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Forwards 860221 Rept to Interior Committee Re Readiness to Process HTGR CP Application.Update Rept for Chairman Will Be Provided by 880201
	ML20150D959
Person / Time
Issue date:	06/26/1987
From:	Beckjord E; NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR REGULATORY RESEARCH (RES)
To:	Bradburne J; NRC OFFICE OF GOVERNMENTAL & PUBLIC AFFAIRS (GPA)
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ML20150D949	List: ML20150D946; ML20150D950; ML20150D959;
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JUN 2 6 ;;;7 MEMORANDUM FOR: John Bradburne, Director Office of Congressional Affairs FROM: Eric S. Beckjord, Director Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research

SUBJECT:

INTERIOR COMMITTEE REPORT ON NRC AUTHORIZATION REPORT Your remorandum to the Comissioners of 5/19/87 provided for our information a copy of House Report 100-90, accompanying H.R.1315, the NRC authorization bill for FY-1988 and FY 1989, included in this report was a section titled "High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor" which stated:

for HTGR safety research the Comittee has designated within PES specific amounts not to exceed $2 million for each fiscal year (1988 l and 1989)

the Comission should submit to the Comittee prior to February 1, l 1988, a brief report sumarizing the status of the Comission's !

readiness to process an HTGR construction permit application. l On February 21, 1986, the Comission had provided a report (copy enclosed) to the Interior Comittee on the Comission's readiness to process an HTGR construction permit application. We will provide an update of this report for transmittal by the Chaiman to the Comittee by the requested date.

As indicated in the FeDruary 12, 1986 report, no NhC research funding is to be spent on HTGR research until such time as the current interactions with DOE on the modular HTGR (MHTGR) conceptual design are completed (early 1988). At that time we will assess what research, if any, is required to support NRC's !

processing an HTGR construction permit application and initiate such research, l as appropriate. This course of action has been in effect since FY-1986 because the HTGR design concepts have been evolving significantly since then ,

and the need for and type of research is dependent upon the design concept !

chosen. In addition, we believe most of the research needed to develop and l justify the safety of the design of an HTGR will be done under the DOE !

Enclosure:

As stated cc: H. Denton Distribution RES Circ /Chron ARG B R/F TKing ZRoszteczy BMorris TSpeis EBeckjord JWilson PWilliams .

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- - - - February 21, 1986 CH AIRM A N l

The Honorable Morris K. Udall, Chairman Subcommittee on Energy and the Environnent l Cormittee on Interior and Insular Affairs United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Mr. Chairman:

As requested in House Report 99-93, Part I, enclosed is a brief I report, prepared by the NRC Staff, which summarizes the status of the Commission's readiness to process an HTGR Construction Permit Application.

Sincerely, y ctw- 4 <

.((/f[c p t-Nunzio . Falladino

Enclosure:

Report Summarizing Status of Commission Readiness to Process an HTGR Construction Permit Application, ,

cc: Rep. Manuel Lujan l Originated: HRR l

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Q Enclosure STATUS OF COW.15510N READINESS TO PROCESS AN HTGR CONSTRUCTION PERMIT APPLICATION December 1985

TARLE OF CONTENTS PaGE 1

I. Introduction and Sumr.ary 1

II. Background 1

a) HTGR Regulatory History 1

b) Activities of Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research 2

' c) Fort St. Vrain Experience 3

d) Foreign Reactor Experience 3

III. Current Activities 4

a) Policy Statenent on Advanced Reactors 4

b) Interactions Between NRC and DOE 5

c) NRR Assistance and Staffing 5

d) RES Activities 5

e) Interactions with ACRS 6

IV. Conclusion 7

V. References

I. INTRODUCTION AND SUW ARY This Comittee report on is in response Interior to aAffairs and Insular request by(theReport Comittee Housetoofaccomeany Representatives, H.R. 1711, May 14, 1985), to sumarize the Comission's readiness to process an HTGR Construction Pemit apolication. In this report we examine current activities and related background for HTGR licensing and conclude '

that the Comission will be ready to process in a timely manner a Construction Pemit application based on the U.S. Department of Energy's (00!) pre,4ected submittal of a Preliminary Standard Safety Analysis Report (PSSAR) in 1989. ,

This readiness is contingent on the satisfactory completion of the prespoli- t cation activities described in DOE's "Licensing Plan for the Standard HTGR" l (Reference 1), resources for advanced reactor work as currertly allocated for FY 86 NRR staffing and technical assistance, and on the availability of adequate NRC resources for FY 87 and beyond.

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!!. BACKGROUND a) HTGR Reculatory History The regulatory staff and the ACRS have a long history of HTGR review and licensing activity beginning in the early 1960's with the 40 Mwe Peach Bottom I reactor. The Peach Bottom I reactor was the first HTGR in the U.S. and operated successfully from 1967 to 1974, when it was shut down for economic reasons. Following the Peach Bottom experience, the principal events and experiences were the licensing e 4 continuing supervision of the Fort St. Vrain reactor, the Construction Permit reviews of the Sumit and Fulton power plants in the mid 1970's followed by the partial review of the standard 4 plant HTGR (the 1160 Hwe, GAS $AR design) in the later 1970's. Also l in the mid 1970's the regulatory staff completed a review of a ;

i conceptual desian of a gas cooled fast breeder reactor which did not use HTGR fuel but was of interest to HTGR technology because of component development issues and the use of natural circulation for ;

emergency core cooling, b) Activities of Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research NRC's Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) began contributing .

to NRC's cumulative HTGR experience in 1974 with the initiation of research on graphites, fuels, high temperature metals, themal and fluid mechanical design, containment design, fission product release and transport, safety instrumentation, seismic and structural desion, and safety analyses, includina accident code development and validation.

Following the GASSAR review, RES became the NRC lead office for advanced HTGRs and also investigated certain technical issues in support of Fort St. Vrain operations. In 1981 RES developed a long

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. 2 range plan for HTGR safety research based upon the reference 2240 Nt large plant desicn which emphasized the development of licensino review bases. With the recent switch of emchasis by DOE from the larce plant design to the small modular design RES is suspending its !

I activities in the HTGR area until such time as the research needs for the new modular HTGk design are identified as part of the current interaction between NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation and I DOE (see Section !!!). Much of the completed research work, together I with selected infomation from other domestic and foreign sources, I is currently being documented in the fem of an HTGR Safety Handbook. l This Handbook will serve as a central repository for data and other infomation pertaining to HTGR licensing and is being organized in a femat to facilitate rapid familiarization of new licensing personnel I with the essential features and safety perameters of HTGRs.

RES will reinstitute research, subject to availability of funds, when as part of the current interaction between NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) and DOE (see Section 111) the design infomation is sufficiently detemined to identify further regulatory research needs.

c) Fort St. Vrain Experience Experiences with Fort St. Vrain have greatly benefited HTGR licensina readiness. A wealth of significant technical, safety and licensing infomation has been developed and weil documented. Generally favorable perfomance infomation has been developed for the fuel, the prestressed concrete reactor vessel, most instrumentation and control systems, the steam generators and the fuel handling systems.

Resolutions and pending resolutions of perfomance and licensing concerns over the years have led to important infomation concerning flow induced vibrations of the fuel elements, improved understandinc of corrosion and themal stress potentials of structural graphites, i improvements in accident analysis and computer modeling, and better definition of inservice inspection requirements for HTGRs.

A second and equally important benefit to licensing readiness has f been the resulting acquisition of practical knowledge of HTGRs by the regulatory staff members and basic data and techniques by NRC contractors who have participated in Fort St. Vrain activities over the years. While the staff members have had rany duties other than Fort St. Vrain, they represent a reserynir of knowledge and experience, much of which could be made available for the licensing of HIGRs should this activity intensify. The contractors represent an additional reservoir of expertise available in the event of need for Fort St.

Vrain and for the current and anticipated HTGR licensino activities.

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e d) Foreign Reactor Experience Britain, Japan and Gemany have strong backgrounds in gas reactor design, operation and safety analysis which have influenced, suoperted, and confimed domestic HTGR designs and research activities. This foreign infomation has generally been available under umbrella agreements and through the HTGR technical comunity. Of createst interest is infomation from West Gemany which is in the process of starting up a 300 h e pebble bed type HTGR and is currently designing a 500 he follow-on plant for future comercialization.

The NRC has been and will continue to use available acolicable infomation from the foreign HTGR programs in our review of the U.S. HTGR design.

111. CUMENT ACTIVITIES Currently, the Comission is embarking on a two year effort to review the conceptual design of an advanced HTGR being developed under DOE

sponsorship. DOE's plans and request for review were sent to the Comission in April 1985 (Reference 1) and concurred in by the Comission in July 1985 (Reference 2). The plan proposed by DOE calls for an NRC review over the next two years of an HTGR conceptual design, followed by ,

I an application for a standard plant review in 1989. Much of our current activity is in preparation for the conceptual desian review. This review will concentrate in FY 86 on the identification and resolution of ma,ior safety issues and proceed in FY 87 into a review of a Preliminary Safety Inforntion Document (PSID) on the conceptual design. As a result of this review the NRC staff will write a safety evaluation report on the conceptual HTGR design and issue a letter regarding the licensability of the design. These are scheduled to be issued in late FY 87. It is anticipated that as a result of this review further specific research needs will be identified. Research work to resolve these new specific issues should then be initiated on a time frame consistent with the review of the actual application currently scheduled for sabmission in 1989. The technical review done by the staff on the conceptual HTGR design will also lay the groundwork and fem the basis for our review, if and when an actual application is received. The staff review over the next two years will also identify any additional areas where NRC should put resources to be ready for an actual application.

1 Ourpresentactivitiesarebeing)conductedprimarilybytheSafety Program Evaluation Branch (SPEB in the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation and have been guided by the issuance, on March 28, 1985, of a draf t Comission policy statement on the regulation of advanced reacters (Reference 3). The SPEB with support from RES as appropriate has been meeting frequently with DOE and its contractors, occasionally with the ACRS, and has aided the Comission on the development of advanced reactor poliev.

Fore specific infomation related to these activities is discussed below:

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.4- l a) Policy Statement on Advanced Reactors In response to ongoing 00E and industry advanced reactor programs (of which the HTGR is one element) the NRC developed and issued for public coment a proposed policy statement on the reculation of advanced reactors. This policy statement is intended to:

1. describe those characteristics which are desired in advanced reactors,

2. encourage early interaction between the NRC staff and advanced reactor designers on regulatory requirements associated with these designs and

3. allow for early identification and development of necessary research programs to provide technical bases for reculatory decisions, to assess feasibility of safety improvements and to ensure an adequate understanding of phenomena for which analytic methods are needed in regulatory activities.

The final version of the policy statement is expected to be issued in the near future. The provisions of this policy statement have been and will continue to guide our efforts in the advanced HTGR area.

b) Interactions Between NRC and DOE The overall schedule for the MTGR review and development as jointly planned with DOE is shown in Figure 1. Recently DOE has selected a 350 Mwt modular design concept as the reference HTGR plant to be reviewed by NRC. Meetings and correspondence between NRC and DOE have been.

underway since mid 1984 and to date have dealt primarily with project i planning, familiarization of the NRC staff with the HTGR conceot under l I

development and the identification of safety issues associated with l this conceot. The near tem interactions (FY 1986) will concentrate on the identification and resolution of major safety issues associated with the HTGR concept in preparation for an efficient, one year review of the PSID. In addition, a probabilistic risk assessn*nt and technology development plans for the HTGR concept will be submitted by DOE for NRC review , September 1986. These reviews will result in the issuance of a safety evaluation report and a licensability statement on the HTGR concept in Seotember 1987

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c) NRR Assistance and Staffing In order to assist NRR in the review of the conceptual design SPEB has initiated contracts with ORNL, BNL and MIT to help assess key safety concerns, develop and utilize ar.alytical tools for independer.t calculations, and to aid in general its review of DOE submitted material.

An additional technical assistance contract for broad technical support is being soucht by competitive bids. Funds for technical assistance in the review of the HTGR conceptual design have been identified for the near term activities (FY 86 and FY 87) as:

650 K - FY 86 550 K - FY 87 ;

i Funds to support activities beyond FY 87 will be dependent upon the results of our near term activities and will be estimated as our work j progresses. Assigned NRC staff will consist of a lead senior reactor engineer from the SPEB together with part time specialists in structural and seismic design, thermal and fluid mechanical design, containment, instrumentation, control and electrical systems, radioactive waste, !

auxiliary systems, probabilistic risk assessment, safeguards, security and emergency planning. NRR Staff will be assisted by cognizant RES personnel as needed. Total NRR staff effort is estimated at a level of two professional staff years for both FY 86 and FY 87.

l d) RES Activities No funding is provided for NRC research on HTGR safety during FY 86 and FY 87.

As the DOE-Industry desian st; dies evolve and applications and plant design information begin to be defined, RES will again institute plant specific regulatory research programs intended to furnish licensing and regulatory suponrt to NRR on a schedule consistent with DOE and industry plans and availability of funds, e) Interactions with ACRS The SPEB together with DOE and its contractors met with the ACRS Subcommittee on Advanced Reactors on February 5 1985 and aoain on September 25, 1985 at which time current and future activities were I described. Additional meetings with the ACRS Subcommittee on various I safety issues associated with the advanced HTGR are scheduled in j 1986 and ACRS involvement in the review of the PSID will also be i requested.

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IV. CONCLUSION ,

Based on the activities described herein and on the regulatory and research experience in HTGR licensing and safety since the early 1950's, ;

we conclude that the Commission can be ready to process in a timely manner a Construction Permit application based on DOE's projected subr.ittal of (

J a Preliminary Standard Safety Analysis Report in 1989. This readiness is contingent on satisfactory completion of the preapplication activities !

described in DOE's "Licensing Plan for the Standard HTGR." on resources as currently allocated for FY 86 NRR staffino and technical assistance, and on the availability of edequate NRC resources for FY 87 and beyond.

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Y. REFERENCES 1

1. Letter J. Vaughan, 00E, to W. Dircks, NRC, dated April 26, 1985, with enclosure "Licensing Plan for the Standard KTGR." HTGR 85-001 f (draft), dated January 1985.

2. Letter W. Dircks, NRC, to J. Vaughan, 00E, dated July 11, 1925.

3. Proposed Policy for Regulatiori of Advanced Nuclear Powe. Plants, 50FR11BB2, dated March 26, 1985.

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