ML20137Z784
| ML20137Z784 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 07/29/1996 |
| From: | Shirley Ann Jackson, The Chairman NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| To: | Lacoste A FRANCE |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20137Z587 | List:
|
| References | |
| FOIA-96-493 NUDOCS 9704250114 | |
| Download: ML20137Z784 (20) | |
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/[p uaoq'og g-UNITED STATES r .3 '
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-{. $ WASHINGTON, D C. 20555 duly 29,1996 CHAIRMAN Mr. Andre-Claude Lacoste '
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- Directeur de la Surete des Installations Nucleaires (DSIN) 99 rue de Grenelle 75353 Paris Cedex 07 France
Dear Mr. Lacoste:
i We recently had an opportunity to discuss the important contribution international cooperation in nuclear regulation can make to safety, especially in research, and the lack of a permanent forum solely devoted to the interests and challenges faced by nuclear regulators 'worldwide. I have proposed establishing an independent multilateral mechanism, an International Nuclear Regulators Forum (INRF), in which nuclear regulatory officials can exchange views, coordinate approaches and harmonize arrangements, for the safe and secure use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. I have accepted an invitation to make a presentation on current and future
. needs of nuclear regulatory bodies at the NEA Senior Regulators September 12-
.i 13,.1996 meeting in Paris. This meeting presents an opportunity to move forward with broader, more in depth discussions. , f The enclosed discussion paper has been prepared for meeting participants. To provide a more concrete basis for discussion, a draft Terms of Reference (TOR) i has also been included. The TOR was prepared to focus discussion on some concrete alternatives, but should not be taken to represent any fixed views '
; about the role or structure of an INRF.
Your early views on the discussion paper and the'T6R would be appreciated ] prior to the September Senior Regulators meeting. l l Sincerely, j b Shirley nn Jackson
Enclosure:
As stated ) Information ja this rsted wa; de;eted l in accordance witfithe freedo,110l.Infor'mation Act, excmptions 5 , i F0lA U 3 9704250114 970423 PDR FOIA HART 96-493 PDR
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SUMMARY
OF MEETINGS AND SITE VISITS Canada I i
.Hgard Meetino with Dr.(AECB) of Canada AQnes Bishoo, Chairman, Atomic Enerov Contro1 Aucust 15, 1996. .
i Ctairman Jackson was greeted by Dr. Bishop' and the two had' a one-on-one to join indiscussion before the bilateral Dr. Bishop invited her senibr managers discussions. Chairman Jackson's delegation, Stoiber, including Janice Dunn Lee,-Regis Boyle, Carlton- ' ; l-and William Upshaw attended the initial discussions
- between Chairman Jackson and Dr. Bishop.
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I i Signino Ceremony i for the NRC/AECB Arrangement. August 15. 1996 After Chairman Jackson's meeting with Dr. Bishop 1 Jackson and Dr. Bishop signed the renewal of the NRC/AECB, both Chairma Arrangement. accompanying personnel of the AECB.Chairman Jackson on her visit and upp I NRC - AECB Bilateral Discussions, August 15. 1996 After the~ signing ceremony, Chairman Jackson and Dr Bishop were joined by senior managers from the AECB. . Marchildon, Director General, They included Pierre Director General, Analyses and Assessment; J.D. Secretariat; J.G. Waddingto ! General, Reactor Regulation; Murray Duncan, Director GeneralHarvie, Direc Fuel Cycle General, and Materials Regulation; and George C . Jack, Director Administration. P-
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$ irman Jackson discussed the burning of Pu in CANDU reactors, noting that NRC had received an application for export of material to Canada which is currently under interagency' review.
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l Chairman Jackson also pointed out that nuclear non-proliferation j and nuclear safety are not mutually exclusive objectives. There I needs to be a regime where both safety and safeguards are built I in. j m % - i 1- l 4bd5 i t_-- , Chairman Jackson ended the meeting by extending an invitation to ! Dr. Bishop to visit the NRC in Washington. , l Meetina with Thomas G. Weston, Charge d' Affaires, August 15, 1996. ! Chairman Jackson made a courtesy call on Charge d' Affaires Thomas ) Weston at the U.S. Embassy in' Ottawa. Chairman Jackson briefed ; Mr. Weston on the purpose of her visit to Canada, NRC's mission, 1 and general nuclear safety issues. . Visit to Darlinoton Nuclear Generatino Station, August 16, 1996. Chairman Jackson toured the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station on the morning of Friday, August 16. She was greeted and accompanied on the plant tour by Mr. William Parlinger, Chairman, Ontario Hydro. The Darlington Nuclear Power Station is a 4-unit (935 MWe per unit) CANDU reactor design. Construction of the four units took 15 years (1978-1993) with the units coming on-line between 1990 and 1993. The total capital cost of the power station was $14.3 billion ($Cdn) and the cost of the tritium removal facility was
$0.181 billion ($Cdn). The plant generates about 20 percent of Ontario Hydro's electricity. The plant is staffed by 1,600 Ontario Hydro personnel and 140 contractor staff.
A unique aspect of the Darlington plant is its containment system, or " Vacuum Building" as the Ontar-to Hydro personnel referred to it. Th'e vacuum building, which was seen on the tour of the facility by Chairman Jackson, is a 240 ft. high cylindrical concrete structure that is connected to the four reactor buildings by a pressure relief duct. The vacuum building is maintained at nagative pressure so that any release of . radioactive steam from the pressurizedpsystems would go into the vacuum building, thus preventing itg Mcape to the atmosphere. c /
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-F5 Chairman Jackson also. toured the tritium removal facility at the J
Darlington Station. The Ontario Hydro officials stated that about one-third of all the occupational exposures at Canada's commercial reactors comes from tritium. Ontario Hydro opened -a tritium removal facility at the Darlington facility in 1988 to extract tritium from the heavy water used in Ontario Hydro',s nuclear plants. The tritium that is removed from th9 heavy water is stored in stainless steel cylindrical containers within a concrete vault. Chairman' Jackson was shown one of the tritium !' containers and was also provided with a tour of the tritium removal facility control room. Chairman Jackson was told that 130 million Curies of tritium are being stored in the concrete ! vaults at Darlington. _ l 1 I ; l
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r .. _ _ -- ._ In addition to the systems mentioned above, Chairman Jackson also was given a tour of the plant simulator, the turbine hall, the diesel-generators, the reactor building where the top of the reactor could be seen, the low-level radioactive waste management facility, the fuel bay, and the control room. The itinerary for Chairman Jackson's tour of the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station and a listing of those who were in attendance is enclosed (Attachment No. 1) . The charts that were used by the Ontario Hydro personnel during their presentations to Chairman Jackson are also enclosed (Attachment No. 2). , Meeting with Atomic Enerav of Canada Limited (AECL), August 16, 1996. During the afternoon of Friday, August 16, Chairman Jackson met with AECL officials and toured the Sheridan Park Engineering Laboratory (SPEL). On the trip from the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station to the AECL facilities, Chairman Jackson was able to drive by and view the Pickering Nuclear Station *of Ontario Hydro. Chairman Jackson was greeted by liam Hancox, Vice-President for Strategic Development, AECL. 3b5 n c5
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A hi i E US u, J The CANDU-9 design is essentially a replica of the Darlington. reactoy, design but with an individual containment system for each unit.l , 5 Ey L i %5 hairman Jackson was given a brief tour of the AECL's Sheridan Park Engineering Laboratory (SPEL) which is a facility that supports the development and testing of CANDU reactor systems and components. During the tour she observed facilities for developing the CANDU fuel handling equipment including a fuel channel delivery system. She also observed equipment to perform fuel channel inspections including video inspections, dimensional gauging, eddy current and ultrasonic testing, and sampling. She was also shown fuel channel test rigs that allow fuel channel testing of primary heat transport conditions. Chairman Jackson was also provided with a demonstration of AECL's kinematic simulation that provides a 3D graphic simulation tool for the design, evaluation, and analysis of CANDU reactor destgns. Recention in Honor of Chairman Jackson hosted by Consul General Greoorv Johnson. On the evening of A'ugust 16, Consul General Gregory Johnson hosted a reception in honor of Chairman Jackson. It was attended by about 20 government and business leaders from the greater Toronto area and Chairman Jackson's entire delegation. t i PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA Meetina with U.S. Ambassador Sasser/ and Senior Embassy Staff. Aucust 19, 1996. 8
On Monday morning, August 19, Chairman Jackson met with ' Ambassador Sasser and other senior staff at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Chairman Jackson was accompanied by James Milhoan, Deputy Director for Nuclear Reactor Regulation, Regional Operations and Research, Janice Dunn liee, Special Assistant for International Affairs, Regis Boyle, Special Assistant for Nuclear Materials, Waste and Fuel Cycle, and Kevin Burke, Senior International Relations Officer. Ambassador Sasser indicated his pleasure of having another high ranking U.S. official visit China (Ambassador Sasser stated that Robert Einhorn, Council of Economic Advisers had just recently visited CPina). . Chairman Jackson was briefed by Ambassador Sasser and other Embassy personnel on China's energy situation and particularly its planned nuclear program. Chairman Jackson was told that the current installed electrical generating capacity in China is 210 GWe. Nuclear generating capacity makes up about 1 percent of the total electrical capacity. (China relies heavily on coal and hydro for most of its electrical generating capacity.) China's most recent 5-year energy plan calls for the addition of j 8 nuclear reactors. The current plan indicates that two reactors ' will be French designed, two will be Canadian designed (CANDU), two will be Russ' n designed (VVER), and two will be indigenous designed (PWR) . 1 1L F:5 L Meetino with Mr. Huana Oitao. Director General. China's National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA). Aucust 19. 1996. ChairmanJacksonmetwithMr.HuangQitko(NNSA) and his senior
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staff on the morning of August 19. Aftpr brief introductory and welcoming remarks by both Mr. Huang enf Chairman Jackson., Mr. Huang provided a description of tVe NNSA. NNSA was created in 1984 with the responsibility to function as the independent nuclear safety regulator over civilian nuclear power in China. Mr. Huang stressed that its responsibilities covered civilian 9
_ ..- _ . . . . _ . . . _.. _ _ . _ . . . _ _ - . _ _ - . . _ ._._ m _._y i i l 4 J nuclear power only. Military installations have their own ' organization responsible for safety. He also pointed out that NNSA authority extended only to on-site activities. The Chinese environmental agency is responsible for off-site impacts. He
- indicated.that municipal and local governments are responsible
- . r emergency response offorts.
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t v n .:. - I 1 I u M Chairman Jackson asked Mr. Huang if he would be attending either
-the Pacific Basin Conference or the Tokyo Nuclear Safety ,
Conference.. Mr. Huang' stated that the Ministry of Foreign j Affairs would make those decisions. Chairman"dackson extended an offer to met with Mr. Huang at either of the meetings if he attends. She also informed Mr. Huang about,the International Nuclear Regulators Forum that she would be proposing at a September 1996 meeting of Senior Regulators in Paris. Mr. Huang closed the meeting by thanking. Chairman Jackson for visiting China and extended an offer to/all NRC Commissioners to visit China in the future. , J' l 12 :
Meetino with Mr. Zhano Jian. Director General. China's Nuclbar Safety Center (NSC) August 19, 1996. On Monday afternoon, Chairman Jackson and her delegation met with Mr. Zhang Jian,. Director General,. China Nuclear Safety Center (NSC) and his senior managers. Mr. Zhang provided a brief introduction to the NSC (see Attachment No. 3). NSC made three technical presentations to Chairman Jackson on the followin'g: (1) Technical Activities of the NSC (Attachment No. 4); (2) Analysis of Operational Events for Daya Bay Nuclear Power-Plant (Attachment No. 5); and (3) Emergency Preparedness in NSC (Attachment No. 6). > The attachments capture all of the information that was presented at the meeting. The discussion of significant non-conformances during 1995 at the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant was most interesting, in particular the control rod drop time prehlem (See ! Attachment No. 4, pages 6-12). Chairman Jackson asked several questions during the technical presentations and pointed out to the NSC that probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) was not mentioned during any of the technical presentations. Chairman Jackson emphasized the need to incorporate PRA into their evaluations of nuclear power. plants. ) There was also some discussion of future developmental activities in China. Chairman Jackson asked about various regulations that China might have in place. In response to her questions, the NSC provided to NRC with a complete set of their regulations (Copy available in Office of International Programs). Meetino with Mr. Yin Dakui. Vice Minister of Health. Ministry of Public Health. August 20, 1996. On Tuesday, August 20, Chairman Jackson met with Mr. Yin Dakui, Vice Minister of Health and his staff. Vice Minister Yin provided a brief overview of the Ministry -of-Public Health. He stated that the Ministry is an administrative and research institute responsible for the public's health and safety as it relates to the uses of radioisotopes, x-ray machines, and accelerators in all applications including medicine and agriculture. It is responsible for establishing radiation proteccion standards for protecting the.public health and safety.
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Chairman Jackson gave an overview of the U.S. program in ' regulating the use of nuclear materials. She agreed that there should be more international cooperation in this area and specifically identified the hormesis effect area as one where China and the U.S. should share data and information. Chairman Jackson invited Vice Minister Yin and his colleagues to visit the U.S. to have further discussions on these subjects'. Visit to Xian Jiaotong University, August 21, 1996. On Wednesday, August 21, Chairman Jackson, accompanied by James Milhoan, Janice Dunn Lee, Regis Boyle, and Kevin Burke, toured the Xian Jiaotong University in Xian. Chairman Jackson was hosted by Ms. Lu Hong, Office of Foreign Affairs, Xian Jiaotong University. Jiaotong University is one of the oldest universities in China. The university is comprised of 10 schools. Eight of those schools are related to engineering and science. The School of Energy and Power Engineering has a Nuclear and Thermal Engineering Department. The university has about 10,000 undergraduate students, 2,'000 masters degree candidates, and nearly 900 doctoral students. The university currently has more than 1,800 full-time instructors, including over 800 professors and associate professors. ( {- 4 Ffi o Press Conference at Beiina Grand Hotel. August 22. 1996. Chairman Jackson held a press conference regarding her visit to China and answered a number of questions posed by reporters. Topics covered U.S.-China relations, prospects for sale of U.S. nuclear technology, disposal of nuclear waste, China's power needs and expectations, and nuclear safety and the role of an independent regulator. Meeting with Mr. Li Dino Fan. Vice Chairman /Vice Minister /Vice President. China Atomic Enerav Authoribv. China National Nuclear Cornoration. August 22, 1_11E. ; On. Thursday, August 22, ChairmanJack!onmetwithViceMinister Li of the China National Nuclear Coyporation (CNNC). CNNC is responsible for the development of' nuclear power in China. CNNC 14
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designs, constructs, and operates nuclear power stations in China. 3y il i
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Chairman Jackson recomended to CNNC thht they obtain simulators when new nuclear plants are ordered. jShe further recomended thattheChineseregulatorsobtainsipators. Chaiman Jackson raised questions op' several topics with Mr. Li. The questions and/or the responsesrare briefly summarized below: 15
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Site Visit to Oinshan Nuclear Power Station, August 23, 1996. Chairman Jackson and her delegation visited the Qinshan* Nuclear Power Station (QNPS) on Friday, August 23. Chairman Jackdon was greeted at the plant by Mr. Yao Qi Ming, General Manager of QNPS. Before touring the plant, Mr. Yao and Chairman Jackson had discussions about the QNPS. The QNPS is a 300 MWe, two-loop PWR with plant components having been designed and manufactured within China and from abroad. The plant is located on the co st about 125 km southwest of Shanghai (about a 3-4 hour ride). {[ 4kF __JTheplannedultimate capacity for the Qinshan site is 3,000 Ne, rter-
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S/4I J l I Lh,. The plant tour consisted of visiting the following facilities: (1) simulator, (2) con. trol room, (3) diesel generators, (4) upper turbine deck, (5) spent fuel pool, (6) LLW storage facility, (7) safety injection pump room, and (8) the hohstruc ton site for i units 2 and 3. ; The simulator is a full scope simulator purported to meet the guidance of ANS 3.5. During Chairman Jackson's tour of the simulator, a station blackout drill was conducted. Chairman Jackson was told that all of the operayors are university graduates.
- j' Chairman Jackson visited the spent / fuel pool, area that had never been visited b any other NR visitors.
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l r . E i us , l Chairman Jackson visited the LLW storage facility. The facility j has a storage capacity of ?.0,000 drums of LLW. re are ; current 1 3,200 drums sto'.ed in the f acilit ; 1
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a I ( ' I l l L}5 e Chairman Jackson and her team departed for the-U.S. on Saturday, August 24, 1996. .. i l i j
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