ML20141N680

Discusses Emergency Communications Capability, Emergency Response Data Sys, (Erds),Being Considered for Licensed Nuclear Power Facilities.Pwr Parameters List & ERDS Design Concept Encl.Site Visit Planned

ML20141N680
Person / Time
Site:	Waterford
Issue date:	03/06/1986
From:	Johnson E NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION IV)
To:	Leddick R LOUISIANA POWER & LIGHT CO.
References
NUDOCS 8603170507
Download: ML20141N680 (6)

Text

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. MAR 6 1986-m pin' Reply Refe'r To:

ai Docket: 50-382 -:

Louisiana ^ Power;& Light Company ATTN: R.+S'.- Leddick, Sr. Vice President

... Nuclear Operations

142 Delaronde Street'

>New Orleans, Louisiana 70174 Gentlemen:

This letter is to inform ycb of an emergency comm inications capability that-the NRC'is considering establishing with licensed nuclear power facilities'and an upcoming' site visit by'an NRC contractor to obtain information on how such 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

1. to be-a' design which best addresses the requirements of the NRC with minimal d ' impact on1the licensee. The development of the ERDS concept began with'an assessment of what is the NRC's role .in an emergency at a licensed nuclear; facility.' The Commission determined that the NRC's primary role is one of

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s monitory *ng the licensee to assure that appropriate recommendations are made

.with' respect to offsite protective actions. To fulfill this role the NRC

-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

'3 likelihood of core damage; (2) conditions inside the containment must be known well enough to assess the likelihood of its failure; (3). radioactivity release P, sfrates must be available promptly to assess the immediacy and degree of public t , danger;,and (4) the data from the plant's meteorological tower is necessary to g assess the distribution of potential or actual impact on the public. A list of

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the'.particular parameters considered necessary to these assessments is included as. Enclosure 1.

Experience with the voice-only emergency communications link, currently uti-

. lized for ~ data transmission, has demonstrated that excessive amounts of time are needed f~orithe routine transmission of data and for verification or correc-M-  % tion of data that appear questionable. Error rates have been excessive;.

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• initiations have been slow; frequency of updates have been unreliable. In addition, the current system creates an excessive drain on the time of valuable d.k experts at the NRC ar.d atethe- facility. When errors occur, they frequently d' create-false issues which, at best, divert experts from the real problems for M

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s'er.iously 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. 'Appropria:e options for transmitting the data to the Operations

' Center were considered: electronically formatted data, image facsimile, or by voice through' specially qualified communicators.

'The criteria used to compare these options involved accuracy, reliability, timeliness, completeness, cost (in dollars and expert personnel), and backfitting requirements. The NRC determined that automatic transmission 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 are not included in any particular

licensee's system can be communicated by voice over the Emergency Notification

System (ENS), thus avoiding backfitting requirements on 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 extracting the 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 System (ERDS). The design concept for the ERDS-is outlined in Enclosure 2.

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 ERDS concept has the potential to significantly improve the NRC incident response 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 software 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 staff 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:

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

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e Louisiana Power & Ligh't Company 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 Control, technical, telecommunications, and computer

' systems cadres within the plant staff. Should you have any questions or, this site visit please contact Mr. Gene Bates at (817) 860-8233.

(ShouldyouhaveanyquestionontheERDSconceptingeneralpleasecontact Ken Perkins with the Incident Response Branch at NRC Headquarters. He can be reached at 301-492-7361.

Sincerely, mM S@ed by" 2

5 11. Johnson, Director Division of Reactor Safety and Projects

Enclosures:

As stated cc: w/ enclosures:

Louisiana Power & Light Company ATTN: G. E. Wuller, Onsite Licensing Coordinator P.-0. Box B

'Killona, Louisiana 70066 Louisiana Power & Light Company ATTN: R. P. Barkhurst, Plant Manager P. O. Box B Killona, Louisiana 70066 Middle South Services ATTN: Mr. R. T. Lally P. O. Box 61000 New Orleans, Loutstana 70161 Louisiana Power & Light Company ATTN: K. W.' Cook, Nuclear Support and Licensing Manager 142 Delaronde Street New Orleans, Louisiana 70174 Louisiana Radiation Control Program Director i

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1. PWR. PARAMETER LISTS-t Primary Coolant- Pressure

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System Temperatures - hot leg Temperatures - cold leg-Temperatures. core: exit thermocouples Subcooling margin: ,

' Pressurizer level RCS charging / makeup, flow-Reactor vessel level (when available)

"'I . Reactor coolant- flow Neutron flux 'startup range ,

, s 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 Containseg Containment pressure Containment temperatures i

Hydrogen concentration ,

Containment sump levels

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

.- Effluent radiation monitors 7

Process radiation monitor levels 4

Meteorological Wind speed Wind direction v.

Atmospheric stability .

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%..w x- Enclosure 2 EMERGENCY RESPONSE DATA SYSTEM (EROS)

DESIGN CONCEPT

-Data Acquisition

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

Data Transmission

, 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 A 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.

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 conditions.

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 The updating frequency of the licensees' sy>tems 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 exf5 ting telephone lines.

Control 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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