committee deferred action until it discusses the staff's revised Regulatory Analysis Guidelines.
This matter is scheduled for consideraticn during the 391st ACRS meeting (November 5-7, 1992).
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4.
Dealina with Uncert3inty in Risk Analysis Results j
The Committee discussed the manner in which uncertainty should to reflected in the safety goals.
They agreed that a meeting shou.3 i
be held involving some ACRS members and senior managers (Directc rs ;
of NRR/RES/EDO offices to develop an interpretation of the saier, i
goals in terms of surrogates and confidence levels.
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The Honorable Ivan Selin 3
5.
Meetina with NRC Commissioners (Open)
The Committee met with the Commissioners and discussed the following matters:
e Status of ACRS review of advanced reactor designs and related matters, including:
a.
Status report regarding advanced LWR reviews b.
ACRS plans / schedule for review of the ABWR Design Acceptance Criteria (DAC) c.
d.
Inspections, Tests, Analyses, and Acceptance Criteria (ITAAC)
Implementation of NRC Safety Goal Policy.
e Elimination of requirements marginal to safety.
6.
Impact of the NRC Reculatory Process i
Mr.
J.
F. Colvin, President and Chief Executive Officer of NUMARC, j
discussed his impressions on implementation of the results of the f
NRC Regulatory Impact Survey and industry initiatives to improve i
operations.
This was a briefing only.
No ACRS action was taken at this meeting as a result of this briefing.
7.
Evaluation of Risk Durina Shutdown and Low Power Operations of Nuclear Power Plants Representatives of the NRC staff and the industry discussed the current proposals being considered for addressing the issues associated with the risk of shutdown and low power operations.
The Committee provided a report on this matter to the Executive Director for Operations as noted above.
8.
GE Generic Power UDrate Procram/ Fermi-2 Power Increase Recuest Representatives of the NRC staff, GE and Detroit Edison Compan'f briefed the Committee on the generic GE power uprate program and the specific Fermi-2 plant power uprate.
The Committee provided a report on this matter to you as noted above.
9.
ACRS Subcommittee Activities (Open)
Report of ACRS Plannina and Procedures Subcommittee MeetinL '1 September 9, 1992 The members agreed to a guide for NRC staff presentations to t..e Committee to improve the effectiveness of these sessions.
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The Honorable Ivan Selin 4
i guide has been transmitted to.the staff.
10.
Subcommittee Meetinas During the period between the August 6-8 and the September 10-12, 1992 ACRS meetings, the following Subcommittee meetings were held:
Thermal Hydraulic Phenomena, August 18, 1992 e
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The Subcommittee reviewed GE Nuclear Energy's (GE's) generic
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program supporting power uprates. for boiling water reactor plants and the NRC staff's ' Safety. Evaluation Report that' i
supports the power uprate for Fermi-2.
i Advanced Boilina Water Reactors, August 19, 1992 I
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The Subcommittee reviewed GE's and the NRC staff's responses to the issues included in the April 13, 1992 ACRS letter to i
the EDO regarding the Draft SER for the GE ABWR design.
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Computers in Nuclear Power Plant Operations, August 20-21, f
1992 1
L The Subcommittee continued its review of hardware and software i
issues for digital instrumentation and control systems.
j National experts discussed software design concepts including
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- safety, reliability, fault-tolerance, formal methods,
'and.
verification and validation.
Plant Operations, September 9, 1992 The Subcommittee continued its review of the NRC staff and industry programs to address the issue of risk from low l
power / shutdown operations'at U.S.
nuclear power plants.
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Imoroved Licht Water Reactors, September 9, 1992
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e The Subcommittee reviewed additional policy issues identified i
in the draft Commission paper,
" Design. Certification and Licensing Policy Issues Pertaining to Passive and Evolutionary i
Advanced Light Water Reactor Designs," dated June 25, 1992.
Plannina and Procedures, September 9, 1992 The Subcommittee discussed proposed activities and related l
matters. Qualifications of candidates proposed for nomination l
to the ACRS were also discussed.
5 11.
Anticipated ACRS Activities i
The Committee agreed to discuss the following during its 389th l
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i The Honorable Ivan Selin 5
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meeting, October 8-10, 1992:
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A.
Environmental Oualification of Safetv-Grade Diaital ComDuter Protection and Control Systems - Review and comment on the NRC i
research effort on environmental qualification of safety-grade l
digital computer protection and control systems.
Representa-tives of the NRC staff and the nuclear. industry will participate, as appropriate.
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B.
Use of Probabilistic Risk Assessment in the Reaulatory Process
- Briefing by and discussion with representatives of the NRC staff regarding the use of PRA by the NRC staff in the regulatory process.
C.
Yankee Rowe Nuclear Station-Reactor Pressure Vessel i
Embrittlement Briefing by and discussion with representatives of the NRC staff regarding lessons learned i
from the NRC staff's review of the reactor pressure vessel embrittlement issue at the Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Station.
i Representatives of the licensee will participate, as appropriate.
i D.
Format and Content of Desion Certification Acolications
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Review and comment on SECY-92-287, " Form and Content for a l
Design Certification Rule," for standardized nuclear power j
plant designs.
Representatives of the NRC staff and the t
nuclear industry will participate, as appropriate.
E.
Branch Technical Position on EcuiDment Oualification-for j
License Renewal Review and comment on Branch Technical r
Position regarding qualification of electrical equipment for nuclear power plant license renewal.
Representatives of-the i
NRC staff and the nuclear industry will participate, as t
appropriate.
F.
Operator Trainina and Recualification Briefing and discussion regarding the results of the pilot simulator i
examination program, and proposed changes to 10 CFR Part 55 requirements for requalification examinations.
Representatives of the NRC staff and the nuclear industry will participate, as appropriate.
G.
Maintenance of Nuclear Power Plants - Review and comment on the proposed NRC Regulatory
- Guide,
" Monitoring the Effectiveness of Maintenance at Nuclear Power Plants," for implementation of the Maintenance Rule and an associated NUMAI1C document.
Representatives of the NRC staff and the nuclear industry will participate, as appropriate.
H.
Stability of Boilina Water Reactors - Review and comment en proposed resolution of core power stability issues in CE boiling water reactors.
Representatives of the NRC staff arJ the nuclear industry will participate, as appropriate.
I.
Desian Acceptance Criteria - Review and report on Des un Acceptance Criteria in the areas of man-machine interface ard control and protection systems.
Representatives of the EC staff and the nuclear industry will participate, is appropriate.
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NRC Staff Review of ITAAC for the GE ABWR - Discuss proposed i
1 ACRS report on the process for the NRC staff's review of the Inspections, Tests, Analyses, and Acceptance Criteria (ITAAC) l for the ABWR design. Representatives of the NRC staff and the l
nuclear industry will participate, as appropriate.
K.
Resolution of ACRS Comments and Recommendations - Discuss response from NRC Executive Director for Operations regarding NRC staff reaction to ACRS comments and recommendations.
i Sincere i
a r
b David A. Ward l
Chairman f
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