ML20195G991

Application for Amend to License DPR-57,changing Tech Specs to Allow Use of Two New Fuel Types,Ge GE8X8EB Fuel Design & Advanced Nuclear Fuels Lead Fuel Assemblies.Fee Paid

ML20195G991
Person / Time
Site:	Hatch
Issue date:	06/20/1988
From:	Hairston W GEORGIA POWER CO.
To:	NRC OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION & RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (ARM)
Shared Package
ML19292H967	List: ML20195G991 ML20195G998 ML20195H010
References
SL-4676, TAC-68688, NUDOCS 8806280195
Download: ML20195G991 (9)

Text

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Georgia Power Corrcany 333 Piedmont Avenue At:anta.Georgta 30308 Telmhone 404 526-6526 Post OH ce ox 545 Atlanta. Georg'a 30302 Georgia Power nui.., op r.iion. o,parim.nt w mggc s,e 2055C X7GJ17-H600 June 20, 1988 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ATTN: Document Control Desk Hashington, D.C. 20555 PLANT HATCH - UNIT 1 NRC DOCKET 50-321 OPERATING LICENSE DPR-57 REQUEST TO REVISE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

FUEL THERMAL LIMITS Gentlemen:

In accordance with the provisions of 10 CFR 50.90, as required by 10 CFR 50.59(c)(1), Georgia Power Company (GPC) hereby proposes a change to the Plant Hatch Unit 1 Technical Specifications, Appendix A to Operating License DPR-57.

The proposed change involves a revision to the Plant Hatch Unit 1 Technical Specifications _to allow the use of two new fuel types. The two fuel types are a General Electric GE8x8EB fuel design and Advanced Nuclear Fuels' (ANF) 9x9 Lead Fuel Assemblies (LFAs).

Specifically, the proposed Technical Specifications change will:

1. Add new Average Planar Linear Heat Generation Rate (APLHGR) limits for the GE8x8E8 fuel (BD296A) and the ANF 9x9 LFAs, and revise the Technical Specifications Bases section accordingly.

2. Add an LHGR limit for GE8x8EB fuel.

3. Revise the Minimum Critical Power Ratio (MCPR) and flow-dependent APLHGR limit multiplier (MAPFACp) figures to show their applicability to the new fuel types and to remove obsolete material from the Technical Specifications.

This change will allow GPC to (1), use a GE fuel type which has not previously been used at Plant Hatch and, (2), qualify the performance of up to four fuel assemblies from a new fuel vendor.

Enclosure 1 provides a detailed description of the pronosed change and the circu.tstances necessitating the change request. [

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GeorgiaPowerd U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission June 20, 1988 Page Two Enclosure 2 details the bases for our determination that the proposed change does not involve a significant hazards consideration.

Enclosure 3 provides page change instructions for incorporating the proposed change. The proposed changed Technical Specifications pages for Unit I follow Enclosure 3.

To support the proposed change, Enclosures 4 and 5 provide documents j for Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) review. Enclosure 4 is Advanced i l Nuclear Fuels Corporation report ANF-87-95, "Hatch 9x9 Lead Fuel '

l Assemblies Safety Analysis Report," Revision 3, March 1988. Enclosure 5 contains Errata and Addenda Sheets for previously-docketed General i Electric report "Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant Units 1 and 2 l SAFER /GESTR-LOCA Loss-of-Coolant Accident Analysis," NEDC-31376-P. The I t addenda sheets pertain to GE8x8EB fuel type BD296A.

Please note that some information in Enclosure 5 has been marked "Proprietary" to protect the commercial interest of the vendor. In accordance with 10 CFR 2.790, GPC previously docketed an affidavit requesting certain information in NEDC-31376-P be withheld from the public domain. (See GPC letter to USNRC, NRC dockets 50-321 and 50-366, "Request to Revise Technical Specifications: Fuel Thermal Limits and ECCS <

Surveillance Requirements," October 8, 1987.) That same affidavit applies tc' the proprietary information in Enclosure 5. j Paymint of the filing fee in the amount of one hundred and fifty dollars b enclosed. j To allow time for procedure revisions and orderly incorporation into copies (f the Technical Specifications, GPC requests the proposed amendment, once approved by the NRC, be issued with an effective date to be no later than 60 days from the date of issuance of the amendment.

Tht change described in Enclosure 'l is necessary to support' the refueling operations during the upcoming Unit 1 outage. The outage is currently scheduled to begin September 28, 1988.

In accordance with the requirements of 10 CFR 50.91, a copy of this letter and all applicable enclosures will be sent to Mr. J. L. Ledbetter of the Environmental Protection Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

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GeorgiaPower d U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission June 20, 1988 Page Three Mr. H. G. Hairston, III states that he is duly authorized to execute this oath on behalf of Georgia Power Company, and to the best of his knowledge and belief, the facts set forth in this letter and enclosures are true.

GEORGIA POWER COMPANY By: id, . Id wb.ut.

H. G. Hairston, III Senior Vice President Sworn to and subscribed before me this 20th day of June 1988.

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Nota'ry Public

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Enclosures:

1. Basis for Change Request.

2. 10 CFR 50.92 Evaluation.

3. Page Change Instructions.

4. "Hatch 9x9 Lead Fuel Assemblies Safety Analysis Report,"

ANF-87-95.

5. Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant Units 1 and 2 SAFER /GESTR-LOCA Loss of Coolant Accident Analysis," NEDC-31376-P, Errata and Addenda Sheets.

6. Filing Fee - $150.00.

c: Georgia Power Comoany Mr. J. T. Beckham, Jr., Vice President - Plant Hatch ,

Mr. L. T. Gucwa, Manager, Nuclear Safety and Licensing GO-NORMS U.S. Muclear Regulatory Commission. Washinoton. D.C.

Mr. L. P. Crocker, Licensing Project Manager - Hatch U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Region II Dr. J. N. Grace, Regional Administrator Mr. P. Holmes-Ray, Senior Resident Inspector - Hatch State of Georaia Mr. J. L. Ledbetter, Commissioner - Department of Natural Resources i

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Georgia Power A ENCLOSURE 1 PLANT HATCH - UNIT 1 NRC DOCKET 50-321 OPERATING LICENSE DPR-57 REQUEST TO REVISE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

FUEL THERMAL LIMITS BASIS FOR CHANGE RE00EST PROPOSED CHANGE This change is proposed to permit use of a General Electric GE8x6EB fuel type and Advanced Nuclear Fuels' (ANF) 9x9 Lead Fuel Assemblies (LFAs) in the Unit I reactor. Technical Specifications figures showing Average Planar Linear Heat Generation Rate (APLHGR) limits versus average planar exposure will be introduced for these new fuel types. The Bases section will be revised to include information about the new APLHGR limits. A new Linear Heat Generation Rate (LHGR) limit for the GE8x8EB fuel will be added to the Technical Specifications. The caption for the existing Minimum Critical Power Ratio (MCPR) operating limit for all 8x8 fuel will be revised, because that limit is applicable to the proposed 9x9 fuel.

Finally, fuel type labels and certain obsolete material will be removed from the flow-dependent APLHGR limit multiplier (MAPFAC F ) figure. This will indicate that the remaining material will be applicable to all fuel types, including the two proposed in this submittal.

Basis for Proposed Change i

The proposed APLHGR and LHGR limits for GE8x8EB fuel type BD296A were evaluated by GE using NRC-approved metnods documented in the "General Electric Standard Application for Reactor Fuel," NEDE-240ll-P-A-8 (GESTAR-II). Compliance with those limits will ensure that BD296A fuel meets specified acceptable fuel design limits in the Unit I reactor. All fuel safety design bases in the Plant Hatch Unit 1 Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) are met by GE8x8EB fuel.

The proposed BD296A APLHGR limits are given as a function of average planar exposure in Errata and Addenda Sheet 2 for the "Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant Units 1 and 2 SAFER /GESTR-LOCA Loss-of-Coolant Accident (LOCA) Analysis," NEDC-31376-P (Enclosure 5). The SAFER /GESTR-LOCA analysis demonstrated that the power level of GE8x8EB fuel types operating in the Unit I core will not be limited by LOCA considerations as long as approved LHGR limits are met. Therefore, the proposed APLHGR limits result solely from exposure-dependent fuel rod thermal limits, divided by bundle local peaking factors to yield average planar power limits.

2055C SL-4676 El-1 06/20/88 mm

t 9 GeorgiaPower A ENCLOSURE 1 (Continued)

REQUEST TO REVISE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

FUEL THERMAL LIMITS BASIS FOR CHANGE REOUEST

' Fuel type BD296A includes more than one lattice type, and each lattice type has a different exposure-dependent APLHGR limit. In accordance with the agreement between the USNRC and GE (Reference 1), the proposed APLHGR limits for BD296A fuel in the Technical Specifications will be those for the most limiting enriched lattice in that assembly. Those limits will be used for all axial locations whenever manual calculations are performed to verify compliance with the APLHGR limit. The APLHGR limits for other axial. zones of the proposed assembly will be apolied in the plant process computer to ensure the safety design bases for the entire fuel assembly will be met.

The proposed LHGR limit for the GE8x8EB fuel, in conjunction with the APLHGR limit proposed above, will ensure the specified acceptable fuel mechanical design limits given in GESTAR-II are met for that fuel type in Unit 1.

The existing Technical Specifications HCPR safety limits are valid for GE8x8EB fuel types according to GESTAR-II. The existing Technical Specifications HCPR operating limits are expected to conservatively bound the results of the Unit I reload transient analyses (to be performed with approved methods for all fuel types to be loaded) when each reload core is analyzed. Georgia Power Company will veri fy that the Technical 1 Specifications HCPR limits do, in fact, conservatively bound the analysis i results for each cycle, as required by 10 CFR 50.59. I 1

A revision to the existing MAPFACp figure (Figure 3.11-1, Sheet 8) is i proposed to indicate that the limits are applicable to all fuel types in  !

use at Plant Hatch, as well as the proposed GE8x8EB fuel and the 9x9 '

LFAs. Coefficients on Figure 3.11-1, Sheet 8 which refer to the older 7x7, 8x8, and 8x8R fuel types are deleted because these fuel types are no t longer in use at Plant Hatch. Therefore, to simpli fy the Technical l Specifications, all fuel type labels will be deleted from the MAPFACF l figure. The other off-rated MCPR and MAPLHGR multiplier curves remain I valid for all fuel in use at Plant Hatch and for the proposed new fuel; therefore, no change is needed for those figures.

l Since the 7X7 fuel type is no longer in use at Plant Hatch, references to this older fuel type are deleted in Specifications 3/4 11.B. 3/411.C.

and the corresponding Bases. Figures 3.11-2 and 3.11-5, which apply specifically to 7X7 fuel, are also deleted.  ;

1 2055C SL-4676 El-2 06/20/88 700775

GeorgiaPowerA ENCLOSURE 1 (Continued)

REQUEST TO REVISE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

FUEL THERMAL LIMITS BASIS FOR CHANGE REOUEST The mechanical and thermal-hydraulic aspects of GE8x8EB fuel were approved by the USNRC in the NRC Safety Evaluation Report for Amendment 10 to GESTAR-II. The nuclear design information for BD296A fuel is contained in Enclosure 5 of this submittal; this information will also be available to the reactor operator.

The 9x9 LFAs have been evaluated by ANF for use in the Plant Hatch reactors, and the results of their analysis are contained in Enclosure 4 of this submittal. (As part of Amendment 89 to the Unit 2 Technical Specifications, the USNRC approved the use of fuel with the same design proposed for Unit 1.) These fuel assemblies were designed to be neutronically similar to the GE B/P80RB284H fuel such that the existing APLHGR limit (when properly adjusted to account for the different number of rods) and MCPR thermal limits for B/P80RB284H fuel will be applicable to them as well. As stated in Enclosure 4, these objectives were conservatively met. In addition, the evaluations documented in Enclosure 4 demonstrate that the design bases discussed in the FSAR are met by these LFAs.

The two different axes on the 9x9 LFA APLHGR curve (Figure 3.11-1, Sheet 4) reflect the difference in the number of fueled rods between 8x8 and 9x9 fuel. The lef t axis (i.e., ordinate) is labeled "8x8 Planar Equivalent APLHGR Limit" to show the planar power equivalence between the GE B/P80RB284H fuel and the ANF 9x9 LFAs. Therefore, each point on the curve represents the same planar power in a fuel assembly regardless of the number of rods. The numbers on the proposed figure without parentheses are the APLHGR limits in kH/ft of fueled rod for the GE B/P80RB284H fuel, and those in parentheses are the corresponding APLHGR limits in kH/ft of fueled rod for the ANF 9x9 LFAs.

Georgia Power Company intends to load the 9x9 LFAs in core locations which are analyzed to have sufficient margin so that the LFAs are not expected to ba the limiting assemblies in the core on either a nodal or bundle power basis. This loading strategy is designed to prevent the hypothetical misorientation of the 9x9 LFAs from being the limiting critical power event.

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Georgia Power d ENCLOSURE 1 (Continued)

REQUEST TO REVISE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

FUEL THERHAL LIMITS BASIS FOR CHANGE RE00EST REFERENCES

1. Letter, A. C. Thadani (NRC) to J. S. Charnley (GE), "Acceptance for Referencing of Amendment 19 to General Electric Licensing Topical Report NEDE-24011-P-A (GESTAR-II), ' General Electric Standard Application for Reactor Fuel,' April 7, 1987," dated November 17, 1987.

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GeorgiaPower1 ENCLOSURE 2 PLANT HATCH - UNIT 1 NRC DOCKET 50-321 OPERATING LICENSE DPR-57 REQUEST TO REVISE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

FUEL THERHAL LIMITS 10 CFR 50.92 EVALUATION PROPOSED CHANGE This Technical Specifications amendment will add figures to define APLHGR limits versus average planar exposure for a GE8x8EB fuel type and 9x9 LFAs manufactured by ANF [ Figures 3.11-1 (Sheet 4) and 3.11-1 (Sheet 5)]. Information about the APLHGR limits for these fuel tynes will be added to the Bases section. The proposed change will also add to the Technical Specifications a LHGR limit for GE8x8EB fuel. The change will revise the fuel-type label on an existing MCPR operating limit figure and remove fuel labels on an existing flow-dependent APLHGR limit multiplier figure to show its applicability to all fuel types.

References to an older fuel type (7X7 design), which is no longer in use at Plant Hatch, will be deleted.

Basis for No Sionificant Hazards Consideration Determination The proposed change does not involve a significant hazards consideration for the following reasons:

1. Use of GE8x8EB fuel and ANF 9x9 LFAs does not involve a significant increase in the probability of an accident previously evaluated, because no significant changes in plant design or procedures will occur as a result of this change. Any future core designs made possible by the proposed change either have been or will be evaluated, using NRC-approved methods, and shown to meet the approved acceptance criteria for analysis of the limiting accidents previously evaluated. Therefore, the consecuences of an accident would not be significantly increased as a result of the use of the new fuel types.

2. The proposed change does not craate the possibility of a new or different kind of accident from any previously analyzed, because no change in plant design or operation is involved, except for relatively minor changes in the fuel design.

The GE and ANF fuel types proposed for use in Unit I have been generically reviewed and approved by the USNRC. The impact of the new fuel types has been evaluated against the relevant safety analyses on a generic and Plant Hatch-specific basis. In addition, 2055C SL-4676 E2-1 06/20/88

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GeorgiaPower d ENCLOSURE 2 (Continued)

REQUEST TO REVISE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

FUEL THERMAL LIMITS 10 CFR 50.92 EVALUATION I

the specific nuclear designs addressed by the proposed change are sufficiently similar to approved nuclear designs being used at other '

BHR-4 plants. The possibility of a new kind of accident is not created.

3. The proposed change does not involve a significant reduction in the margin of safety for the same reasons stated in Item 1 above.

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