ML20213E109

Trip Rept of 820322 Visit to Richland & Seattle,Wa to Inspect Plant Spray Ponds & to Discuss Recent NRC & Util Modeling Studies on Spray Pond Cooling & Water Loss

ML20213E109
Person / Time
Site:	Columbia, Washington Public Power Supply System
Issue date:	03/31/1982
From:	Codell R Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
To:	Lear G Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
References
CON-WNP-0504, CON-WNP-504 NUDOCS 8204070678
Download: ML20213E109 (3)

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' M ' l,. yggd3 MEi'00,AN00't FOR: Georqe Lear, Chief d pB1.f.50 1ogd, os -

!!ydrologic and Geotechnical Enqineering Branch 'GE & W.

[h I Tl!RU: Myron Fliegel, Leader,18ydrologic Enqineering Se '

ifydrologic and Geotechnical Engineering Granch, DE p . g" / ,

FROM: Richard Codell, !!ydrologic Engineering Section liydrologic and Geotechnical Engineering Branch, DE

SUBJECT:

TRIP REPORT FOR VISIT TO RICHLAND AND SEATTLE, NASliI?iGTOM I spent the morning of March 22 visitino the !!ashington Public Power Supply Systen ('lPPSS) "MP-1 and MNP-2 sites at the !!anford Reservation. The main purnose of my visit to UPPSS was to inspect the spray ponds for these plants and to discuss the recent staff and applicant noielinq studies on spray pond coolinq and water loss. The UPPSS representative for this visit was Dennis Ifyers. I observed and photocraphed the ponds which were completely constructed but not available for demonstration sorayina. I noted and photoqraphed a rather fraqil-lookinq pine used to vent air fron the siphon connectino the redundant ponds at llMP-2. I am not sure what safety function would be affected, but it scered that the pipe, which was several feet lonq and looked like about one inch diameter carbon steel with a valve on the end, 9as not reinforced in any way and could be easily broken. If the break were above tho x1ter surface, the siphon would probably not work, because air leakinq to the siphon would dron the water level below the invert hoicht.

Later, I not with Dennis "yers and another UPDSS mananer responsible for plant startun and coeration. "e discussed the comittnant hv UPPSS to reasure the nerforrance of the "NP-2 snrav pond with heat load and the difficulties of sunplyinq heat from the nuclear reactor. The L'PPSS startup mananer said that in order to run the sprays with a high heat load, a technical specification on the raxinun pond tenperature durinq operation would have to be waived.

Furthernore, they would probably want to run the ponds only durinq low power tests, which would be of linited duration, and probably Nould not correspond to the wide rance of noteorological corditions which would provide the most useful perfomance data. Since water loss rather than pond cooling c whility was identified as the significant concern in the SER (Section 2.4), and drift loss was identified as the naraneter of ornatest oncertaintv, we discusst '

the possibility of a well-instrumented pond water loss test without heat.

T'1e advantaqe of the snrav non 1 tests without heat would be:

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1. The tests could Se performed irresnective of the availability of heat from the plant, and could commenca well before plant startup;

2. There would be no possibility of inadvertently putting the plant in an unsafe condition because of an atypical onerating modo nor would any Technical Specification be violated;

3. The tests would be considerably cheaper for the applicant. Special provisions and personnel to route heat from the plant would not be necessary, and a safety study for such a test would not have to be performed.

4. The aoplicant would be in a better position to take data over a wide rance of neteorological conditions than would be possible with a heat load.

Disadvantages of the no-heat tests would be that drift loss would be neasured only for low water temoeratures. Extrapolation of drift loss to high tenperature operation night be difficult because the thernodynanic pronerties of air and water would change at hiqher tenparatures and the updraft due to natural convection would be greater at hiqher temperatures. The decree to which drift loss would be affected by higher tenneratures could be inferred from tests of other spray conds (e.g., Rancho Seco, Marth Anna) where water loss data were collected from tests with and without heat.

I told the 'mP-2 representatives that I would convey the results of our discussions to ny superiors for further consideration.

I spent the afternoon of !! arch 22 necting with rncresentatives of Dattalle-pML discussino current and future contract work for the ilydrologic Engineerina Section. I first met with Rick Skancs, Dick Fcker, John Shafer and Steve Snyder to discuss the Catawha Ultimate ll eat Sink analysis. I told then of one serious computer croqran error which had to be corrected, and how I interpreted the ilRC nodel output for predicting pond temperature at that site.

Later, I met with Dave fieyers, Jim Doesburg, Dick Ecker, Rick Skaggs, John Relyea and Jeff Serne to discuss the Catawba applicant's Class 9 accident liquid pathway submittal. L'e acreed that there vere serious shortcomings in the applicant's analysis. The primary objection to the apolicant's analysis was the treatnent of retardation in the fracture flow beneath the site. Dave

!! eyers working with Jeff Serne will try to establish a reasonable cround uater liquid pathway analysis takinq fracture flou into account. I cemented that the i , .

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George Lear r:mR 311982 Indian Point Probabilistic Safety Study has just been released, and that the Licensee's consultants had analyzed fracture flow in the event of a ground water release in a core melt accident. I left a copy of the pertinent chanter with then. I believe that Battelle is particularly talented in the area of ground water hydrology and radionuclide transport because of their heavy involvenent in high and low level waste disnosal. They could apply special expertise to difficult, potentially troublesome problems of transport in fractured nedia such as at the Catawba and Indian Point sites. I believe that they would be villing to assist us intthe review of the liquid pathway portion of the Indian Point PSS under the technical assistance arrannenent. Dave !! eyers, Jeff Sorne and John Reyla also tried to interest nelin a generic project to put together a work book on the correct usage of Kd and retardation coefficient in ground water hydrology. While I would be interested. I informed them that generic issues were specifically excluded fron technical assistance funding, and that such a oroject would have to be funded by research.

I raet briefly uith Dave Dragnitch who asked about our general level of satisfaction with the Lab's perfon-ance of the technical assistance work.

I also met briefly uith Yasuo Onishi. o discussed our mutual involvenent in the Health Physics Society Textbook and his work on nodeling the transport of water and contaminated sediment in the Hudson River 1ncluding the radioactivity released from Indian Point. He was also interes ted in revicuing the surface water portion of the Indian point PSS.

On March 22 and 23. I attended a conference at the natte11e Conference Center in Seattle, !'ashinnton. The conference was entitled "Synposium on Unsaturated Flow and Transcort Itodeling," and was sponsored by NRC. As the title inplies, the conference papers described a utde range of applications of modelino techniques for flow and transport of radioactivity in unsaturated redia. The papers Nere completely technical in nature and were ained at other workers in the same field. It was consequently difficult for me to follow many of then, but I gained an appreciation for the great difficulties involved in this type of problem and the relative lack of success of current models to nredict actual radioactivity transnart in the radose zone.

Tom flicholson and I net with Bill fielson and Ed Arnold of P!!L cn March 23 to discuss the possibility of a research contract into ground water nitigative techniques for ccre melt accidents. t'e discussed provisions of the draft statement of work on linuid pathway niticative techniques for core melt accidents which Ton had prepared and previously discussed with "ike Fliegel and re.

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