ML20199B167
| ML20199B167 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Hope Creek  |
| Issue date: | 10/31/1997 |
| From: | Jaffe D NRC (Affiliation Not Assigned) |
| To: | Eliason L Public Service Enterprise Group |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20199B172 | List: |
| References | |
| IEB-96-003, IEB-96-3, TAC-M96150, NUDOCS 9711180235 | |
| Download: ML20199B167 (5) | |
Text
^
3 ec,y,g e
j L UNITED STATES)
N'
~
.C NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMIS800N I
J WASHINGTON, D.C. Spe0H001 k
f October 131, -199_7-1
' Mr.. Leon Eliason' Chief Nuclear Officer & President'-
Nuclear-Business Unit
- Public Service _ Electric & Gas o
iCompany-Post Office Box 236 Hancocks Bridge, NJ 108038 -
~
SUBJECT:
SAFETY EVALUATION FOR HOPE CREEK GENERATING STATION - NRC BULLETIN 96-03.(TAC N0. M96150)
Dear Mr. Eliason:
LBy letters dated November 4 C1996, and May 20, 1997, Public Service Ele ric' __
and Gas Company (the licensee) submitted their response to NRC Bulletir (NRCB) 96-03, " Potential Plugging of Emergency Core Cooling Suction Strainers by
' Debris in Boiling Water Reactors"-(NRCB 96-03), for Hope Creek Generating Station.
In a-NRC 970617 e-mail & During 970619 Telcon|letter dated July 18, 1997]],'the licensee submitted-a supplemental. response providing responses to NRC staff questions. The purpose of the May:20, 1997, submittal-was to provide the NRC staff with the methodology that the licensee intends to use for estimating the debris
-loadings on-their.new-emergency core cooling system-(ECCS) suction strainers.
j being-installed in response to NRCB 96-03.' The May 20, 1997, letter requested L
staff review and approval of the licensee's criteria. The enclosed Safety Evaluation (SE) provides the NRC staff's evaluation of the licensee's criteria for sizing their new suction strainers for the low pressure coolant injection
-(LPCI) and the low pressure core spray (CS) systems.
The licensee's May 20, 1997, letter was evaluated by the staff's contractor,
' Science and-Engineering Associates, Inc. (SEA), and SEA's findings are documented in' their Technical Evaluation Report (TER). SEA's TER is attached to the staff's SE.
The staff reviewed the licensee's submittals and SEA's TER, and agreed with.the contractor's findings.
Based on the staff's review of all-relevant information, including the licensee's responses to NRCB 96-03,
-the licensee's Updated Final Safety Analysis Report (UFSAR), and our contractor's report, the staff'has concluded that the licensee criteria for sizing the strainers based on potential-debris loadings is probably adequate
-to meet the intent of NRCB 96-03. However, the staff's conclusion is contingent on the licensee performing an analysis which demonstrates that the
'"non-credible" breaks which they initially screened out of their plant-s>ecific evaluation would not.be more limiting in terms of head loss across tie strainer than the breaks included in the -initial evaluation by the
~
licensee. ~The licensee committed to. performing this evaluation in their
_ response of July 18,-1997. The staff notes'that NRCB 96-03 was sent to g
-licensees'to ensure compliance with the'ECCS. rule, 10 CFR 50.46. This rule does not= provide guidance which allows screening out of "non-credible" breaks.
~
The rule states ~ that a-licensee must evaluate "a number of postulated loss-of-n coolant ~ accioents of different sizes, locations, and other properties sufficient to provide assurance that the most severe postulated loss-of-9711180235 971031 1
i e
PDR ADOCK 05000354 0
L. Eliason coolant accidents are calculated." The licensee's current analysis as described in their May 20, 1997, submittal may not be sufficient in scope to meet the intent of 10 CFR 50.46.
In addition, the licensee did not provide sufficient information to allow the staff to determine the adequacy of the strainer design to handle the calculated debris loadings. This is because the licensee did not provide the correlation or calculations for the head loss across the new strainer with the new debris loadings, the basis for the head loss correlation (test data and scaling analysis), and the resultant net positive suction head (NPSH) margin calculations with the new strainer installed. The staff cannot reach any conclusions regarding the adequacy of the strainer design without this information.
However, the staff believes that the new strainers will result in an improvement in NPSH margin due to the increase in strainer size, and the corresponding decrease in strainer pressure drop.
It is the staff's understanding that the licensee will install the new strainers under 10 CFR 50.59 without prior staff review. The staff will, therefore, review the adequacy of the strainer design during a post-implementation inspection.
In addition, the licensee indicated in its NRC 970617 e-mail & During 970619 Telcon|July 18, 1997, letter]] that they are taking credit for the fact that the strainer is not a solid object in their calculations for determining the hydrodynamic loads on the strainer.
This results in a change in how they calculate the drag forces on the strainer.
The licensee's submittal did not provide sufficient detail on how the licensee will calculate the hydrodynamic loads on the strainer. The information provided was an overview only, and contained no detailed calculations or test data. The staff has, therefore, made no evaluation in this area.
The staff will also evaluate the adequacy of the licensee's hydrodynamic loads analysis for the new strainer design during the staff's post-implementation inspection, in a subsequent letter to the NRC dated September 26, 1997, the licensee stated that, due to problems encountered in obtaining structural steel supports for the replacement 'ECCS suction strainers, the licensee is unable to complete installation of the replacement strainers during the current refueling outage. The licensee requested a deferral of implementation of NRCB 96-03 until Refuel Outage 8 (RF08), which is scheduled to commence in mid-February 1999.
The staff has previously discussed this situation with the licensee and an NRC inspector has verified the licensee's problems and that the licensee has made a best effort to install the strainers during RF07.
The staff finds the licensee's request acceptable. This is based on the licensee's efforts to meet the original schedule, and the licensee's compliance with other NRC bulletins on this subject (particularly Bulletin 93-02, Supplement 1, which provides interim steps such as augmented emergency procedures and additional water sources, and Bulletin 95-02, which provides for cleaning of the suppression pool and an effective foreign material exclusion program).
e L. Eliason October 3'i 1997 The staff expects the licensee to continue to make a best effort to innall as
~
many new strainers as possible during the current-refueling outage (RF07).
However, the staff concurs in the licensee's request to defer complete compliance with NRCB 96-03 unt:1 RF08.
Sincerely,
/s/
David H. Jaffe, Senior Project Manager Project Directorate I-2 Division of Reactor Projects - I/II Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-354
Enclosure:
Safety Evaluation cc w/ encl:
See next page DISTRIBUTION:
JLinville, RI
~ Docket File M0'Brien PUBLIC' DJaffe PID-2 rf OGC BBoger THarris (Email cy of SE)
OGC ACRS OFFICE PDI-2MMb PDlkf/LA9$ #BJ-2/D kSB NAME DJaffah NBrien Mb Ch\\ inner DATE lO/7D/97 10 /20/97
/0k//97
/0 /22/ 9 7 0FFICIAL RECORD COPY g
DOCUMENT NAME: HC96150.SE
~
~
L. Esiason The staff expects the licensee to continue to make a best effort to install as-many new strainers as-possible during the current refueling outage (RFO?).
However, the staff concurs in-the licensee's request to defer complete compliance with NRCB 96-03 until RF08.
I Sincerely, Isk N
David H. Jaffe, Senior Project Manager Project Directorate I-2 Division of Reactor Projects - I/II Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-354
Enclosure:
Safety Evaluation cc w/ encl:
See next page l
4 Mr. Leon R. Eliason Hope Creek Generating Station Public Service Electric & Gas Company cc:
Jeffrie J. Keenan, Esquire Manager - Joint Generation Nuclear Business Unit - N21 Atlantic Energy P.O. Box 236 6801 Black Horse Pike Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038 Egg Harbor Twp., NJ 08234-4130 Hope Creek Resident Inspector Riciard Hartung U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commiission Electric Service Evaluation Drawer 0509
- Board of Regulatory Commissioners Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038 2 Gateway Center, Tenth Floor Newark, NJ 07102 Mr. Louis Storz Sr. Vice President - Nuclear Operations Lower Alloways Creek Township Nuclear Department c/o Mary O. Henderson, Clerk P.O. Box 236 Municipal Building P.O. Box 157 Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038
- Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038 General Manager - Hope Creek Operations Mr. Elbert Simpson Hope Creek Generating Station Senior Vice President-P.O. Box 236 Nuclear Engineering Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038 Nuclear Department P.O. Box 236 Manager - Licensing and Regulation Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038 Nuclear Business Unit - N21-P.O. Box 236 Hancocks Bridge, NJ 08038 Regional Administrator, Region I U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 475 Allendale Road King of Prussia, PA 19406 Dr. Jill Lipoti, Asst. Director Radiation Protection Programs-NJ Department of Environmental Protection and Energy CN 415 Trenton, NJ 08625-0415 r
+*
m v
w w
..,_9-q
--