ML20042A981

Statement in Reply to IE 820212 Notice of Violation Requiring That Administrative & Physical Means Be Established for Alerting & Providing Prompt Instructions to Public within Plume Exposure Pathway

ML20042A981
Person / Time
Site:	Indian Point
Issue date:	03/15/1982
From:	Otoole J CONSOLIDATED EDISON CO. OF NEW YORK, INC.
To:
Shared Package
ML20042A976	List: ML20042A975 ML20042A981
References
EA-82-034, EA-82-34, NUDOCS 8203240356
Download: ML20042A981 (7)

Text

-

UNITED STATES OF AME;tICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION In the Matter of )

)

CONSOLIDATED EDISON COMPANY OF ) Docket No. 50-247 NEW YORK, INC. (Indian Point, ) EA 82-34 Unit No. 2) )

)

CONSOLIDATED EDISON'S STATEMENT IN REPLY TO NOTICE OF VIOLATION In accordance with 10 CFR S 2.201, and the Office of Inspection and Enforcement's Notice of Violation dated February 12, 1982, Conselidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., (Con Edison) licensee of Indian Point Unit 2, supplies its response to the alleged item of noncompliance with NRC regulations set forth in the Notice, as follows:

1. The Notice alleges noncompliance with 10 CFR S 50.54(s) and Appendix E to 10 CFR Part 50, as relate to the establishment of administrative and physical means for alerting and providing prompt instructions to the public within the plume exposure pathway emergency planning zone. 10 CFR S 50.54(s ) requires the submission of radiological emergency response plans to the NRC. 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix E, at Section IV.D.3, provides in pertinent part that:

8203240356 820315 PDR ADOCK 05000247 0 PDR

e A licensee shall have the capability to notify re-sponsible State and local governmental agencies within 15 minutes after declaring an emergency.

The licensee shall demonstrate that the State / local

-officials have the capability to make a public noti-fication decision promptly on being informed by the licensee of an emergency condition. By February 1, 1982, each nuclear power reactor licensee shall demonstrate that administrative and physical means have been established for alerting and providing prompt instructions to the public within the plume exposure pathway EPZ. The four-month period in 10 CFR 50.54 (s )( 2 ) for the correction of emergency plan deficiencies shall not apply to the initial installation of this public notification system that is required by February 1, 1982. The four-month period will apply to correction of deficiencies identified during the initial installation and test-ing of the prompt public notification systems as well as those deficiencies discovered thereafter. . . .

2. Con Edison denies the alleged violation. Con Edison completed installation of an alert and notification system (ANS) in the four counties within the plume exposure pathway EPZ of Indian Point prior to February 1, 1982. The installation of the ANS was undertaken and carried out in co-operation with The Power Authority of the State of New York

( Authority ) . By so doing, Con Edison satisfied the require-ments of 10 CFR S 50.54(s ) and Appendix E to 10 CFR Part 50 (46 Fed. Reg. 63032) for initial installation by that date, and for a demonstration that administrative and physical means had been established for alerting and providing prompt instructions to the public.

3. Completion of initial installation of the ANS in compliance with Appendix E,Section IV.D.3, to 10 CPR Part 50 was attained on aanuary 31, 1982 with the completion of the

\ . .

s installation of an encoder in Rockland County. Con Edison sub-mits that so long as installation of the ANS was completed by February 1, 1982, any deficiency that might have existed on that date is covered by the 120-day period for correction of defi-ciencies provided by Appendix E,Section IV.D.3, to 10 CFR Part 50.

4. Initial testing of the operability of Orange and Westchester Counties' ANS was completed early in January 1982.

This testing involved 1) local testing of each siren by manually depressing push-buttons located in the control box on the siren's pole, and 2) testing of the county-wide system by sending a radio signal from the encoder in each county's Emergency Opera-tions Center and thereafter verifying actuation of the siren by checking each siren's electrical circuitry in the control box on the siren's pole. (Note that a few individual sirens' control boxes were inaccessible for checking during this initial test and were therefore considered deficient. See paragraph "7" below.)

5. Initial testing of the operability of the Putnam County system by the same two-step process used in Orange and

! Westchester Counties was undertaken in mid-January. This test uncovered a county-wide deficiency. The deficiency was re-paired by February 1, 1982 and retesting of the Putnam County I

ANS was completed on February 5, 1982.

6. As of February 1, 1982, local testing of the Rockland County's sirens, on an individual basis, had been 4

completed. A test involving the sending of a radio signal from the County's encoder had not been carried out. The Authority (on behalf of both Con Edison and the Authority) advised the Commission Staff by telephone on February 1, 1982 that initial testing, as distinct from initial installation, could not be completed in Rockland County by February 1, 1982 because the Cour.ty had temporarily lost its Federal Communica-tions Commission (FCC) radio license for the transmitter being used for the ANS. Concerted efforts by Con Edison, the Authority, and Rockland County achieved an expedited reinstate-ment of Rockland County's FCC license, with modification permit-ting use of the frequency for the ANS, on January 29, 1982.

Initial testing of the operability of the Rockland County system, including step two of the process described in paragraph "4" was completed by February 3, 1982, except for those sirens iden-tified in the note in paragraph "4".

7. Initial system testing for operability in all four counties was completed by February 5, 1982, the date by which retesting of the Putnam County ANS was-completed. Access to control boxes on the poles of eight sirens to verify their J

response to the radio signal was delayed because of their

inaccessibility, due primarily to winter weather conditions.*

This was resolved by February 19, 1982.

8. Con Edison and the Authority informed the NRC Staff of the status of initial siren installation and initial testing by letters dated July 24, 1981, October 30, 1981, Decembe r 31, 1981, January 29, 1982 and February 26, 1982.

9. Con Edison and the Authority advised the Commis-sion in a telephone call on January 29, 1982 that completion of initial installation and initial testing of the Rockland County ANS had been delayed by the FCC's rejection of Rockland County's application for renewal of its radio transmitter li-cense, that every possible effort was continuing to' achieve reinstatement of the license, and that reinstatement was ex-pected imminently. In fact, that license renewal was granted on the same day and, as the Staff was subsequently informed, installation of Rockland County's encoder was completed by February 1, 1982.

10. In addition to the telephone call identified in paragraph "9" the Authority and Con Edison made frequent telephone calls to the NRC Staff during the week of February 1, 1982 to advise the Staff of the progress being made with initial

• Four of the eight sirens that were temporarily inaccessible are located in a large state park and are included in the ANS primarily to insure alerting summer camp and seasonal transient populations.

testing, the problems remaining, and deficiencies identified.

11. Con Edison and the Authority advised the NRC by letter dated February 26, 1982 that initial testing, in addition to initial installation, had been completed.

12. As described in paragraph "9" above, on January 29, 1982, Con Edison'and the Authority not1*ied the NRC Staff of the possibility that installation of the ANS-might not be com-pleted by February 1, 1982. However, installation was completed by that date. Since administrative and other physical means (including provision for telephone communications and emergency broadcast system activation) had already been es-tablished for activating emergency public notification plans, Con Edison respectfully submits, as set forth in paragraphs "2" and "'3a above, that the completion of installation by February 1, 1982 satisfied the requirement of Appendix E,Section IV.D. 3, to 10 CFR Part 50.

13. Even if the Commission were to conclude that

! completion of initial installation of the ANS throughout the j plume exposure pathway EPZ by February 1, 1982 did not satisfy the Indian Point licensees' obligations under the regulatory provisions set forth in the Notice of Violation, no penalty would be appropriate. By the terms of the Commission's letter of February 12, 1982 which accompanied the Notice of Violation, i

no civil penalty should be imposed because initial testing, as well as initial installation, was completed before March 1, 1982.

Dated: New York, New York March 15, 1982 l'A J/4sy - ~YY J/5hn D. O'To ge Vice President Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc.

State of New York )

County of New York )

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 15th day o March, 1982.

/

l t Notary Public Dhf '

"'D # p[1o. ' 034534376 New York uaatted in Dronx County ccn mston Exprus March 30,198:3 l