ML20137G643

Responds to 850611 Objection to Util Request for Exemption from Requirement to Inert Containment within 6 Months of Initial Criticality.Safety Significance of Deferring Requirement Addressed in Sser 5

ML20137G643
Person / Time
Site:	Limerick
Issue date:	08/22/1985
From:	Thompson H Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
To:	Lewis M LEWIS, M.
References
NUDOCS 8508270359
Download: ML20137G643 (2)

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• AUG 2 2 585 Docket No. 50-352 0

Mr. Marvin I. Lewis 6504 Bradford Terrace Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19149

Dear Mr. Lewis:

This letter is in reply to your letter of June 11, 1985 expressing your objection to the Philadelphia Electric Company's request for an exemption from the requirement to inert the Limerick Unit 1 containmenL .tithin six months of initial criticality. Under the proposed exemption inerting would still be required but at a later milestone in the plant's Startup Testing Program. Your concern was that such an exemption could result in failure to meet the single failure criterion in the event of an over pressurization event in the Limerick boiling water reactor.

A technical basis for your concerns addressing the connection between the issues of inerting of containment, over pressurization and the single failure criterion was not provided with your letter. As stated in Section.6.2.5 of the Limerick Safety Evaluation Report (SER), the containment is to be inerted with nitrogen gas during power operations to preclude the possibility of a com-bustible mixture of hydrogen and oxygen accumulating in the primary contain-ment following a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA). The safety significance of deferring the requirement for cuntainment inerting to a later milestone in the plant's Startup Test Program was addressed by the NRC staff in Supplement No. 5 to the SER. This issue is not unique to the Limerick plant since similar changes have been approved by the staff for other boiling water reactor plants.

In the event your over pressurization concern is similar to the one you addressed in recent correspondence to the NRC's Regional Office, we note that issue is concerned with overpressurization of emergency core cooling system components located outside containment; it has no direct connection with the issue of containment inerting. Mr. Robert Gallo of the Region I Office has responded to your concern on this issue.

If you have any additional information on this matter you may contact the NRC Project Manager, Mr. Robert Martin at (301) 492-4937.

Sincerely, Original SI:ned by Huch L Thompson, Jr; Hugh L. Thompson, Jr., Director Division of Licensing

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