ML20117P924

Advises That Operation Will Be Terminated on or Before 900630 Due to Economic Considerations Associated W/Ongoing Operating Costs

ML20117P924
Person / Time
Site:	Fort Saint Vrain
Issue date:	12/05/1988
From:	Robert Williams PUBLIC SERVICE CO. OF COLORADO
To:	Calvo J Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
References
P-88422, NUDOCS 8903070181
Download: ML20117P924 (3)

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-Q. Public Service-Public Service Company of Colorado 0

December 5, 1988 Iiendr7cYso201m j

Fort St. Vrain i

Unit No. 1 R.O. WILUAMS, JR.

l P-88422

$ENioR YlCE PRE 51oENT NUCLEAR OPERATIONS l

U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission li ATTN: Document Control Desk Washington, D.C.

20555 Attention: Mr. Jose A. Calvo Director, Pro.fect Directorate IV Docket No. 50-267 l

SUBJECT:

Early Termination of Fort St. Vrain Operations l

REFERENCE:

1) NRC Letter, Hiitner to Williams, l

dated November 4, 1988 (G-88443)

2) NRC Memorandum. Heitner to Calvo, dated October 26,1988(G-88436) l

Dear Mr. Calvo:

The present Facility Operating License for the$ Fort St. Vrain Nuclear Generating Station, License No.

DPR-34, expires at midnight on 1

September 17, 2008.

Based on economic considerations associated with I

the ongoing operating costs of Fort St. Vrain, Public Service Company

,j of Colorado (PSC) has determined that it will be necessary to l'1 terminate Fort St. Vrain operations early. While a final date for I

tenninating Fort St. Vrain operations has not been selected at this time, Fort St. Vrain operations will be discontinued on or before June 30, 1990.

In Reference 1),

the NRC reouested that PSC provide a definitive operating plan for Fort St. Vrain within 30 days.

Because of the 3

aforementioned economic considerations, PSC has decided to terminate Fort St. Vrain operations as soon as planning and preparations can be completed for the initiation of an orderly Fort St. Vrain defueling, j-including the completion of the necessary NRC reviews and receipt of l1 the required NRC approvals for initiation of the defueling process.

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• I P-88422 December 5, 1988

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the meeting on October 13-14, 1988 between reprewntatives of the At PSC pntsented NRC, PSC and the State of Colorado (see Reference 2),

il two of the possible future Fort St. Vrain operating plan scenarins:

ii Operating Fort St. Vrain through Cycle 4 (Segment 9) including a power coastdown period as part of Cycle 4.

Operating Fort St. Vrain through Cycle 5 (Segment 10) including I-a power coastdown period as part of Cycle 5 instead of Cycle 4.

I Neither of these operating plan scenarios envisioned the procurement of Segment 11 or a sixth fuel operating cycle for Fort St. Vrain, i

F Based on the estimated time required to complete planning and preparations for the initiation of defueling and decommissioning i

activities at Fort St. Vrain, PSC has decided not to conduct a fourth Fort St. Vrain refueling outage to load new fuel Segment 10, and the i

fifth fuel operating cycle is therefore being cancelled. The one duration l

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currently undefined operating planning premise is the final l

of the current fourth fuel operating cycle, including the power coastdown period. The final duration of the fourth fuel operating cycle will be based upon the time to complete planning and i'

preparations for the initiation of defueling, the reliabfif ty of Fort St. Vrain, and the allowable duration of a power coastdown period Based on these prior to the end of the fourth fuel operating cycle.

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factors,

the best current PSC estimate is that the fourth fuel between December 1989 and June operating cycle will be concludedPSC will be terminating Fort St. Vrain operation

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p 1990.

Therefore,

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on or before June 30, 1990.

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the remainder of the fourth fuel c9erating cycle, PSC intends During to pursue and obtain the necessary reviewr and approvals from the NRC 4

staff to pemit the safe termination of nuclear operations at Fort

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St. Vrain, and pemit the orderly completion of defueling and l8, decommissioning planning activities.

PSC has alread initiated planning discussions with the NRC staff (see Reference 2)y concerning 1ji the defueling, decommissioning, and the possible conversion of Fort St. Vrain to an alternate fossil fuel source. PSC plans to make the

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submittals to the NRC during 1989 to support these following that defueling and decomissioning planning activities, and requests 1

NRC reviews and approval be completed on the indicated schedule:

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PSC will submit the preliminary decomissioning plan for Fort 1

f!I St. Vrain by March 31, 1989 to fulfill the recently issued y'

requirementsof10CFR50.75(f).

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P-88422 December 5,1988 1

Although not specifically required by the regulations PSC will 1

4 also submit by March 31, 1989 information concerning PSC's financial plans to support the defueling of Fort St. Vrain as l

discussed during the October 13-14, 1988 meeting.

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PSC will submit by May 31, 1989 the Fort St. Vrain defueling i

plan, and associated safety analysis report and required i.

Technical Specification changes to the NRC for approval.

PSC requests that NRC review and approve the defueling plan, and J

i associated safety analysis report and Technical Specification changes by December 31, 1989 to support the early termination of Fort St. Vrain operations.

ji As part of the planning process, PSC is reviewing all outstanding NRC requirements and PSC commitments to identify those that shnuld be i

completed to support the safe, short-tem completion of nuclear i

operations at Fort St. Vrain. PSC is also identifying those PSC commftments and new NRC requirements that are longer term in nature, i

and whose safety benefits would not be realized, to any significant

!r extent, since Fort St. Vrain operations will be discontinued on or before June 30, 1990. To optimize the utilization of both NRC.and 1

PSC resources, work on commitments and new requirements whose safety benefits would largely accrue only if Furt St.

Vra in were Lu be operated beyond June 30, 1990 would be teminated at the present time. PSC plans to submit by January 20, 1989 a definitive Ifsting of proposed changes to current PSC comitments as required to assure 4

the safe termination of Fort St. Vrain operations.

i If you should have any questions concerning this matter, please j-contact Mr. M. H. Holmes at (303) 480-6960.

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l Very truly yours, l.

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R. O. W1111ams, Jr.

O Senior Vice President Nuclear Operations R0W/MHH:bre cc:

(Seenextpage) i.

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