ML20207S122
| ML20207S122 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Vogtle  |
| Issue date: | 03/12/1987 |
| From: | NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| To: | |
| References | |
| REF-10CFR9.7 NUDOCS 8703190010 | |
| Download: ML20207S122 (64) | |
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ORIGINAL O UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Discussion /Possible Vote on Full Power Operating License for Vogtle-1 (Public Meeting) i l OCation: Washington, D. C.
Date: Thursday, March 12, 1987
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Pages: 1 - 51 i
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?o0h0870312 PDR l
Ann Riley & Associates Court Reporters 1625 i Street, N.W., Suite 921 Washington, D.C. 20006 (202) 293-3950
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.' 1 D I SCLA I MER )
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5 6 This is an unofficial transcript of a meeting of the 7 United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission held on 8 3/12/87 .. In the Commission's office at 1717 H Street, 9 'i4.W., Washington, D.C. The meeting was open to public 10 attendance and observation. This transcript has not been 11 reviewed, corrected, or edited, and it may contain g 12 inaccuracies.
13 The transcript is intended solely for general 14 informational purposes.
As provided by 10 CFR 9.103, it is 15 not part of the formal or informal record of decision of the 16 matters discussed. Expressions of opinion in this transcript 17 do not necessarily reflect final determination or beliefs. No 18 pleading or other paper may be filed with the Commission in 19 any proceeding as the result of or addressed to any statement 20 or argument contained herein, except as the Commission may 21 authorize.
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-1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
'A , 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 -------
4 Public Meeting 5 -------
6 Discussion /Possible Vote on Full Power Operating 7 License for Vogtle-1 8 -------
9 1717 H Street, N.W.
10 Room 1130 11 Washington, D.C.
12 Thursday, March 12, 1987
-s 13 14 The commission met, pursuant to notice, at 2:00 15 p.m., the Honorable Lando W. Zech, Jr., Chairman of the 16 Co'c..ission, presiding.
17 18 COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:
19 Lando W. Zech, Jr., Chairman 20 James K. Asselstine, Commissioner 21 Thomac M. Roberts, Commissioner 22 Kenneth M. Carr, Commissioner 23 24 25
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'a 2 1 STAFF AND PRESENTERS SEATED AT TABLE:
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(~I 2 G. Bockhold, Georgia Power Company 3 R. Scherer, Georgia Power Company 4 J. Miller, Jr., Georgia Power Company i
5 S. Chilk, SECY 6 W. Parler, OGC 7 S. Crockett, OGC 8 F. Miraglia, NRR 9 T. Novak, NRR ,
10 M. Miller, NRR 11 M. Ernst, Region II 12 L. Reyes, Region II 13 AUDIENC3 SPEAKERS:
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14 J. Rogge 15 F. Stacey 7
16 J. Schlecht 17 18 19 j 20 J
21 22 23 24 )
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. . 3 1 PROCEEDINGS A
'2 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Good afternoon, ladies and
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3 gentlemen.
4 The purpose of today's meeting is for the Commission 5 to conduct its immediate full power effectiveness review of 6 the Vogtle Unit No. 1 plant, and possibly to vote to authorize 7 the Director of NRR, after making the appropriate findings,'to 8 issue a full power operating license for the Vogtle facility.
9 I should say that Commissioner Bernthal is on 10 foreign travel, and will not be with us today. !
11' The Commission will be briefed by Georgia Power 12 Company and the NRC Staff. During the presentations, I would 3 13 like the Georgia Power Company to specifically address the
,s 4 14 results of initial critical plant operations.
15 In addition, I would like the NRC Staff, with inputs i
16 from the Region and the NRC Senior Resident Inspector as' 17 appropriate, to provide any observations they deem appropriate 18 for the effectiveness review concerning the issues of a full 19 power license for Vogtle Unit No. 1. ;
20 I understand that copies of slides to be used during 21 the briefing are available at the back of the room.
22 Do any of my fellow Commissioners have any opening
< 23 remarks before we proceed?
r 24 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: No.
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' (_) 25 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Mr. Scherer, you may proceed with
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.- 4 1 Georgia Power Company's presentation. Welcome.
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't ) 2 MR. SCHERER: Thank you, sir. It is a pleasure 3 being here. I am Bob Scherer, and I am chairman of the Board 4 and Chief Executive Officer of Georgia Power Company.
5- I have been associated Georgia Power's nuclear 6 programs for approximately 18 years. Before I introduce the 7 principal speakers at the table representing Georgia Power 8 Company, I would like to recognize our partners. Representing 9 Oglethorpe Power company is Bud Stacey, President and Chief 10 Executive Officer. If they might stand to be recognized.
11 Representing Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia
, 12 is John Schlecht, Vice President of Engineering and 13 Participant Services.
14 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Thank you.
15 MR. SCHERER: To my immediate right is Jim Miller, 16 president of Georgia Power Company. He is also the former l 17 Chairman and founding member of the Nuclear Utility Management 18 and Resources Committee, NUMARC.
19 And on my left is George Bockhold, General Manager 20 of the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant. He is a former 21 nuclear qualified submarine officer, and a former senior 22 reactor operator at Consolidated Edison's Indian Point site, 23 and a former corporate officer of General Physics Corporation, 24 involved directly in nuclear-related activities. George has 25 been with Georgia Power since July 1981, and he became plant
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. 5 1 manager in early 1984.
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j 2 Other executives and senior managers from Georgia 3 Power Company attending are -- and I would like for them to s
4 stand also -- Grady Baker, who is Senior Executive Vice 5 President; Elmer Harris, Senior Executive Vice President; Dick 6 Conway, Senior Vice President, Nuclear Power; Tom Beckham, 7 Vice President, Nuclear Operations, Plant Hatch; Paul Rice, 8 Vice President and Vogtle Project Director; Ruble Thomas,
- 9 Executive Consultant, retired Vice President for Nuclear 10 Licensing for Georgia Power and Southern Company Services.
11 First, let me describe the corporate structure and 12 plant ownership as it relates to Vogtle. As you know, Georgia 4
.- 13 Power is an investor-owned electric utility serving 57,000 of
, 14 the state's 59,000 square miles.
i 15 The Southern Company is the parent firm for Georgia 16 Power, as well as Alabama Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power 17 Company. These companies, together with certain service and l 18 special purpose subsidiaries, comprise the Southern electric
- 19 system, one of the largest such systems in the nation. South 20 Company Services, Incorporated is the engineering arm of 21 Southern Company. It has served as the architectural-engineer 22 for many important aspects of plant design at plants Hatch, l
23 Farley and at Vogtle.
24 Georgia Power is the operator of the plant. Georgia l ,
f 25 Power has over 12 years experience with operating reactors.
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. 6 1 We operate generating capacity of about 16 million kilowatts,
( 2 of which approximately 2.8 million is nuclear, including 3 Vogtle Unit No. 1.
4 Let's discuss the total makeup of plant Vogtle's 5 ownership. Georgia Power is the constructor, operator and 6 owns 47.5 percent -- 45.7 percent, let me correct that.
7 Oglethorpe Power Corporation owns 30 percent; the 8 Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia owns 22.7 percent; and 9 the City of Dalton owns 1.6 percent.
10 Georgia Power has a well defined corporate 11- philosophy for the construction and operation of nuclear 12 generating plants. Safety is first priority. It receives my
, . - ~1 13 close attention. Plant Hatch has the best industrial safety
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14 record in the nuclear industry, well over 8 million manhours 15 without a lost work day accident.
16 Vogtle operations now has more than 1.5 million 17 manhours, without a lost work day accident.
18 Plants are conservatively designed, using proven 19 methods to build in safety. Plants are removed from service 20 by the authority of the on-shift personnel when safe 21 operations is in question.
22 Georgia Power is candid and open with the Nuclear 23 Regulatory Commission Staff. Georgia Power believes involved 24 senior management is important to success. There are frequent
) 25 site visits by myself, Jim Miller, and other senior officers
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. 7 1 to our nuclear plants. Both Jim Miller and I are cleared for Q
s 3 2 unescorted access at both Hatch and Vogtle, as are many of our 4
3 senior officers.
4 There is a Nuclear Operations overview Committee.
[ 5 This is a committee of Georgia Power Company Board of 6 Directors that meets every six months at either plant Hatch or 1
7 at plant Vogtle. There is a Vogtle project board. It directs 8 project activities which are related to construction and 9 preparation for operation. The board is composed of senior i
10 management from Georgia Power and Southern Company Services.
! 11 Senior management from Vogtle co-owners and from Westinghouse i
12 and Bechtel are also represented.
l, "S 13 The board meets bi-monthly, generally at the site.
.i 14 There is also a nuclear operations management overview board.
15 This senior group of Georgia Power officers reviews operations 16 at Plants Hatch and Vogtle. The board meets periodically, j 17 approximately every two months.
! 18 There are several quality engineering and 19 construction programs, of which we are particularly proud.
20 Readiness review. This is an innovative, in-depth i 21 self-assessment by Georgia Power of the plant's design,
- 22 construction and operational readiness. This program
, 23 represents.an extensive self-initiated review of 24 implementation of licensing commitments. We recognize the
() 25 additional efforts of the NRC Staff in review of the results
.- 8 1- from this program.
( ) 2 Georgia Power Company plans to conduct an extension 3 of this program to provide further assurance of the proper 4 implementation of Unit 2 commitments.
5 Under-quality concerns program, this program was 6 established in December of 1983, making Georgia Power one of 7 the first in the industry in establishing this type of 4
8 program. It provides employees an opportunity to l 9 confidentially or anonymously identify and have resulted in 10 concerns related to quality and safety. The quality concerns 11 program has proven to be a valuable supplement to a 12 traditional quality program.
y 13 Personnel reliability. Our fitness for duty program
, i 14 includes several components, all of which have been well 15 implemented. Psychological, background and character, and 16 physical. Georgia Power nas one of the strongest anti-drug i
17 and anti-alcohol policies in the industry. This program, 18 which receives close management oversight, is being 19 implemented with fairness, consistency and high standards.
20 Georgia Power's relationship with local communities
! 21 plays a key role in the company's conduct of operations. For t
22 example, there has been excellent cooperation from federal, 23 s. tate and local government agencies in emergency planning, 24 which resulted in a very successful, full scale emergency g
,' 25 exercise last May. The cooperation that we have received from i
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9 1 both Georgia and South carolina officials, as well as from the 2 four county governments, has been first rate. The company
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3 tries very hard to be a good neighbor in the communities that 4 surround Georgia Power's generating facilities.
We believe we have been successful.
5 We take great 6 pride in our relationship with state and local officials.
7 In closing, I want to make a simple but a vital 8 statement. We commit to you and to the public that we will 9 utilize our resources to assur'2 the safe operation of plant 10 Vogtle. The company is ready to proceed implementing the 11 NRC-approved testing program towards full power operation.
12 Now I would like to call on Jim Miller to discuss
-. 13 the personnel who will operate the plant.
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'x: i 14 MR. MILLER: Thank you, Bob.
- 15 We believe we have built an organization of highly
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16 qualified personnel to maintain and operate plant Vogtle 17 safely, reliably and efficiently. Early in the development of 18 the project, we involved nuclear operations personnel in the 19 design and testing processes.
20 We began assigning a nuclear operations staff 21 dedicated to the Vogtle Project as early as 1977. Throughout 22 the forming of our Vogtle staff, we hired personnel we felt 3 23 were well suited to the coming task of operation. We have i
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24 been fortunate to have attracted a high percentage of 3
l'_) 25 operators with four-year degrees. This is an area which
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, 10 1 George Bockhold will discuss in more detail. I trs (j) 2 We integrated the nuclear operations personnel into 3 construction phase testing, acceptance and maintenance 4 functions. One step we took to create a well trained work 5 force was to build a control room simulator early on during 6 the project to allow us to conduct operator training and
, 7 procedure verification in tandem with construction of plant 8 Vogtle.
, 9 Many of our plant operating personnel have
! 10 considerable start-up or hot operating experience at other 11 nuclear power plants. Several of our personnel were also able 12 to become licensed senior reactor operators while training at
-ng 13 nuclear units at Alabama Power Company's plant Farley, and in k11 14 South Carolina Electric & Gas. Company's plant Summer. They 15 were able to receive valuable on-shift experience.
16 In addition to the nuclear operator training in 17 these areas, we have an on-site technical college degree 18 program available for the operators. As a result, we believe i
19 we have an experienced capable operating staff.
20 One of the important aspects of the implementation i
21 of the Vogtle start-up program is the use of our experiences 22 and the experiences of the nuclear industry, including the 23 recent AEOD report on NTOL plants into our program.
l 24 The result has ingrained in us a philosophy of s ,
1 25 moving into the operation of our plant in a careful and l
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11 1 deliberate manner. We have provided positive feedback
- b) 2 concerning industry operating experiences to the staff in 3 training classes and in the plant.
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4 We have disseminated information to the appropriate 5 departments, supervisors and operators.
6 We have identified personnel to develop and provide 7 expertise in many areas in which significant problems have 8 occurred in the nuclear industry.
9 Our corporate nuclear operations staff has made 10 assessments of this program and enhancements have been
- 11 implemented because of that assessment.
12 I will reassert Georgia Power's commitment to safety i
- -g 13 and quality operating practices. We undertook the Vogtle
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14 project, recognizing lthat quality construction and a quality 15 staff are critical for a successful operating plant. The 16 personnel issues, of which I have just spoken, will help us 17 achieve that goal, t 18 MR. BOCKHOLD: I will expand on Mr. Millar's 19 discussion about the education, training and experience 20 especially of our operating personnel. I will talk about the 21 preoperational test, its success, and our start-up, including i
22 special problems and their resolution.
23 I will give you the current status of the plant, 24 including criticality, and the need for a full power license.
s.
(_) 25 Before I do that, I'd like to talk about the fact
, 12 1 that Georgia Power and its nuclear operations organization is
) 2 different than most utilities, and that we are responsible for 3 the preoperational test, we are the managers of that testing.
4 Our mechanics, our electricians, are involved in the hands-on 5 component tencing.
6 That gives us a special strength as we go into 7 operation, because those people had experienced the start-up 8 testing, and therefore bring that experience for the continued
- 9 normal operation and maintenance of the plant.
10 Next slide.
11 (Slide.]
12 I would now like to look at the degrees of our 13 program. I think we are unique in that we have a larger 14 number of degreed people than most utilities; specifically 15 operations, you see there, has four graduate degrees and 43 16 four-year degrees. I will expand on that more in a few 17 minutes, i
l 18 Pick out another couple of examples. Engineering, 19 with 15 graduate degrees, and 89 four-year degrees.
l i 20 Another example is health physics, with eight and i 21 16.
j 22 Bill, next slide.
23 (Slide.)
24 I'd like to go in some detail in the operators --
25 the operation department's qualifications. We have four 1
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13 l 1 people in operations management. Three have been previously l 2 licensed at similar pressurized water reactors. All four hold 3 Bachelor of Science or Master's degrees in engineering or 4 related sciences.
5 Our next item are operations supervisors and shift 6 supervisors. The senior people on shift, we have 32 of them.
7 10 previously have been licensed at pressurized water 8 reactors; four previously at boiling water reactors or Plant 9 Hatch; 21 hold Bachelor of Science degrees in engineering or 10 related science.
11 Our shift technical advisors, 11 of them, all of 12 them are degreed. Three have previous experience in boiling 13 water reactors and two in pressurized water reactors.
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14 our reactor operators, 41 of them, one previously
! 15 licensed at a BWR, Plant Hatch. All 41 have participated at 16 hot operating pressurized water reactors.
17 Bill, next slide, please.
18 [ Slide.]
19 This slide shows the examination results of those 20 licensed people. We've had two groups to date. We candidly 21 admit that we were disappointed with the first group's
[ 22 results. We set up 29 people and only 13 passed.
l 23 We identified the weakness in our first group, 24 specifically associated with the quality of the material that i 25 we sent the NRC Staff to prepara the exam. We needed to s.-
14 1 improve that, and we did.- We hired an independent auditor to r~% -
U j 2 assure that our audit examinations prior to the NRC exam were 3 at the appropriate level, and we strengthened our classroom 4 training.
i 5 our failures on the first exam were primarily 6 associated with the written exam; 11 of the 16 people that i 7 failed, failed the written. We strengthened those araas, and 8 really in Group 2, we had much better results, commendable 9 results. Of the 33 people we set up, 29 passed, an 88 10 percent pass rate.
i 11 We currently have 41 licensed operators at the 12 plant.
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, ,3 13 Bill, next slide, please.
(J 14 [ Slide.]
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15 This shows the background and experience of our 16 current licensed people at the plant. 26 of them are senior
- 17 reactor operators; 21 with Bachelor of Science and engineering 18 degrees; four with other technical degrees; nine have been l
19 previously licensed.
20 Our Ros, 15 of them, seven with BS degrees, four
! 21 with at least two years of college education.
- 22 As Mr. Miller said, we currently have a four-year 23 college degree program in place. We have 15 people enrolled l 24 in the program. About 50 percent are operators at this time.
I 25 Bill, next sli(a l
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.1 (Slide.]. i 6%,., 2 To strengthen our overall program both in startup l 1
3 and the training of our people, we procured a simulator very 4 early. It was delivered and operational in February of 1982.
5 We currently have over 13,000 hours0 days <br />0 hours <br />0 weeks <br />0 months <br /> of use on that machine.
6 We were required to make major modifications to the 7 machine to keep it current with the plant, and we did that.
8 We modified the control board and almost took out every '
9 indicator and moved them around to comply with the plant's 10 design. We added an emergency response facility, an ERF 11 computer and safety parameter display, SPDS, addition to the 12 simulator. We added a RVLIS, reactor vessel level indication 13 system, to our simulator.
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l 14 We are currently involved with EPRI on a simulator 15 qualification project to reverify that our models meet the 16 best industry-predicted transients, and we do have future 17 plans for upgrade of the simulator.
18 Bill, next slide.
19 [ Slide.]
- 20 We believe that the preoperational tests have been 21 a very effective, safe program. The NRC Staff has recognized '
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- 22 that by giving us a SALP 1 in this area.
23 The investment in our people early on really paid i 24 off in making that an effective program. Part of an effective m
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) 25 program is resolution of the problems that you have. This i
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16 1 slide shows you some of the problems that we experienced l
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2 during the preoperational program, and even currently, l
3 partially into the startup program. I would like to quickly 4 cover some of those problems.
5 ESFAST stands for engineering safety feature 6 actuation system test. It was scheduled for the middle of 7 November of '86. It was scheduled for one week. It took us 8 one month to complete that test. The reason it took us that 9 extra time is that we had a sequencer timing problem which 10 locked out some of the breakers that were supposed to sequence 11 automatically on during an ESFAST actuation. We corrected 12 that problem.
7 -m., 13 We had an engineering safety feature chiller that
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14 fell. We had to replace it. It was a very large chiller, and 15 we brought one over from Unit-2 and replaced it in a timely 4
16 fashion.
17 Some of the slave relays that actuate valves had a 18 problem with the large solenoid valves that we had, and the 19 inductive kick caused some failure there. We had to modify 20 the circuitry, add diodes basically to correct that problem, 21 and we corrected that problem.
22 PERM stands for our process and effluent radiation 23 monitoring system. The idea of the system is to have all of 24 the monitors, 67 of them, integrated with a digital computer 25 and clearly displayed for the chemist, the health physicist,
17 1 and the operator to get good radiological information about 9
2 the plant. It is, though, the first of this type of system 3 operational. It's a Westinghouse system. But since it's the 4 first of a kind, it had some unigue problems.
5 We also ended up testing it late, because, as in 6 most projects, the wire and cable were the last elements to go 7 into the plant. We had some Three Mile Island changes to put 8 on this system. So the calibrations had been done last, but 9 they have been successful, and really the system is fully 10 operational now to support our physics testing.
11 The piping penetration exhaust system, HVAC, this 12 particular system was a problem to us. It's in the auxiliary m 13 building, has 77 rooms, has HEPA and carbon filters. It was
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14 hard to balance because we did not have any balance dampers in t
15 there, and we had to basically put flow orifices into l
l 16 correctly balance the system, get the required negative l
i 17 pressure, and complete the chemical testing on the HEPA and 18 carbon filters.
19 Again, that has been completed; it does support 20 low-power physics testing. We did resolve those problems.
21 Finally, the licensed operator examination results, 22 and I've already talked about those.
23 Really, effective resolution of problems throughout 24 our preoperational test program has made our preoperational 25 test program very successful, and I think that's evidenced by 1
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18 1 our SALP 1 rating.
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i 2 The next slide, Bill.
3 (Slide.]
4 Currently, we are in the power ascension testing 5 phase. We have four major phases that we go through: fuel 6 load, precritical test sequence, initial criticality, and 7 power ascension testing.
8 We completed fuel loading in approximately two 9 weeks, on the 29th of January. We have completed the 10 precritical test sequence, again approximately five weeks 11 for that particular sequence, and there we heated the plant up 12 and did the thermal growth and vibration measurements and the f3 13 required testing there.
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14 Last Monday, we went critical for the first time, 15 and today we are in physics testing. We expect to go above --
16 be ready to go above 5 percent power on early Monday, this 17 coming Monday. So there is a need for us to have a full-power 18 license.
19 Then after that, we will do the plateau testing --
20 30, 50, 75, 90, and 100 percent testing, to finish the test 21 program in the middle of May.
22 Bill, the last slide, please.
23 (Slide.)
l 24 In summary, I would like to say that George Power is s ) 25 having its people -- its staffing of its permanent people l
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19 1 early, having the operations people that manage the long-term.
,. m 2 operations and maintenance of the' plant, manage the test 3 program, has made our test program very effective --
4 involvement in the management, involvement in the testing, the 5 hands-on testing, gaining from startup experience of others.
6 All that yields effective problem resolution and, 7 therefore, safe, effective quality start.
8 Thank you, sir.
9 MR. MILLER: Mr. Chairman, does that respond to the 10 statement about plant operations since --
4 11 CEAIRMAN ZECH: Well, I was going to ask you to 12 expand just a little bit on that. I know you haven't had a
- g 13 lot of critical operations, but could you expand just a little
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14 bit? How have things gcne?
15 pGt. BOCKHOLD: We went critical on Monday at 8:37 in 16 the morning. We raised the power to just below the 17 intermediate range. We did have a problem with an 18 intermediate range detector, and we have changed that detector 19 out, and currently we are in physics testing, which involves 20 boron end-point and rod worth and moderated temperature 21 coefficient and those types of tests.
22 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Is that the only problem you've had J
23 so far?
24 MR. BOCKHOLD: Yes, sir.
25 CHAIRMAN ZECH: All right. Thank you.
20 1 Other questions from my fellow Commissioners?
O l 2 Commissioner Roberts?
3 COMMISSIONER ROBERTS: This is silly. What's the 4 origin of the name of the plant?
5- MR. SCHERER: It's Mr. Alvin Vogtle, who was -- who 6 is the former President of the Southern Company.
7 COMMISSIONER ROBERTS: Okay. I don't have any 8 questions.
9 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Commissioner Asselstine?
10 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Just a couple. Since I 11 was just down at the plant last week, you covered most of my 12 questions down there, but let me just go through a couple of
- g 13 them here.
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14 You have had remarkable success in having degreed 15 people as your licensed operators, particularly your senior l 16 reactor operators. You have 25 out of the 26 individuals with u l
17 degrees.
18 This is an area where many companies seem to have a 19 great deal of difficulty, and I would be interested in hearing 20 your insights on why you think you've been successful in being 21 able to attract and retain people with degrees, particularly 22 with' engineering degrees, to serve as your licensed operators, 23 your shift supervisors, and whether you see a benefit in 24 having those individuals and what benefit you see in having 25 people with degrees or at least with extensive engineering 1
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21 1 training in those positions.
j 2 MR. BOCKHOLD: To answer that question, I'd like to J
3 start back -- fairly early on in the Vogtle project, 4 Mr. Miller had really the class of 100, what it's called at 5 the plant. He hired 100 engineers to start up Plant Vogtle.
6 As those engineers gained startup experience -- and we sent 7 them out to get startup experience at other units -- a number 8 of them saw a great opportunity in becoming licensed i 9 operators. So we ended up with a large number of degreed 10 people that way, and we further, as we indicated, sent several 11 off to Farley and V.C. Summer to get licensed there and gain 12 that experience.
13 So our class of 100 has -- not all of them went that 14 way; a number of them went the test supervisor way -- but 15 those people were really interested in the plant and 16 interested in the area, and I think that's why we attracted a 17 large number, and they currently are on shift, doing real i
18 well, and we expect to retain them by keeping their job 19 interesting, by having enough people such that rotation is 20 available to them and also by adequately compensating them in 21 salary.
22 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: In your presentation, you 23 talked about the readiness review program. Mr. Scherer, I 24 think you did in particular, and indicated that you'd like to l 25 continue at least a modified program for Unit-2.
22 1 I'd be interested in hearing a bit more about the
,3 2 benefits that you see to the readiness review program and how 3 the process has worked, the things that you think you've 4 gained from it and perhaps the things that you think we may 5 have gained from that program as well.
6 MR. SCHERER: Mr. Commissioner, I think first-of all 7 -- let me say that I know it required a lot of our resources.
8 I'm also quite aware that it required a lot of the resources 9 of this Commission, and we thank you for that.
10 We think that it identified early on some problems i 11 which might have occurred, which we would probably have found 12 -- I'm sure we would have -- but we may have found them a lot
,- 13 later than what we did, and as a result of that, I think our
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l 14 licensing process and the physical completion of the plant was 15 better ensured, and the documentation thereof was enhanced.
1 l 16 So all of those things considered and viewing the 17 enormity of the investment, speaking now as a businear.ian, I 18 think it was absolutely essential and critical, and I'm just 19 delighted that we did it.
20 I think the lesson that we may have learned is that 21 if, in this industry, we ever develop a one-stop licensing 22 process, that this may be the avenue by which we could close 23 the loop to ensure that not only do we have a license for 24 construction and operations, but an assurance that what was 25 promised was, in fact, done.
23 1 And again, I think we've learned an awful lot, and 3
J 2 that's the reason we're going to continue it as far as Unit-2 3 is concerned, and I hope that the Commission itself has.
4 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: My last question has to do 5 with Hatch and Vogtle and the impact on your system. Hatch is 6 a plant where we've had some concerns from time to time, and I 7 think you all have as well, both in maintenance and the 8 operations areas.
9 I'd be interested in hearing just a bit about your 10 current perception of the situation at Hatch and also your 11 basis for assurance that as you add Vogtle to your system, 12 starting off with a new plant of a different design, that 4
,- 13 you'll be able to handle the challenges of that effort and
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14 still keep pace with'your efforts to continue to improve the
- 15 operations at Hatch as well.
16 MR. SCHERER: Let me ask Mr. Miller if he would l 17 respond to that.
l 18 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Great.
19 MR. MILLER: I think I'll start by talking at a i
20 little higher level than the plant, if that's all right. I 21 think I'll start by telling you that Georgia Power Company and 22 its partners are totally committed to assuring and continuing 23 safety of the operation of Plant Hatch and improving its 24 performance, as well as Plant Vogtle.
', .) 25 Over the last couple of years, we've made some
24 1 substantial changes at Plant Hatch, and one of those is, we've n
( ,
) 2 put Tom Beck down there. He's Vice President in charge of 3 Plant Hatch. In the general office, we've established a 4 Senior Vice President position, and we've brought in a 5 competent man to run that. He's done a good job for us, and 6 we've authorized the expahsion of and he has expanded that 7 corporate staff pretty broadly. I think we have now somewhere 8 over 100 people in the corporate office.
9 He's also refined the responsibilities and positions 10 on site at both Hatch, and we've put that at Plant Vogtle.
, 11 George is the overall umbrella guy, and he has 12 reporting to him a man in charge of operations, operations and 2
s, 13 maintenance that are required.for the safe day-to-day reliable
. ')
, 14 operation of that plant.
15 Then he has a staff man, Mike Bellamy. You all met 16 him, those of you who were down there recently, who is an 2 l
- 17 experienced man and at one time was at Hatch, as I recall, 18 before he came down to take care of the support activities and 19 also planning and things of that sort.
l 20 We've also brought into the corporate staff and into l 21 the site people with different backgrounds other than Georgia
! 22 Power Company. We went out into the industry and hired some i
j 23 talent and brought it in there, and as a result, I think we've
! 24 seen strides at Plant Hatch.
l ~
j s ) 25 For example, the fire protection audit, Appendix R, i
l
25 1 I'm told went very well. The equipment qualification audit
,y
- 2 which is pretty extensive, as you know, it's reported to have 3 gone very well.
4 We recently received our SALP report for the period 5 ending December 31st of last year, and we got a 1 in the 6 training, with which we'd had some difficulties. We got a 2 7 in maintenance, with which we'd had some difficulties.
8 We have reassigned a new maintenance manager down -
9 there. We think -- well, we think all of the signs point in 10 the right direction. It's taken us a pretty distance to get
, 11 that way, and the plant is running very well and has been
) 12 running very well this year, and Tom tells me we're going to
, . ~3 13 have a great year.
14 Did I answer all of your question?
15 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Yes, thank you.
16 MR. SCHERER: May I add one other thing, too, which 17 is that we are doing our very dead-level best at senior l 18 management to inculcate a culture, which is that we're going
20 MR. MILLER: I think it's also important to note 21 that we've been on a backfit program at Hatch, from the TMI 22 and Browns Ferry incidents, for many years and Appendix R, and
! 23 we've about gotten that under our belt. Now something else j 24 may come up, but those things have been trying to us. There's i
s 25 no question about that, and hopefully they'll settle down now.
t
26 1 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Could you come a little closer to s
2 the microphone, please? Thank you.
3 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: That's all the questions I 4 have.
5 ,
CHAIRMAN ZECH: All right, thank you.
6 Mr. Carr?
7 COMMISSIONER CARR: I have none.
8 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Well, I had a chance to visit the 9 plant not too long ago, too, and again, I would like to 10 emphasize the importance of your readiness review program. I 11 think it has served you well. It has been a large investment, 12 but I think in keeping that program and putting emphasis and
'S 13 the priority on it has certainly contributed to an orderly i; j' 14 construction program, and hopefully it will contribute to 15 safety of operations as you proceed in that direction. f 16 Your quality concerns program also, I thought, was 17 an excellent program, as was the drug and alcohol program 18 which you mentioned recently.
19 Your college degree program, an excellent program.
20 All of those programs that you've emphasized are people 21 programs, I call them, are, I think, a recognition that you're 22 taking that people really are the primary contributor to 23 reliable and safe operations.
24 Your college degree program is impressive, and it's 1_ ' 25 rather unique. I think it will be interesting for those of us
27 1 on the Commission to follow your operational experience, as
.s 2 you gain some, and to see if that program can be equated in 3 any way to improve performance.
4 I think your commitment to training, your early 5 purchase of a simulator and the many hours you've had on the 6 simulator, is perhaps unusual in some other facilities, too.
7 So I think those commitments to training and 8 education, the people programs, have obviously served you very 9 well to date. The only thing is now, of course, you'll have 10 to -- you'll have to continue to give those programs emphasis, 11 in my judgment, and continue to take a cautious, safe, and 12 careful approach to all forms of operation -- attention to 13
%J
-) detail, procedures, following procedures, formality, 14 discipline -- all those things are hopefully the fallout of 15 what appears to be a rather formally structured and I
16 people-oriented approach, and I hope those are the things that 17 are going to follow on and inspire you to continus your 18 obvious dedication to quality and to excellence.
19 Those are the things that, in my judgment, 20 contribute to safe operations, and I certainly commend you for 21 your emphasis on the people programs.
22 If there are no further questions, I think we can 23 call the staff up, and we thank you very much.
24 MR. BOCKHOLD: Thank you, sir.
, ) 25 MR. SCHERER: Thank you.
- - - - - - -. - , , . _ _ _ - . - . . _ _- ._-_...._-,,._,y,,._-.m. ~ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - . _ _ - - , . _ _ - _ - - _ _ _ _ , _ _ _ _ _ - . , .
28 1 CHAIRMAN EECH: Mr. Miraglia, are you going to start
,'.- 2 off?
3 MR. MIRAGLIA: Yes, sir.
4 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Please proceed.
5 MR. MIRAGLIA: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
,' 6 The Staff is here to brief you on the readiness of j 7 the Vogtle plant to receive a full-power license. The utility j a received a low-power license in January, and as you were just l 9 told, achieved initial criticality this week.
j 10 The key briefers this afternoon will be Tom Novak, j
j 11 the Division Director for PWR Licensing, and Miss Melanie i i j 12 Miller, the Project Manager for Plant Vogtle, on my far 1
l 3 7 13 right. Also here is Mal Ernst, Deputy Director for Region II, j ij (
14 and Mr. Luis Reyes, the Division Director for Reactor Projects 15 at Region II.
l t i l 16 I'll turn the presentation over to Mr. Novak. '
I i
. 17 CHAIRMAN ZECH: All right, thank you. Please ?
la proceed.
1 1
19 MR. NOVAK Thank you. ;
1 !
l 20 We will make our presentation brief, sir, and we l
i j 21 will not cover anything that you've heard already. ;
22 Very briefly, the Vogtle plant is similar in many i l 23 ways to the SNUPPS class of plants, a design similar to --
f 24 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Would you stand -- get a little f j (~ ) 25 closer to your microphone, please, so that our reporter -- are A-- --- _ .
29 1 you all right over there now?
q i 2 MR. NOVAK: It's similar in many ways to the ,
3 Callaway --
4 CHAIRMAN ZECH: If all of you would do that, please, 5 I'd appreciate it. Thank you. Go ahead.
6 MR. NOVAK: And Wolf Creek configuration.
7 Melanie Miller is the License Project Manager. She 8 has performed in that duty since the filing of the application 9 for an operating license in 1983, and I will let her go 1
10 forward with the remaining part of our presentation.
l 11 CHAIRMAN ZECH: All right. Thank you.
12 MS. MILLER: Thank you, Tom.
-- 13 Good afternoon. The NRC presentation today will
(". )
14 cover some brief basic information about Vogtle, including 15 general background.
l 16 Could we have the slide, please? i 17 (Slide.)
18 Including some general background information and i
19 site and plan information as well.
i i
20 I'm also going to talk about some main points in the 21 license itself and tall briefly about shift staffing, since 22 the Applicant has already covered the bulk of that.
23 The Region will then provide some details on the I
24 inspection program. 1
/m l j(s 25 Next slide. t l
! I t
- - .~e.,, - - - , , . _ . - , , _ , . . _ . - - - _ _ . , _ _ _ . - ~ , -_,_.--______,,.,e ._.-,m , , _ , .,,, , . , - - -, -,,,-----m_,_
30 1 (Slide.) I
] ,
2 Georgia Power is responsible for the design, i
3 construction, and operation of the Vogtle units, but as you've 4 already heard, there are three coowners who, when combined, '
5 own over 54 percent of the Vogtle units.
j 6 COMMISSIONER ROBERTS Excuse me. Is Vogtle Power l
} 7 Corporation an investor-owned utility?
I l 8 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Maybe we can ask the Licensee to i
! 9 respond to that.
1
- 10 MR. SCHERER: It is a corporation which represents i :
i 11 the power supplier for the electric membership cooperatives in l 12 the State of Georgia. And Mr. Stacey is here, and he may want l
l, 13 to specifically comment.
l C 14 CHAIRMAN 2ECH: Would you come up forward, please, l
l 15 so we can hear you, and stand by the microphone? Thank you. ;
i j 16 And identify yourself.
! 17 MR. STACEY: Yes. I'm Bud Stacey, F.F. Stacey. I'm l 1 !
18 the present CEO of Vcgtle Power Corporation. We are an l 19 electric membership cooperative and part of the REA program.
t 20 CHAIRMAN ZECH: All right. Thank you.
21 COMMISSIONER R03ERTS: Thank you.
22 CHAIRMAN 2ECH: Thank you very much. Proceed, I L
23 please.
24 COMMISSIONER ROBERT 3 A similar question about the h 25 Municipal Electrical Authority of Georgia. I I
i I
, 31 1 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Come to the microphone and identify 2 yourself, please. Thank you.
3 MR. SCHLECHT: I'm John Schlecht, Vice President of 4 Engineering and ParticipLnt Services, and we're a corporation, 5 but a public power agency, joint effort for 48 municipalities 6 that we serve in the State of Georgia that have their own 7 electric distribution systema. '
! 8 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Thank you very much.
9 MS. MILLERt In addition to ownership and operation 10 of the Vogtle units, Georgia Power also has the Hatch units, 11 which have been in operation since 1975 and 1979.
12 There were three issues that were litigated in the
13 ASLB hearings which were held in March of '86. These issues
(
14 covered two environmental qualification issues and an J
15 additional issue that had to do with potential groundwater 16 contamination in the event of an accident.
17 The Board issued two partial initial decisions in 18 August and December of 1986, and all three issues were
, 19 resolved in favor of the Applicant.
20 There are presently several issues on appeal. Oral 21 argument has been held and a decision from the Appeal Board is 22 pending.
23 As far as the TMI item status at the Vogtle units, 24 Georgia Power has completed installation of all the TMI items s 25 as applicable for Vogtle. There are presently three license
- _ - - = __ . . - -- . - . _- - - _ . _ . . .
32 1 conditions in the full-power license that is proposed, having
)
2 to do with the TMI items. All three will require supplemental l
3 reports to be submitted to the Staff at a future date.
4 Next slide, please.
5 (Slide.)
l 6 The most unique aspect of the location of the Vogtle 7 site is that it is directly across the Savannah River from the 1
8 DOE-run Savannah River Plant. Also of note is the low 9 population density within ten miles around the plant. As you 10 can see from the slide, the nearest city -- I don't know if
- 11 you can really call it that -- is about 11 miles away with a 12 population of 225 as of 1980.
m 13 Also of note is the fact that within ten miles of ;
7
- (_-
j 14 the plant, there is only a 1980 population of about 2500.
15 Both of these items relate directly to the emergency 16 preparedness program at Vogtle. A Memorandum of Agreement 17 exists between Georgia Power and the DOE Savannah River Plant 18 which asks that each handle its own monitoring and evacuation, 19 in the event of an accident at the other.
20 A full-scale emergency exercise was conducted in 21 early May of '86 with full participation from both states and i
22 all local governments, as well as the NRC. The exercise went i I 23 very well, and the subsequent FEMA evaluation was very i
24 favorable.
- m
(,) 25 Next slide.
I c___-___________,_________.___ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ -
__ - _ . _ . _ . . _ . . _ _ . ~ ._ __ _ . _ _ _ .. - __. - _
t
, 33 1 (Slide.]
Ij 2 Just very briefly, the Vogtle units are both 3 Westinghouse 4-loop PWRs, and Unit-1 is the 25th of this type j 4 of design to be ready for full-power licensing. Of note is l 5 the fact that the containment is considered largely dry and
- 6 has a design pressure of 52 psig. r 1
! 7 Next slide. I i
8 (Slide.)
i
) 9 In support of the low-power license, which was .
10 issued January 16th of this year, the Staff issued an SER in 11 June of 1985, followed by five supplements, the sixth of which ,
i j 12 will be in support of the full-power license.
J 13 There are three exemptions included as part of the !
, k,-
' I
- 14 license. The first two are fairly typical, and we don't !
15 consider them unusual, while the third one is a scheduler ,
l
- 16 exemption that is plant-specific.
17 The third scheduler exemption, having to do with j 18 spent fuel pool racks, applies to that period of time for the l t l 19 staff to complete its review of the seismic design of the ,
l 20 racks and also for that time period prior to the storage of j 21 spent fuel in the racks.
i.
22 The license also contains four license conditions 23 which we.would consider plant-specific. All of these would be 24 resolved before restart following first refueling.
5 25 Next slide.
t L
--nw-_ v-
1
~~
34 1 '(Slide.) l 2 CONNISSIONER ASSELSTINE Nith the fuel rack 3 situation, does that mean they cannot offload a full core if 4 they needed to?
5 MS. MILLER: They have the capacity, but we, as 6 implied ir. the license condition, they will not be able to 7 offload it until we have completed our review. And as part of 8 our technical assessment, we have evaluated that it is safe to l 9 leave the fuel in the reactor for all design-basis events.,
10 CONNISSIONER ASSELSTINE: How long is the review 11 going to take?
12 MS. MILLER: I wish I could tell you that. Ne're in 13 the process right now of reviewing a utility submittal. It will be a second request for addit'ional information, and
~
14 15 hopefully within six months.
16 COMNISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Okay.
17 MS. MILLER: Okay. This last slide provides the is shift complement at Vogtle.
19 (Slide.]
20 As noted here, Georgia Power meets or exceeds all 21 tech spec requirements.
22 Georgia Power has talked fairly extensively about 23 this. The only point I would make is that of their 26 SRos, 24 there are 17 that are actually on shift, and of those 17, 16
) 25 do have the technical degree.
i 3
35 i i 1 Unless there are any further quescions, that
- .r g
., 2 concludes my prepared presentation, and I would turn over the 3 NRC presentation to Malcolm Ernst from Region II.
3 4 CHAIRMAN ZECH: All right. Thank you. Proceed.
l 5 MR. ERNST I'm happy to be here to provide a 4
6 Regional assessment of the readiness of Vogtle for a i l
7 full-power license. I have a few brief remarks, and then, as i 8 mentioned, Luis Reyes will present the bulk of the summary !
) 9 evaluation. This will be supplemented by John Rogge, who is t i !
10 the Senior Resident for Operations at Vogtle, to give you a '
i i 11 brief rundown of the present status and operations to date. f
)
- 12 I do have others with me that I would like to 1 .
I 13 recognize, Virgil Brownlee and Marvin Sinkule, who are in the
~
14 project management area in Region II; Bruno Uryc, the Regional l
i 15 Lead Allegation Coordinator; Herb Livermore, the Senior I i
j 16 Resident for Construction at Vogtle; Rory Shoppins, the
~
17 Resident Inspector at Vogtle; and Peter Holmes-Ray, who is the
, 18 Senior Resident at Match.
I i 19 If I could have Slide 7, please.
(
I 20 (Slide.) i i
21 My very brief remarks will basically cover the first !
l 22 two bullets. First, I'd like to comment on Georgia Power f i i 23 Company management. t i
l 24 I agree with the statements I have heard today. -
) ,_ 25 They have substantielly increased management capabilities, [
! i t i
! l
36 1 certainly during the time of my brief tenure, as well as prior
'q
, 2 to my arrival at Region II. They've increased their oversight 3 from a corporate standpoint. They have placed high-level 1
4 people onsite and have established many strong programs which :
5 we support. ;
6 Generally, this has resulted in general improvement, '
7 in my view, which is seen by the improvement at Match and also t
a seen by the performance at Plant Vogtle. .
9 The second point, as you will hear, operations to ;
10 date have been good at Vogtle. There has only been one 11 operator error at the present time. There have been some 12 typical problems with equipment, but generally one would 13 characterise the performance as certainly favorable, compared.
14 to other plants at this stage of life.
15 Third, just a general comment on the readiness 16 review program. Again, we support the statements made with !
17 regard to the usefulness of this program. It did, however, as 18 pointed out, cost heavily with regard to NRC resources, and
! 19 presently the staff is evaluating the readiness review program
- 20 to see what kind of NRC participation makes sense from a r l
21 resource standpoint, and I think that report will be coming to '
22 the commission sometime in the hear future. [
l i 23 Nith that, I'd like *.o pass on to Luis Reyes for the l i 24 rest of the presentation.
I 25 MR. REYES Good aftornoon.
i i
37 t
1 I'd like to briefly discuss the construction
<~ .
(s) 2 inspection program. As you know, the construction inspection 1
3 program looks at all the disciplines in the construction area,
- 4 including the QA. It is conducted by the Regional i
5 specialists, and in the case of Vogtle, the NRC was very 6 fortunate, in 1981, we started our Senior Resident Inspector 7 for Construction, and we were able to recruit a very qualified 8 and experienced Senior Residents in the construction area, and 9 it remains today for Unit-2.
10 Regarding preoperational testing, we started our i
11 inspection in 1986. The Senior Resident Inspector for 12 Operations, a very experienced individual, has been on the
,- 13 site since October of '84, and the program was very
~'
14 successful, in our opinion.
, 15 We did conduct a series of special inspections, and '
16 I would like to have back up Slide No. 2, please.
17 (Slide.)
i 18 There was an early construction assessment conducted i 19 by the Region in 1983. There was and independent design 20 review by a third party. There was a seismic qualification I 21 team inspection, an environmental qualification team inspection, emergency preparedness, fire protection, quality 22 1
i 23 concerns program inspection, fitness for duty, and the Georgia i
! 34 Power Company self-assessment which led to the program that l.4
!., 25 other utilities are conducting today.
l
. . - - - ,.r-__.___,,..,__ _ _ _ _ . , . _ _ . _ . , , . . _ , . , _
38 1 Can we go back to Slide 7, please?
2 (Slide.]
- 3 Regarding allegations, all the allegation cases j 4 received by the NRC have been reviewed and field inspected.
5 All technical issues have been resolved.
I
- 6 I would like to now go to Slide 8 to address the 7 SALP.
8 (Slide.)
9 You can see that Slide 8 is a SALP in the i
10 operational areas. Noteworthy regarding the SALP is a 11 Category 1 on preoperational testing and a Category 1 on l 12 emergency preparedness.
4
- 13 The Category 3 in the area of security was a result 1
(. ,
)
14 of some problems with the design of the security equipment, i
15 but these design problems were resolved rather rapidly by the
- 16 utility and to the satisfaction of the Staff.
I 17 Can we go to Slide 9, please?
18 (Slide.)
19 Slide 9 contains the last two construction SALP
! 20 areas. I would like to highlight that in the area of quality l 21 control, they have received Category 1 on the last two SALPs, 22 which is very unusual for a construction site.
(
i
- 23 I'd like to go to Slide 10, please.
i l 24 (Slide.) i
( 25 In order to assure the plant was ready for i
-_..m _ ~. _ ,,. - , ,. - m m .,, _ _ . , _ - _ _ _ _ _ _ .. - ,- ~ _ . _ m r ~ , _ .... . _ _ _ _ _ , _ , . . . _ .
39 1 operations, we conducted several extraordinary efforts in the i
(m ,) 2 inspection area. We did a procedure review, both in the 1
3 office and team reviews onsite. We not only reviewed the 4
4 technical specifications, but we conducted field inspections 5 to assure that the technical specifications relate to the 6 construction of the plant and to the systems involved.
7 Regarding staffing, we are satisfied with their 8 staffing. It was presented by the utility already.
9 Regarding training, I guess I would just like to i 10 add, they do have excellent facilities for training, and they 11 are ahead of schedule in the schedule for an NTOL.
12 What I would like to do regarding operating events 13 and plant status, I would.like John Rogge, Senior Resident l 14 Inspector for Operations, to give you a brief summary of our i
15 experience and his hands-on experience with Vogtle operations.
i 16 John?
17 MR. ROGGE: Thank you, Luis.
18 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Identify yourself, please, for the 19 reporter.
i 20 MR. ROGGE: I'm John Rogge, the Senior Resident 21 Inspector at Plant Vogtle.
22 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Thank you.
23 MR. ROGGE: Since they've been licensed until today 24 is what I'm going to cover, they've had 13 operational events
(, ) 25 that have been reported in. Three had had their written
40 l 1 reports submitted to us, and we have reviewed them. Seven to im
}) 2 eight are going to be arriving soon, depending on how they 3 package them.
4 of the 13 events, eight were related to ESF type 5 actuations. Five of these events deal with containment 6 isolation or containment ventilation isolation or control room 7 isolation. These are related to equipment problems, and 8 they've solved these problems.;
9 Three are auxiliary feedwater actuations. One has
! 10 been a maintenance error that cause that to happen. Not to 11 counter Mr. Ernst, but we've had two personal errors of the
- 12 operators now, all dealing with steam generator water level
- 13 and combined with a second type event, such as bringing up t.he s_s 14 main steam header or the opening of an atmospheric release 15 valve to take out the high-high signals and got the aux 16 feedwater actuation, quite normal for the kind of experience 17 they've had.
l 18 Two were related to failed equipment or
! 19 material-related. They deal with the plant vent flow 20 transmitter. These are PERM problems, as mentioned before, i
21 the wrong penetration sealants, which the Licensee has 22 mentioned.
- 23 One environmental qualification. event on the MSIV 24 hydraulic fluid presnure and two other types, which I classify
, N l (,/ 25 as "Others," which one was security and one was the hydrogen I
41 1 that they informed us on.
(Qj 2 On 3/9, as you've been informed, they went 3 critical. I was a witness in the control room for that 4
4 criticality. I am pleased to say that I observed a 5 professional apd formal operator performance during that 6 approach. I believe that they're ready to continue on with 7 the startup of the program.
8 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Thank you very much.
9 MR. REYES: I'd like to conclude my presentation, l
10 the last item on Slide 10.
11 This process, the Regional Readiness Review Panel, 12 has been explained to the Commission before, but it is a
~
13 process,where the Region's senior managers in the Technical f~ 14 Division, after consulting with the Staff, convene and go 15 through all the things that we need to conduct in the Region l 16 to assure that we're satisfied and the plant is ready to j 17 operate and we can come here and recommend that action.
l
! 18 And we have conducted that successfully, and the l
l 19 Region Staff and senior managers are all in concurrence 1
20 regarding recommending a license.
21 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Frank?
22 MR. MIRAGLIA: I guess, Mr. Chairman, that concludes 23 our presentation. The Staff is.of the view that the utility 24 is ready to receive a low-power license and request i.[ 25 authorization from the Commission to authorize the Director of
42 7 ..:
1 NRR for such issuance of the license.
2 Thanks.
'3 CHAIRMAN ZECH: All right. Thank you very much.
4 Any questions from my fellow Commissioners?
5 Mr. Roberts?
6 COMMISSIONER ROBERTS: No.
i 7 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Mr. Asselstine?
8 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Just a couple. On 9 Supplement 5 of the SER, I notice on page 14-3 that you 10 discuss the natural circulation test and a delay in the test i 11 and then the justification for tne delay.
12 My recollection was that in a couple of the past 13 Westinghouse PWR cases -- Byron stands out in my mind as one 14 -- there was not a requirement for that test to be conducted.
I I 15 I guess the only thing I'm interested in is making 16 sure that the Staff is consistently applying the criteria.
17 It's not real clear to me why these people have to do it and 18 why we let some of the others off the hook.
j 19 MS. MILLER: Okay, I can explain.
! 20 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Great.
- 21 MS. MILLER: This test here referred to in 22 Supplement 5 is the test that is required as part of TMI Item 23 1(g) (1) for operator training, to do a simulated sort of 24 natural circulation test. It's not the same test that Diablo
, w i n,) 25 Canyon was doing for the rest of the Westinghouse class of --
l l
-,~,-y .4,....ew y--,,----.--y wrn.-.,,.
43 1 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: So they're piggybacking on
?
( _2 Diablo?
3 MS. MILLER: That's right. Georgia Power is doing 4 the same thing that Byron did with the Diablo Canyon test.
5 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Great. And, let's see, on 4 6 page 4 of Appendix S of Supplement 5, you talk about model 7 tests that were conducted using four and six-inch test valves 8 for the containment purge isolation valves, and those are 9 substantially larger valves, I think, 14 inches in diameter.
10 Have you made sure that these smaller-scale tests 11 can, in fact, be extrapolated up, and the results will be 12 reliable?
< ;~
~~
13 MS. MILLER: Yes, I'm sure we have.
14 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Okay. My third question, 15 on Table 1 in the back of the notebook, you talk about the 16 comparisons of reported events for the various recent PWRs, 17 and you also talk about the period of low-power operation.
18 One of the things that stood out when I looked at 19 that was that the period of low-power operation for this plant
.l 20 was the lowest of the group, pretty close to Byron-1 and to 21 Millstone, but substantially lower than some of the others.
22 Is that just because things have gone very well j
23 here, and not.because they're pushing too fast or rushing i
24 along too fast?
, (,)
\
25 MR. NOVAK: I would say so. I think, as they noted i
)
l 44 1 in their fuel load, they were able to load the core in two l 7y I (j 2 weexs or something of that natura, so I would judge nothing 3 more from those data.
4 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Okay. And a couple of -
I 5 questions for the Region.
6 First, Luis, you talked about the open items. Just 7 before I went down to the plant, some of the briefing 8 materials you all had provided showed a substantial number of 9 those. A lot of them looked like they were still lis,ted as 10 open, where you had received the Licensee's submittal and were )
11 still reviewing them.
12 I take it you've now finished your review, at least
- 13 to the point to be able to say that there's no significant
~
14 safety or technical issue involved?
15 MR. ROGGE: That's correct, Commissioner.
16 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Great, good.
17 My last question for the Region, I think the last 18 time we had a Regional Administrator's meeting, I thought that 19 Nelson Grace had talked a bit about the performance of the f
i 20 utility in general, and as I recall, one of his comments was 21 that a fair number of initiatives and programs had been 22 developed and put into place by the company, particularly at 23 the. corporate level, and if there was any question or concern 24 at that point, it was whether all of those were getting fully
-() 25 implemented at the site level.
- - - - . .. ~
i 45 1 Can you sort of give me an assessment of where we
( 2 are at that? And I'd also like your assessment of where you
, 3 think we are now on Hatch and how you would answer the .
4 question I posed to the Licensee about whether they can handle 5 adding a new plant, particularly a plant of a different type, 6 and continue to make progress in bringing about improved 7 performance at Hatch as well.
8 MR. ERNST: I think my assessment is, they certainly i 9 have the management horsepower to do this. We've had a number 4
10 of discussions in this area, and they've made a number of 11 presentations to us on their programs, and the programs indeed 12 seem to be comprehensive and being dynamically pursued by
,q
, 13 corporate management.
Nij 14 As I mentioned in my brief remarks and have 15 mentioned to utilities before, the proof of the pudding, of 16 course, is in the eating and whether or not these management 17 resources and these programs really bear fruit. It does 18 appear form the results to date that operations at Hatch are i
19 improving, witness the latest SALP compared to the previous 20 SALPs in crucial areas, and our observations at Vogtle 21 indicate that the plant has indeed been performing well and is 22 ready.
23 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Okay.
24 Lando, I don't have any more questions, maybe just a g
s;) 25 couple of comments, since I was just down at the plant about a
46 1 week or so ago.
2 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Sure.
3 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: I agree with you. I think 4 their degree program is very commendable. It's a 5 ' demonstration that, in fact, if you put your mind to it, those 6 are the results that you can accomplish.
7 I was concerned about the poor pass rate on the 8 first group of operators. I've heard the company's 9 explanation both today and last week. It seems like a 10 reasonable explanation. Certainly, the second class did much 11 better. I gather they've got another group coming up next ,
12 month. So I'm going to sort of look forward to the results of -
,3 13 that as added confirmation that, in fact, the problems have
~
14 been identified and solved, and you're really on the right 15 track there.
16 The readiness review program, I'd have to say I 17 agree with the Staff and the Licensee. I'm very pleased with i
l 18 the way that worked out. It did take a lot of effort -- I l
i 19 recognize that -- on both sides, but I think one of the big 20 benefits is that it's a way to identify and spot problems and 21 get them fixed early on, and I think that's to the Licensee's 22 benefit, and it's certainly to our benefit, and I think it's 23 to the benefit of safety.
1 i
24 I was pretty impressed with the people that I met m 25 down at the plant last week in the various management
47 1 positions, both with the company and at the site. It looked q
'. f/ 2 to me like they were qualified, experienced. Morale was good, l
3 and it looked like they were about ready to go.
4 The condition of the plant I thought was pretty 5 good, although I'd say there's still some, room for 6 improvement. A little more cleaning wouldn't hurt; a little 7 more painting, a little more maintenance. All those things 8 are -- there's room for improvement, but I wasn't too 9 displeased with what I saw.
10 And I agree with Luis' comments earlier about the 11 training center and the training facilities. It's clear the 12 company has made a substantial and heavy investment at the -
13 front end. I think that's one that will pay off in safety
,. y) 1
"' ~
14 dividends and operational dividends for a long time to come.
15 I agree generally with your comment earlier, Lando, 16 about fitness for duty. I 'd say the only thing it looks tos 17 me like they're lacking to make it just about a perfect 18 fitness for duty program would be a random testing component.
19 We talked about that last week. They know, I think, my views 20 on that one.
21 And also I think the use of the AEOD report is 22 something that was real positive. I think one of the lessons
- 23. from that report is that utilities that are starting out and 24 starting up a plant, if they learn the lessons of experience
() 25 from others, they're going to be way ahead. And I think if
. . . . . , . - - - - .- .,-,, , ,,-,--- . - , . ~ -
l 48 l l
1 one thing sticks out in my mind from that report, it's that j
.m
}) 2 the first few months basically show how you're going to ,
3 operate the plant for the next several years, and plants that 4 have done very well in those first few months of operations do 5 well from then on. Plants that have a real rough time have a 6 real rough time for several years to come.
7 I guess if I have a caution, it's to pay good 8 attention to that lesson and go on a careful step-by-step 9 approach over the next couple of months to make sure that, in 10 fact, you're in the good group and not the other, and keep the 11 lines of communication open on operations with the NRC and 12 particularly our Resident Inspector.
-, 13 Those are the only comments I would add.
?
\ ' ')
14 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Okay. Very good. Thank you.
I 15 Mr. Carr?
16 COMMISSIONER CARR: No.
17 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Let me just say, I think the i 18 briefings we've heard, both the staff and the Georgia Power l
t 19 Company have been very valuable and very well prepared today.
20 I thank the Staff for their close review in this 21 readiness review program. I knor it's been a lot of 22 resources, but I do agree '. hat im certainly seems to me that 23 it has a potential for being a real payoff. It may be i
24 something that, as we evaluate the program, that we'll want to e~s :
(_) 25 encourage for the future.
O 49 1 If I can summarize briefly, then, it sounds to me-(qj 2 like the Licensee and the Staff have concluded that upon 3 successful completion of their remaining low-power testing, 4 Vogtle Unit No. I will have satisfied the requirements for 5 the issuance of a full-power license.
6 I would ask my fellow Commissioners if they are 7 prepared to vote on full-power license?
8 COMMIdSIONER ASSELSTINE: Yes.
9 CHAIRMAN ZECH: If you are, then those Commissioners 10 in favor of permitting immediate effectiveness of the Vogtle 11 Licensing Board decision and authorizing the Director of 12 the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation to issue, after the
- 3. 13 Staff makes the appropriate findings, a full-power license to
+. #
14 Vogtle Unit-1, please signify by saying aya.
15 (Chorus of ayes.]
16 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Those opposed?
17 [No response.]
l 18 CHAIRMAN ZECH: The vote is four to zero to approve 19 and proceed.
20 The meeting is adjourned.
l 21 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Lando, just before we 22 adjourn -- -
23 CHAIRMAN ZECH: Yes?
l 24 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Are we also going to 25 decide what to do on the immediate effectiveness part? Who is l
50 1 going to issue an order, or are we?
!m ~
]) 2 CHAIRMAN ZECH: No, we're not going to. It's been 3 my understanding that it's not necessary, but I would like to 4 call on the Office of. General Counsel to comment on that.
5 MR. PARLER: The Commission can take action by a 6 majority vote of a quorum of the members present. There are 7 four members that are present here. A majority has spoken.
8 Legally, that is the only action that is necessary, in my
, 9 opinion.
10 The regulation that is involved here, Section 2.764, 11 does not require an order. The reason why this office 12 suggested an order 13 because, in the past under similar
- 3 13 circumstances, an order has been furnished.
(~ )
14 I understand that there were some questions about l
l 15 the need for it that were raised yesterday. I can answer the l
16 question. There is no need for it. The action which the l
17 Commission has taken is adequate.
18 Ifthereisanyneedjohaveamemorializationof 19 that action, the usual Staff Rdquirements Memorandum that is 20 always issued after a Commission vote could be the l F
memorialization of that action, along with, of course, the l21
[ 22 transcript.
23 CHAIRXAN ZECH: Is that satisfactory?
24 COMMISSIONER ASSELSTINE: Yes.
) 25 CHAIRMAN ZECH: All right. Then we will stand
l
. 1 51 1 adjourned.
V 2 (Whereupon, at 3:15 o' clock,-p.m., the commission 3 meeting was adjourned.]
1 4
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20
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21 22 23 24
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.1
',O 2 REPORT.'!!:R'S CERTIFICATE L) 3 4 This is to certify that the attached events of a 5 meeting of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission entitled:
6 '
7 TITLE OF MEETING: Discussion /Possible Vote on Full Power Operating 8
License for Vogtle-1 (Public Meeting)
PIACE OF MEETING: Washington, D.C.
9 DATE OF MEETING: Thursday, March 12, 1987 10 -
11 were held as herein appears, and that this is the original 12 transcript thereof for the file of the Commission taken h
13 stenographically by me,.thereafter reduced to typewriting by 14 se or under the direction of the court reporting company, and 15 that the transcript is a true and accurate record of the 16 foregoing events.
17 18 Joan Rose 19 20 21 '
22 Ann Riley & Associates, Ltd.
I 23
' ~
24 '
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t m i gs\C GENg4 l e <
0 1 3 EXERGY FROM $
EXCELLEXCE AND EFFICIENCY l
h s 44 P o w yn g & g\+
1 l
l l MARCH 12,1987
\
4 NUCLE AR OP3RA" IONS JEPARE? MEN" DEGREES / AWARDS DEPARTMENT GRADUATE 4 YR 2 YR PE/EIT OPERATIONS 4 43 3 3 ENGINEERING 15 89 5 6 CHEMISTRY 3 16 4 HEALTH PHYSICS 8 16 6 MAINTENANCE 1 11 57 l QUALITY CONTROL 1 3 5 6 NDT LVL III 3 ATS/CTI l NSAC 11 2 1 TRAINING 4 11 3 l
-l ,
.p OPERAT:ONS DEPARTMENT
, QUALIF: CAT!ON HIGHLIGHTS
- OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT (4) 3 PREVIOUSLY LICENSED AT SIMILAR PWR
. 4 HOLD B.S/M.S. DEGREES IN ENG. OR RELATED SCIENCE
- OPERATIONS SUPERVISORS / SHIFT SUPERVISORS (32) 10 PREVIOUSLY LICENSED AT SIMILAR PWR 4 PREVIOUSLY LICENSED AT BWR 21 HOLD B.S. DEGREE IN ENG. OR RELATED SCIENCE
- 11 HOLD B.S. DEGREE IN ENG. OR RELATED SCIENCE
- REACTOR OPERATOR (41)
. 1 PREVIOUSLY LICENSED AT BWR 41 > 6 WKS. HOT PARTICIPATION EXPERIENCE
.l ,
LICENS3 EXAM RESULTS GROUP 1 PASS TOTAL %
R0 2 10 SRO 11 19 TOTAL 13 29 45
)
GROUP 2 RO 13 '14 l
SRO 15 18 IC 1 1 TOTAL 29 33 88 CURRENT STATUS R0 15 SRO 26 TOTAL 41 f
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3ACIG30UND AND EXPER::3NCE SSRO TOTAL OF 26 21 WITH BS ENGINEERING 4 WITH OTHER TECHNICAL 9 PREVIOUS LICENSED G RO 4
TOTAL OF 15 7 WITH BS DEGREE 4 OTHERS WITH AT LEAST TWO YEARS COLLEGE eCL*RRENTLY HAVE 4 YEAR COLLEGE DEGREE PROGRAM IN PLACE 4
9 e,--------- ,-,-,,n. ,-,. ,_n-._,_,--..,-.---.-,..,e.--,_ ,,, . . ,. - - - . , - _ - , ,, , , _ _ , _ . , . , _ . , , , , - , - _ - ,w_,,,_,w, ,
VEGP SIMUL ATOR GDELIVERED IN FEBRUARY 1982 SOVER 13,000 HOURS OF USE
, 9 MAJOR SYSTEM MODIFICATIONS CONTROL BOARD I
i ERF/SPDS ADDITION I
RVLIS ADDITION I
SINVOLVED WITH EPRI ON SIMULATOR QUALIFICATION PROJECT SFURTHER PLANNED UPGRADES COMPUTER SYSTEM i REMOTE SHUTDOWN CAPABILITY i ,
PSMS ADDITION PERMS ADDITION
SPECI AL PROBLEMS & RESOLUTIONS S ESFAS SEQUENCER TIMING ESF CHILLER FAILURE SLAVE RELAY AND VALCOR VALVES SPERMS 67 MONITORS DIGITAL COMPUTER AND LOCAL CONSOLE SYSTEM ist OPERATIONAL SYSTEM WIRING AND LATE TESTING NUREG0737 CHANGES CALIBRATIONS DONE LAST ePIPING PENETRATION EXHAUST SYSTEM 77 ROOMS HEPA AND CARBON FILTERS HARD TO BALANCE
- NO BALANCING DAMPERS l
- NEGATIVE PRESURE REQUIRED
- SEVERAL MODIFICATIONS REQUIRED TO BALANCE l
CARBON FILTER MODIFICATION REQUIRED SLICENSED OPERATOR ist EXAM RESULTS l
e 0
1 FUEL LOAD TO FULL POWER OPERATION STARTUP TEST PROGRAM INITIAI.
FUEL LO40
- pAECRITICAI. TEST SE00ENCE
- CRIT.
- pou[a ASCEleS8000 TEST steuENCE l
I i , j 500*4 8 I I I l l i i I i l ISS - I I I sov.
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C 40 - 1 I I j opEaATsont l 0 peooE I I I I M d I I I P t 1 DAYS TO PROGRAM COMPLETION - 88 4
L 30 - I I .I E 1 1 I SCHEDULE FOR PROGRAM COMPLETION - MAY 17, 1987 i
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IllisllIIIIlIsiligisisijisisslIllislIIIIslIIIIIlIl IIlIsisijsilislIllsigIIIIIlIIIIIlIIIIIlIIIIIlIIIIIlIIIIIlIIIIIlIIIIIl 8 6 12 '18 24 30 36 42 48 54 68 66 72 78 84 90 96 102 198 114 128 STP2G DAYS STATUS DATE - MAR. 9,1987 TlWE 8:00 AM.
u a
SU ME ARY TEST MANAGEMENT TEST INVOLVEMENT STARTUP EXPERIENCE 3FFECTIVE PROBLEM RESOLUTION i
SAFE, EFFECTIVE, QUALITY STARTUP
3/12/87
)*
SCHEDULING NOTES TITLE:- DISCUSSION /POSSIBLE VOTE ON FULL POWER OPERATING LICENSE FOR V0GTLE-1 SCHEDULED: 2:00 P.M., THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1987 (OPEN)
DURATION: APPROX 1-1/2 HRS SPEAKERS: GEORGIA POWER COMPANY 25 MINS
- ROBERT SCHERER (5 MINS)
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
- JAMES MILLER, JR. (5 MINS)
PRESIDENT
- GEORGE BOCKHOLD', JR. (15 MINS)
GENERAL MANAGER V0GTLE NUCLEAR OPERATIONS NRR 15 MINS
- FRANK MIRAGLIA
- THOMAS NOVAK (5 MINS) '
- MELANIE MILLER (10 MINS)
REGION II 15 MINS MALCOLM ERNST (5 MINS)
LIUS REYES (10 MINS)
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Document Control Desk, 016 Phillips :
Si ADVANCED COPY TO: The Public Document Room ,
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3 3 !. DATE: 3 16 M 3 3
SECY Correspondence & Records Branch l
3 f" FROM: :
3 3: .
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3 i, Attached are copies of a Comission meeting transcript and related meeting i document (s). They are being forwarded for entry on the Daily Accession List and -
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placement in the Public Document Room. No other distribution is requested or 5 3 : required.
3
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Title:
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3 3 l 3 l Item Description *: Copies
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3 1 C&R Branch files the original transcript, with attachments, without SECY j j papers.
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