ML20141N700

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

ML20141N700
Person / Time
Site:	Comanche Peak
Issue date:	03/06/1986
From:	Johnson E NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION IV)
To:	Counsil W TEXAS UTILITIES ELECTRIC CO. (TU ELECTRIC)
References
NUDOCS 8603170540
Download: ML20141N700 (6)

Text

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WR 6 886

'In Reply Refer To:

. Dockets: 50-445 50-446

-Texas Utilities Generating Company ATTN: .Mr. W. G. Counsil Executive Vice President 400 North Olive, L.B. 81-Dallas, Texas 75201 Gentlemen:

This letter is to inform you of an emergency communications capability that the NRC is considering establishing with licensed nuclear power fact 11 ties 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 (EROS). The EROS concept has been determined by the NRC to be a design which best addresses the requirements of.the NRC with minimal impact on the licensee. The development of the ERDS concept began with ar.

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 monitoring the licensee to assure that appropriate recommendations are riado 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 likelihood of core damage; (2) conditions inside the containment must be irnown weli 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 or 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 transmission, 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 facility. When errors occur, they frequently create false issues which, at best, divert experts from the real problems for C:R&SPL f Dil D:0R RA GBatps LYandeb IIH6 7 W RBdWi EJohnson RM tin 4/p/86 $/p/86 g/g/46 g/g/86 g4/86 / /86 anoen o I 86031705'40 pon %s

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Texas Utilities Generating Company seriously long periods of time. At worst, incortect data may cause the NRC to respond to offsite officials with inaccurate or outdated advice that results in the implementstion of inappropriate protective actions.

Several options were considered for upgrading the data acquisition capabilities at tne 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: electrnnically 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 Itcensees' existing electronic data systems is most capable of providing acceptably complete and reliable data on a timely basis at reasonable cost with the ninimum 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 f acilities (ERFs). Because the role of the licensees' ERFs is similar to tne role of the NRC during emergencies, the ifcensees' data syste.ns already include most of the parameters desired by NRC. Those few paramete*s 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 usis and refnrmatted at the Operations Center, as necessary. Because of the diveasity 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 (EROS). The design concept for the EROS is outilned in Enclosure 2.

Previous discussions with several licensees and two tests of the EROS concept which were conducted with Duke Power and Commonwealth Edison have indicated that the EROS 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 EROS we have initiated an effort to survey the equipment and facilities at 11censees' 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 staf f member accompanied by a NRC contractor to speak with you on this subject.

The visit is an information gathering process. It is oriented toward detwrmi-nation of:

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

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, e Texas Utilities Generating 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 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, egdgnal .9sned by:"

E. H. Johnson, Director Division of Reactor Safety and Projects

Enclosures:

As stated cc: w/ enclosures:

Texas Utilities Electric Company ATTN: J. W. Beck, Vice President Licensing Quality Assurance and Nuclear fuels Skyway Tower 400 North Olive Street Lock Box 81 Dallas, Texas 75201 Juanita Ellis President - CASE 1426 South Polk Street Dallas, Texas 75224 Renea Hicks Assistant Attorney General Environmental Protection utvision P. O. Box 12548 Austin, Texas 76711 Texas Radiation Control Program Director

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Enclesure 1 PWR PARAMETER LISTS Primary Coolant Pressure System Temperatures - hot leg Temperatures - cold leg Temperatures - core exit thermocouples Subcooling margin Pressurizer level RCS charging / makeup flow Reactor vessel level (when available)

Reactor coolant flow 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 Radiation Monitoring

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Reactor coolant radioactivity System Containment radiation level Condenser air removal radiation level Effluent radiation monitors Process radiation monitor levels Meteor _ological Wind speed Wind direction Atmospheric stability

Enclosure 2 EMERGENCY RESPONSE DATA. SYSTEM (ERDS)

DESIGN CONCEPT Data Acquisition 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 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' 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.

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

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