ML20108E909
| ML20108E909 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Sequoyah  |
| Issue date: | 06/22/2020 |
| From: | Perry Buckberg NRC/NRR/DORL/LPL2-2 |
| To: | |
| Buckberg P | |
| References | |
| EPID L-2020-LLA-0078 | |
| Download: ML20108E909 (4) | |
Text
June 22, 2020 LICENSEE: Tennessee Valley Authority FACILITY:
Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, Unit 2
SUBJECT:
SUMMARY
OF APRIL 16, 2020, VIRTUAL MEETING WITH TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY TO DISCUSS SUBMITTAL OF AN EXIGENT LICENSE AMENDMENT REQUEST RE: OPERATE ONE CYCLE WITH ONE CONTROL ROD REMOVED (EPID L-2020-LLA-0078)
On April 16, 2020, a teleconference was held between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) regarding the imminent TVA submittal of an exigent license amendment request applicable to Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, Unit 2 (Sequoyah, Unit 2). Due to the emergent issue described below, the meeting was not noticed as a public meeting. The list of meeting attendees is enclosed.
The meeting began at 3:00 p.m. with NRC and TVA opening remarks and a TVA overview of the background and meeting purpose. TVA then made a presentation (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML20108E908) regarding the recent condition of the Sequoyah, Unit 2 control rod (CR) H-08 discovered during the Unit 2 refueling outage (outage U2R23 began April 9, 2020). Inspection revealed that Sequoyah, Unit 2, CR H-08 had excessive wear on the faces of the stationary grippers, along with wear marks along the interior walls of the control rod drive mechanism. The presentation also included information regarding the Sequoyah, Unit 1, CR H-08, which was the subject of a recent exigent amendment (ADAMS Accession No. ML19319C831), following several occurrences of CR H-08 dropping, and similar wear subsequently being identified.
As a result of the current condition of the Sequoyah, Unit 2, CR H-08, TVA explained that it planned to submit an exigent license amendment request as early as April 17, 2020, requesting that the NRC approve a technical specification change that would allow Sequoyah, Unit 2, to operate without CR H-08 for the next operating cycle. TVA would be requesting that the NRC staff complete its review of this request within 7 days.
The NRC staff and TVA briefly discussed the need for an industry effort to determine if there is an underlying cause resulting in this same CR experiencing similar wear at different nuclear plants.
The NRC staff asked questions in the following areas:
Had the Sequoyah, Unit 2, CR H-08 been previously inspected?
o TVA responded that it had not and that the experience with Sequoyah, Unit 1, prompted inspection of several control rods.
Were other CRs inspected?
o TVA responded that several were inspected and none showed the significant wear similar to CR H-08.
The teleconference ended at 3:25 p.m.
Sincerely,
/RA/
Michael J. Wentzel, Project Manager Plant Licensing Branch II-2 Division of Operating Reactor Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-328 Enclosure List of Attendees cc: Listserv
ML20108E909 OFFICE DORL/LPL2-2/PM DORL/LPL2-2/LA DORL/LPL2-2/BC DORL/LPL2-2/PM NAME PBuckberg LRonewicz UShoop MWentzel DATE 4/17/2020 4/17/2020 6/16/2020 6/22/2020
LIST OF ATTENDEES APRIL 16, 2020, MEETING WITH TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY RE: SEQUOYAH NUCLEAR PLANT, UNIT 2, EXIGENT LICENSE AMENDMENT REQUEST RE: OPERATE ONE CYCLE WITH ONE CONTROL ROD REMOVED Name Organization Perry Buckberg Robert Beaton Chakrapani Basavaraju Ravinder Grover Josh Wilson Josh Kaizer Yuken Wong Tom Stephen David Hardage Kim Hulvey Brandon Catalanotto Brian Lankford Charles Menke Chris Carey Jeff Sowa Prentice Gilbert Walt Trombley Gordon Williams David Brown Kasey Decker Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
NRC NRC NRC NRC NRC NRC NRC NRC Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)