ML20217N201

Forwards Brpnp Zircaloy Oxidation Analysis, Which Presents Site Specific Analysis That Derives Time When Zircaloy Oxidation Analysis Phenomenon Is No Longer Applicable to Plant Fuel Pool

ML20217N201
Person / Time
Site:	Big Rock Point File:Consumers Energy icon.png
Issue date:	04/29/1998
From:	Powers K CONSUMERS ENERGY CO. (FORMERLY CONSUMERS POWER CO.)
To:	NRC OFFICE OF INFORMATION RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IRM)
Shared Package
ML20217N207	List: ML20217N201 ML20217N213
References
NUDOCS 9805050253
Download: ML20217N201 (2)

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l- lConsumersEnergy A CMSEnergy Company Big rWk Pmnt Nuclear Plant MRM l goggg IS3; nom Site General Manager l

Charlevoix. MI 49720 Apri1 29. 1998 Nuclear Regulatory Commission Document Control Desk Washington DC 20555 DOCKET 50 155 LICENSE DPR BIG ROCK POINT PLANT - ZIRCALOY OXIDATION ANALYSIS On August 29. 1997, the reactor at Big Rock Point was permanently shutdown. By September 20. 1997, all of the fuel had been removed from the reactor and placed in the spent fuel pool for storage. In this configuration, the greatest potential for fission product release now resides in the spent fuel pool, and not the reactor.

In August of 1997, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued NUREG/CR-6451 "A Safety and Regulatory Assessment of Generic BWR and PWR Permanently Shutdown Nuclear Power Plants." One of the purposes of the NUREG/CR was to document the results of a Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) program. which includes an NRC goal "to determine the extent and types of safety criteria that should remain as part of decommissioning regulation to assure that the health and safety of the public is protected when a licensee enters the permanent shutdown condition in preparation for plant decommissioning."

The BNL program focused primarily on spent fuel pool storage alternatives following the permanent shutdown of a nuclear Jower plant. The program identified that spent fuel which due to a com)ination of storage geometry, decay time, and reactor type, could support rapid zircaloy oxidation resulting 1 from an event that has caused the draining of the spent fuel pool (the fuel cladding fails due to high temperature, causing the release of fission products). BNL also discovered that after a suitah'e time period, dependent on fuel assembly energy and storage configuration, that the decay heat would be low enough to preclude the rapid oxidation phenomenon.

Therefore, the purpose of this submittal is to present a site specific analysis that derives the time when the zircaloy oxidation analysis phenomenon is no longer applicable to the Big Rock Point spent fuel pool.

Sincerely.

, h&

enneth P Powers \ l Site General Manager 1 '

CC: Administrator. Region III. USNRC l NRC Resident Inspector - Big Rock Point f NRR Project Manager - OWFN. Rockville Maryland

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BIG ROCK POINT PLANT-DOCKET 50-155 ZIRCALOY OXIDATION ANALYSIS l'

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