ML20141N622

Discusses Emergency Communications Capability Sys NRC Considering Establishing W/Licensed Nuclear Power Facilities & Upcoming NRC Site Visit to Obtain Info Re Sys Interface W/Facility.Parameter Lists & Sys Design Concept Encl

ML20141N622
Person / Time
Site:	Fort Saint Vrain
Issue date:	03/06/1986
From:	Johnson E NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION IV)
To:	Walker R PUBLIC SERVICE CO. OF COLORADO
References
NUDOCS 8603170404
Download: ML20141N622 (6)

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Y Public Service Company of Colorado ATTN:. R. F. Walker, President P. O. Box 840 Denver, Colorado 80201-0840 Gentlemen:

This letter is to inform you of an emergency communications capability that the NRC is ct;nsidering establishing with licensed nuclear power facilities and an upcoming site visit by an NRC contractor to obtain information on how sucn a system would interface with your facility.

The emergency communication capability being considered is called the Emergency Response Data System (ERDS). ' The ERDS concept has been determined by the NRC to be a design which best addresses the requirement.s of the NRC with minimal impact on the licensee. The development of the ERDS concept began with an assessment of what is the NRC's roic in an emergency at a licensed nuclear facility. The Commission determined that the NRC's primary role is one of monitoring the licensee to assure that appropriate recommendations are made with respect to offsite protective actions. To fulfill this role the 'JRC requires accurate, timely data on four types of parameters: (1) core and coolant system conditions must be known well enough to assess the extent or likelihood of core damage; (2) conditions insida the containment must be known well enough to assess the likelihood of its failure; (3) radioactivity release rates must be available promptly to assess the immediacy and degree of public danger; and (4) the data from the ' plant's meteorological tower is necessary to assess the distribution of potential cr actual impact on the public. A list of the particular parameters considered necessary to these assessments is included as Enclosure 1.

Experience with the voice-only emergency communications link, currently utt-lized for data transmissior, has demonstrated that excessive amounts of time are needed for the routine transmission of data and for verification or correc-tion of data that appear questionable. Error rates have been excessive; initiations have been slow; frequency of updates have been unreliable. In addition, the current system creates an excessive drain on the time of valuable experts at the NRC and at the factitty. When errors occur, they frequently create false issues which, at best, divert experts from the real problems for n

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, seriously long periods of time. At worst, incorrect data may.cause the NRC to respond to offsite officials with inaccurate or outdated advice that results in the implementation of inappropriate protective actions.

Several options were considered for upgrading the data acquisition capabilities ~

at the Operations Center. The options included various means"of' acquiring the data: manually, automatically using existing systems, or automatically using new systems. Appropriate options for transmitting the data to the Operations Center were considered: electronically formatted data, image facsimile, or b/

voice through specially qualified communicators. ,

The criteria used to compare these options involved accuracy, reliability,

. timeliness, completeness, cost (in dollars and expert pqrsonnel), and

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backfitting requirements. The NRC determined that autom'atic tr'hnsmission of selected parameters from licensees' existing electronic data systems is most

. capable of providing acceptably complete and reliable data on a timely basis at reasonable cost with the minimum potential for burdening licensee in an emer-gency. Most licensees either already have developed or are developing elec-tronic data systems for their emergency response facilities (ERFs). Because the role of the licensees' ERFs is similar to the role of-the NRC during emergencies, the licensees' data systems already include'most of the parameters desired by NRC. Those few parameters which a're not included in any particular

. licensee's system can be communicated by voice over the EmergencP Notification System (ENS), thus avoiding backfitting' requirements og the licensee' to include additional parameters on their electronic data systems. Data would be accepted in whatever format the licensee uses and reformatted at the Operations Center, as necessary. Because of the diversity of data systems utilized by the licensees, the best means for extractingethe NRC's parameters from each system would be determined on a case-by-case basis. The licensees would have control over transmission and would use the system,only during emergencies. This option is the Emergency Response Data Systen?(ERDS). The design concept for the ERDS is outlined in Enclosure 2. '

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Previous discussions with several'. licensees and two tests of the ERDS concept which were conducted with Duke Power and Commonwealth Edison have indicated

.that the EROS cancept has the potential to significantly improve the NRC incident respo se function and our response relationship with licensees.

Therefore, to determine more specifically the factors that would effect imple-mentation of an ERDS we have initiated an effort to survey the equipment.and facilities at licensees' sites and determine the hardware and sof tware require-ments 'of such a system. You should expect to be contacted in the next week by a member of this regional office to arrange a site visit by a NRC Headquarters ataff member accompanied by a NRC contractor to speak with you on this subject.

The visit is an Information gathering process. It is oriented toward determi-

nation of:

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.The availability of a particular set of PWR or BWR parameters in digital fonn.

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P'blic u Service Company of Colorado t The verification and validation method, if any.

Characterization of the available data feed point (s),

Access will be needed to documentation and knowledgeable individuals typically from Instrumentation and Cor) trol, technical, telecommunications, and computer systems cadres within the plant staff. Should you have any questions on this site visit please contact Mr. Gene Bates at (817) 860-8233.

Should you have any question on the ERDS concept in general please contact Ken'Perkins with the Incident Response Branch at NRC Headquarters. He can be reached at 301-492-7361.

Sincerely, l_Gep@.W W E. H. Johnson, Director Division of Reactor Safety and Projects

Enclosures:

As stated cc: w/ enclosures:

J. W. Gahm, Manager, Nuclear Production Division Fort St. Vrain Nuclear Station ,

16805 WCR 19 Platteville, Colorado 80651 L. Singleton,' Manager, Quality Assurance Division

'(same address)

Colorado Radiation Control Program Director bec to DMB (A045) bec distrib. by RIV:

• RPB DRSP

• Resident Inspector R. D. Martin, RA

• Section Chief (RPB/A) *RSB

• Section Chief (RSB/ES)

• R&SPB s

• MIS System

• RSTS Operator

• RIV File

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b, Y Enclosure 1 PWR FARAMETER LISTS'

. -(' ' Primary ' Coolant .- . Pressure L' .. System Temperatures - hot leg F Temperatures;- cold leg Temperatures - core exit thermocouples.

Subcooling margin Pressurizer level RCS charging / makeup flow Reactor vessel level-(when~available) l

< Reactor coolant flow 1 Neutron flux -'startup range

' Secondary Coolant ~

Steam generator levels

. System: Main.feedwater. flows Auxiliary / Emergency feedwater flows Safety Injection High pressure safety injection flows

' Low pressure safety injection . flows -

Safety injection flows (Westinghouse)

Borated water storage tank level Containment Containment pressure Containment temperatures Hydrogen concentration Containment sump levels

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Radiation Monitoring Reactor coolant radioactivity System- Containment radiation level Condenser air removal radiation' level Effluent radiation monitors

Process radiation monitor levels

• - Meteorological Wind speed Wind direction Atmospheric stability 4

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ENCLOSUREf1 i

4 , t- -BWR PARAMETER LISTS

. Reactor C'oolant Reactor pressure ~

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Reactor vessel level

. 'Feedwater flow r.c , Neutron 1 flux-Startup range- -

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'-~ Safety Injection RCIC: flow v HPCI/HPCS flow h -

Core spray flow '

LPCI flow ~

-Condensat'e storage tank level' Containment Drywell pressure _ <

Drywell temperature Hydrogen & 0xygen Concentration

'Drywell sump level'

. Suppression pool temperature

_Supprcssion pool level o

~ Radiation Mo'nitoring- -Reacto'r coolant radioactivity level' Systems . Primary containment' radiation ~1evel_ a Condenser off gas. radiation leve'Is Effluent radiation monitor.

Process radiation levels n Meteorological Wind speed  !

- g, Wind direction 5 Atmospheric stability

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_ Enclosure 2 EMERGENCY RESPONSE DATA ~ SYSTEM (ERDS)

DESIGN CONCEPT

< Data kcquisition ,

. Parameter. inputs'to ERDS would be obtained-from an existing computer system (e.g. SPDS, plant computer, EOF data systems,.etc.) at the plant.

. Data Tra'nsmission

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Data will be' transmitted to the NRC Operations Center by modem to.commer-cial telephone line.or a dedicated line' maintained by NRC (e.g. ENS).

Data Collection-iA processing system maintained by the NRC will receive the data stream by

' modem. ,The system will be designed.to_ receive all varied data streams and to reformat the data into a consistent format. The reformatted data will be output;to CRTs and printer.

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. Parameter List The parameter list would include those parameters necessary to ensure that appropriate protective action is being taken with respect to-offsite recommendations. The list would be limited to those parameters involving plant status, radiological and meteorological ccnditions.

Licensees will not be required to backfit their systems to include addi-tional parameters to provide data on NRC's parameter list. Data that is not available from the electronic data stream can be provided by voice over existing phone lines.

Transmission Frequency

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The updating frequency of the licensees' systems will determine transmis-sion frequency to NRC. If more frequent updates are required than.those provided. electronically by a particular licensee, the increased frequency will be accomplished (for a very limited subset' of parameters) by voice over existing telephone lines.

s Control 1

.N The licensee will have complete control over data transmission. ERDS would be " switched on" by the licensee in the early stage of a declared emergency.

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