ML20236C746
| ML20236C746 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | 07003013 |
| Issue date: | 08/15/1986 |
| From: | Crow W, Matt Young NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS) |
| To: | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20236C665 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8707300177 | |
| Download: ML20236C746 (4) | |
Text
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. [4:e b g UNITED STATES
// o NUCLEAR REGULATORY COM, MISSION e E WASHINGTON, D. C. 20655
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AttG 1 5'1986 '
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DOCKET NO: '70-3013 L
LICENSEE:- Commonwealth Edison Company (CE C0) i FACILITY: Braidwood. Nuclear Generating Station,. Unit 2 l L Will County, Illinois 1
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SUBJECT:
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR LICENSE APPLICATION l .TO RECEIVE NEW FUEL
-Background By letter dated June 8, 1984, and supplements dated September 18, and- !
November 19, 1984,- and June 7, July 31, and. November 14, 1985, Commonwealth Edison (CE C0) applied for an NRC license to permit the receipt, possession, inspection, and storage of special nuclear material contained in unirradiated 4
. nuclear fuel assemblies for eventual use in Braidwood Nuclear Generating l
-Station,' Units 1 and 2. The present licensing action is limited.to the' '
requirements of Unit 2. In addition, CE C0 as part of the license application-seeks authorization to receive, possess, inspect, and store post-accident 1
- neutron monitoring detectors containing.,special nuclear material. CE C0 has j
.already been issued Materials License No. 12-05650-17 for the possession, l storage, an'd use of small. quantities of byproduct, source, and special nuclear 1 materials at Braidwood Units 1 and 2. Because of the form and small amount 1 (gram quantities) of the other nuclear materials, other than fuel assemblies, j the other materials pose no threat to the environment. Therefore, the discus- l sion below will be limited to assessing the potential for environmental impacts ]
resulting from the storage of new fuel assemblies at Braidwood, Unit 2. In q accordance with 10 CFR 51.21, the NRC has prepared this assessment of the j environmental' impacts that may be caused by issuance of the requested license. ]
l The Proposed Action l i
The proposed action is issuance of a Special Nuclear Materials License pursuant I to 10 CFR 70 that will authorize the applicant to receive, possess, inspect, l and store 263 fresh fuel assemblies at Braidwood Nuclear Generating Station, l Unit 2. The license would be effective until it can be superseded by.CE C0's j
operating license for Unit 2 under 10 CFR 50. The fuel assemblies contain uranium dioxide (U02 ) pellets that have a maximum U-235 enrichment of 3.55 ]
y percent by weight and are encapsulated in zircaloy tubing. Issuance of the: ,
license woul'd result in the receipt, . possession, inspection, and storage of the unirradiated fuel at Braidwood, Unit 2. The transport of new fuel to Braidwood, ,'
Unit 2, will be the responsibility of the fuel fabricator. However, the proposed license would authorize-the packaging of fuel . assemblies for delivery to a carrier for transport. This would allow CE C0 to return damaged fuel assemblies to'another location, e.g., return to the manufacturer.
9 8707300177 870727 3 PDR ADOCK 0700 C -
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s Commonwealth Edison Company 2 Need for the Proposed Action CE C0 proposes to receive.and store fresh fuel prior to issuance of the Part 50 e
L operating license in order to inspect the assemblies and to finalize fuel preparation .
(e.g., add necessary hardware) needed to load the fuel into the reactor core vessel. Actual core loading, however, will not be authorized by the proposed license. Early completion of this fuel handling stage will help avoid delays in the Braidwood Unit 2's startup once its operating license is issued.
Alternatives to the Proposed Action Alternatives to the proposed action include complete denial of CE C0's application. . Assuming the operating license for the facility will eventually be issued,' denial of the storage only license now would merely postpone the new fuel receipt. .Such action, as well as any other alternative that can be imagined, would not present an environmental advantage because, as discussed below, no environmental impacts are expected to result from the proposed action.
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action !
A Final Environmental Statement (NUREG-1026) related to the full-scale operation of Braidwood Nuclear Generating Station, Units 1 and 2, has already been prepared and issued by the NRC. . Based on the evaluation in this statement, the environmental impacts of, plant operation subject to proposed conditions for environmental protection'are expected to be small. New fuel receipt and storage is only a small part of Braidwood, Unit 2's, overall operation that will eventually include the handling and storage of irradiated fuel which is significantly more hazardous. Accordingly, the environmental impacts resulting from the handling and storage of new fuel are expected to be very miner.
Once at Braidwood, Unit 2, the new fuel may be temporarily stored in their shipping containers in the receiving area of the fuel Handling Building prior to placement in their designated storage locations: the new fuel storage racks and the spent fuel pool storage racks located in the Fuel Building. The shipping container array to be utilized at Braidwood, Unit 2, has been analyzed )
under all degrees of water moderation and/or reflection and found to be critically safe.
Assemblies are then removed from their shipping containers, inspected, and surveyed for external contamination. Assuming no contamination is detected and the fuel meets CE C0's technical specifications, the fuel is transferred to their designated storage locations.
Criticality safety of the storage locations is maintained by limiting the interaction between adjacent fuel assemblies. This condition is maintained in the new fuel storage racks such that 3 groups of 44 assemblies each, 2 rows j per group, have a center-to-center spacing of 21 inches. In the spent fuel J l
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Commonwealth Edison Company 3 storage racks, the fuel assemblies will be stored in a checkerboard pattern; the four adjacent storage locations to each fuel assembly are vacant. The staff has determined that such storage arrangements are critically safe under all degrees of water moderation and/or reflection.
The design of the storage locations, combined with plant procedures, will ensure acceptable protection of the general public and plant personnel under normal conditions.
Since the fresh fuel assemblies are sealed sources, the principal exposure pathway to an individual is via external radiation. For a low-enriched uranium fuel bundle (<4 percent U-235 enrichment), the exposure rate at a foot from the surface is normally less than 1 mr/hr; therefore, it is estimated that the exposure level to an individual from unirradiated fuel would be less than 25 percent of the maximum permissible exposure specified in 10 CFR 20.
Because of the low radiation exposure levels associated with the requested materials and activities and CE C0's radiation protection procedures, the staff concludes that fuel handling and storage activities can be carried out without any significant radiological impact to the environment.
Only a small amount, if any, of radioactive wastes (e.g., smear papers and/or contaminated packaging material) is expected to be generated during fuel handling and storage operations. Any. waste that is produced will be properly '
stored onsite until it can be shipped to a licensed disposal facility.
In the event the applicant must return assemblies to the fuel fabricator, all packaging and transport of fuel will be in accordance with 10 CFR 71. The package will meet NRC approval requirements for normal conditions of transport and hypothetical accident conditions. No significant external radiation hazards are associated with the unirradiated assemblies because the radiation level from the clad fuel is low and because the shipping packages must meet the external radiation standards in 10 CFR 71. Therefore, any shipment of unirradiated fuel by the applicant is expected to have an insignificant environmental impact.
CE C0 has installed redundant engineered-safety features on equipment intended for use in fuel handling and storage operations. These safety features combined with administrative controls minimize the likelihood of an accident situation occurring during fuel handling activities. In the unlikely event ,
that an assembly (either within or outside its shipping container) is dropped {
during transfer, the fuel cladding is not expected to rupture. Even if the i cladding were breached and the pellets were released, an insignificant {
environmental impact would result. The fuel pellets are composed of a ceramic )
U07 that has been pelletized and sintered to a very high density. In this ;
form, release of UO aerosol is highly unlikely except under conditions of {
deliberate grinding.2 Additionally, U07is soluble only in acid solution so 1 dissolution and release to the environment are extremely unlikely. j
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Commonwealth Edison Company 4 Conclusion Based upon the information presented above, the environmental impacts associated with new fuel storage at Braidwood Nuclear Generating Station, Unit 2, are expected to be insignificant. Essentially, no efflurnts,, liquid or airborne, will be released and acceptable controls will be implemented to prevent a radiological accident. Therefore, in accordance with 10 CFR 51.31, a Finding of No Significant Impact is considered appropriate for this action.
] bb Michelle A. Young Uranium Process Licensing Section Uranium Fuel Licensing Branch -
Division of Fuel Cycle and Material Safety, NMSS Approved by: * ' -
W. T. Crow, Section Leader 1
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