ML20136C418
| ML20136C418 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 08/01/1979 |
| From: | Harold Denton Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| To: | Hale M AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7909240264 | |
| Download: ML20136C418 (4) | |
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Mr. Michael Hale J
Route 2, Box 242A i
l Reynoldsville, PA 15851
Dear Mr. Hale:
I Your letter to the President has been referred to me for reply.
In your letter you quote an article which discusses the early scale model test on i
the perfomance of emergency core cooling systems.
I have been unable to obtain a copy of the article, but your letter infers that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and its predessor, the Atomic Energy Commission j
(AEC) have not investigated the possibility that emergency core cooling systems could not.perfom this intended function.
That conclusion is not correct.
I Since the late 1960's the AEC and then the NRC conducted research into i
loss-of-coolant accidents. Part of 'the research was in the area of scale model tests. The earliest models were quite small when compared with I
nuclear power reactors.
The* volume of some of the earliest models was less than one ten thousandth of the volume of the reactor coolant system for a I
nuclear power plant.
The results of some of the early tests had to be I
discounted because some of the effects which controlled the behavior of the I
model's perfomance would not be controlling for the nuclear power plant.
[
The research in loss-of-coolant accidents is still continuing. The most j
recent "model" is called the Loss of Fluid Test (LOFT) facility.
The LOFT facility uses a' nuclear core to generate heat (previous models used electric l
l heaters) and its total power is about one per cent of the latest nuclear power plants, but it can duplicate the local heat output of a nuclear power j
pl ant. The most recent test at LOFT indicates that the emergency. core l
cooling systems perfom nuch better than required.
This brings us to the Three Mile Island accident.
The Three Mile Island 1
' reactor.did not suffer a b'reak in one of the cooling pipes, the kind of l
accident studied in the model tests.
Instead, a valve on the reactor's pressurizer stuck open after a pre,ssure surge from a loss of feedwater 79092N 024 f
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AUG Oi 1979 Mr. Michael Hale ~
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event.: The loss'of coolant 'through the valve plus other errors contributed to the severity of the accident. 'We have taker) steps to reduc.e. the pro-bability of this accident and we are currently investigating the whole accident to detemine if any changes should be made to our requirements.
TNEnksyoufoh.yourexpress._. ion of. interest. '
Sincerely,
.e
-Original Signed by H. R. Danton s
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Harold R. Denton, Director
- 1, 0'ffice of Nuclear Reactor Reguletion I
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