ML20141N954

Describes Emergency Response Data Sys Concept & Parameters, Including Core & Coolant Sys Conditions,Conditions Inside Containment,Radioactivity Release Rates & Meteorological Data.Site Visit Planned Re Interface W/Emergency Operations

ML20141N954
Person / Time
Site:	River Bend
Issue date:	03/06/1986
From:	Johnson E NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE REGION IV)
To:	William Cahill GULF STATES UTILITIES CO.
References
NUDOCS 8603180337
Download: ML20141N954 (5)

Text

r MAR 6 1986 5

In Peply Refer To:

Docket: 50-458 Gulf States Utilities l ATTN: William J. Cahill, Jr.

Senior Vice President 1 River Bend Nu: lear Group I

P. O. Box 2951 Beaumor.t. Texas 77704 Gentlemen:

This letter is to inform you of an emergency communications capability that the NRC is considering establishing with licensed nuclear power fact 11ttes and ar.

upcoming site' visit by an NRC contractor tn obtain information on how such a system would interface with your facility, The emergency communication capability being considered is called the Energency Response Cata System (ERDS). The ERDS concept has bean determined by the NRC to be a design which host addresses the requirements of the NRC with minimal impact on the Itcensee. The development of the ERDS concept began with an assessment of what is the NRC's role in an emergency at a Itcensed nuclear facilit>. The Commission determined that tne 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 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 enntainment must be known well enough to assess the likelihood of its failure; (3) radioactivity release I rates must be available promptly to assess the immediaer and degree of pubite danger; and (4) the data from the plant's meteorological tower is necessary to assess the distribution af potential or actual inpact on the pubite. A Itst 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-l tion of data that appear questionable. Error rates have been excessive; initiations have been slow; frequency of updates hay 1 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 h

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T Gulf States Utilities l 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 by voice through specially qualifted communicators.

l l 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 I selected parameters f rom licenseos' existing electronic data systems is most j capabic 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 alread/ have developed or are developing elec-t tronic data systems for their emergency response facilities (ERFs). Becauto I the role of the licensees' ERFs is similar to the role of the NRC during l emergencies, the licensees' data systems already include most of the parameters i

desired by NRC. Those few parameters which are not included in any particular i licensee's system can be communicated by voice over the Emergency Notification l System (ENS), thus avoiding backfitting requirements on the licensee to include l additional parameters on their electronic data systems. Data would be accepted l in whatever format the licensee uses and reformatted at the Operations Center, l

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 I

would be determined on a case-by-case basis. The licensees would have control over transmission and would use the systen only during emergencies. This option is the Emergency Response Data System (ERDS). The design concept for the ERDS is outlined in Enclosure 2.

I l previous discussions with several licensees and two tests of the ERDS concept I which were conducted with Duke Qpwer and Commonwealth Edison have indicated that the ERDS con.ept has the potential to significantly improve the NRC l incident response function and our respenae relationship with licensees.

Therefore, to determino more specifically the factors that would effect imple-mentation of an ERDS we have initiated an of fort to survey the equipment and facilities at ifconsees' 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 b/ a NRC contractor to speak with you on this subject.

The visit is an information gathering process. It 15 oriented toward determi-nation of:

The availability of a particular set of NR or DWR parameters in dtyital form.

1

l . s l Gulf States Utilities  :

! The verification and validation methsd, if any.

Characterization of the available data feed point (s).

l l 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 plesse contact Mr. Gene Bates at (817) 860-8233.

Should you have any question on the EROS concept in general please contact

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

l l Sincerely, y hw**J le" E. H. Johnson, Director Division of Reactor Safety and Projects

Enclosures:

As stated cc w/ enclosures:

Gulf States Utilities ATTN: J. E. Booker, Manager-Engineering, Nuclear Fuels & Licensing P. O. Box 2951 Beaumont, Texas 77704 Loulslana State University, Government Documents Department Louisiana Radiation Control Program Director bec to DMS (A045) bec distrib. by RIV:

• RPG DRSP

• Rasident Inspector R. D. Martin, RA

• $ection Chief (RP8/A) *0. Weiss, LFMB (AR 2015)

• Mi$ System *R$8

• R$i$ Operator

• R&5PS

• RIV File 1

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ENCLOSURE 1 BWR PARAMETER LISTS j Reactor Coolant Reactor pressure System Reactor vessel level j Feedwater flow l

Neutron flux-Startup range i

! Safety injec, tion RCIC flow l HPC!/HPCS flow l

Core spray flow

LPCI flow j Condensate s+orage tank level Containeent Drywell pressure Drywo11 temperature Hydrogen & 0xygen Concentration Drywell sump level Suppression pool temperature

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Suppression pool level Radiation Monitoring Reactor coolant racioactivity level

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Primary containment radiation level Condenser off gas radiation levels Effluent radiation monitor Process radiation levels Meteorological, Wind speed Wind direction Atmospheric stability l

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,,o Enclosure 2 EMERGENCY RESPONSE DATA SYSTEM (EROS)

DESIGN CONCEPT Data Acquisition Parameter inputs to ERDS would be obtained from an existing computer system (e.g. SPOS, plant computer, EOF data systems, etc.) at the plant.

Data Transmission l

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).

l 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 a recommendations. The list would be limited to those parameters involving plant status, radiological and meteorological conditions.

f 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.

}ransmissionFrequegy l

l The updating frequency of the licensees' systems will determine transmis-I sion frequency to NRC. If more frequent updates are required than those l

provided electronically by a particular licensee, the increased frequency l will be accomplished (for a very limited subset of parameters) by voice j

over existing telephone lines.

l Control l .

l The licensee will have complete contrul over data transmission. ERDS would be " switched on" by the licensee in the early st:ge of a declared emergency.

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Mr. C. W. Fay Point Beach Nuclear Piant [

Wisconsin Electric Power Company Units 1 and 2 '

i cc:

Mr. Bruce Churchill, Esq.

Shaw, Pittman, Potts and Trowbridge 1800 M Street. N.W.

Washington, DC 20036 Mr. James J. Zach, Manager Point Beach Nuclear Plant Wisconsin Electric Power. Company 6610 Nuclear Road Two Rivers, Wisconsin 54241 Mr. Gordon Blaha Town Chairnen Town of Two Creeks Route 3 Two Rivers, Wisconsin 54241 Chairman Public Service Commission of Wisconsin Hills Farms State Office Building Madison, Wisconsin 53702 Regional Administrator, Region III U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Executive Director for Operations 799 Roosevelt Road Glen Ellyn, Illinois 60137 i Resident Inspector's Office U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 6612 Nuclear Road Two Rivers Wisconsin 54741 i l

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