ML20245H764

Advises That NRC Finds Cycle 8 Core Surveillance Rept Acceptable & Grants Waiver from 60-day Advanced Submittal Requirement

ML20245H764
Person / Time
Site:	North Anna
Issue date:	06/26/1989
From:	Engle L Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
To:	Cartwright W VIRGINIA POWER (VIRGINIA ELECTRIC & POWER CO.)
References
NUDOCS 8906300081
Download: ML20245H764 (3)

Text

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-UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULA'ORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D. C. 20655 l

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- June 26, 1989

' Docket No. 50-338' ,

,Mr.-W. R. Cartwright

. 1 Vice President - Nuclear j Virginia. Electric and Power Company J 5000 Dominion Blvd. i Glen Allen,; Virginia 23060 j i

Dear. Mr. ' Cartwrig ht:

1

SUBJECT:

NORTH ANNA POWER STATION, UNIT 1 (NA-1) - CYCLE 8 CORE

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SURVEILLANCE-REPORT -j The NA-1 Technical Specification (TS) 6.9.1.7 requires a Core Surveillance Repc-t be provided to the NRC 60 days prior to cycle criticality unless a i waivei is granted by the NRC. i 1

By: letter l dated . April 18, 1989, you requested that'the 60-day advance submittal requirement be waived by the NRC for'the following reasons.

NA-1 was originally scheduled to complete its seventh cycle of. operation on.

February 3,1989. However, because of system load demands and changing outage

~ scheoules for other plants within the system, the NA-1 refueling outage was .

postponed until Apr1110,1989. This schedule change required reactor operation.

beyond the burnup range used for the initial Cycle 8 reload core design. The.

_ Cycle 8 core redesign process was scheouled to be complete in time to support

the April. 10, 1989 refueling outage. However, NA-1 Cycle 7 operation'was ter-minated on February E.,1989 when the unit experienced a reactor trip caused by the closure of a main feedwater regulating valve. Circumstances accompanying.

-the reactor trip dictated that NA-1 commence the Cycle 7/ Cycle 8 refueling outage earlier than scheduled. Therefore, because Cycle 7 operation was terminated approximately 1-1/2 months earlier than expected, the Cycle 8 startup date was also moved fontard and VEPC0 was unable to complete the reload core design and safety analysis in time to meet the 60-day requirement.

By letter dated April 28, 1989, you submitted the required Cycle 8 Core Surveil-

' lance Report for NA-1. By letter dated June 20, 1989', you again requested that an additional waiver from TS 6.9.1.7 reporting requirements be granted for the following reasons.

Subsequent to the items discussed above, you conducted a visual and ultrasonic examination of fuel asseslies which would be part of the Cycle 8 core. . As a.

result of these inspections, two assemblies were identified as having failures, creating the need to modify the design assumptions for Cycle 8. In addition, one demonstration assembly was removed from tha previously planned cycle design due to difficulties in replacing the removable top nozzle on that assedly.

Therefore, you revised the Cycle 8 reload core design which replaced the above 8906300001 890626 [o g PDR ADOCK 05000338 P PNV { te o _ _ _ _ _ ___ l

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Mr. W. R. Cartwright June 26, 1989 L

mentioned fuel assenblies with other assenblies from the NA-1&2' spent fuel pool.

The purpose of the June 20, 1989 letter was to advise'the NRC of the revised

. plans for, the Cycle 8 reload core and to transmit'the revised Core Surveillance Report containing specific power distribution limits applicable for Cycle 8 operations.

The Cycle 8 reload' core was analyzed in accordance with the methodology' documented -

in the. NRC-approved topical report VEP-FRD-42, Revision I-A, " Reload Nuclear Design Methodology," using NRC-approved codes as referenced in the topical. The information in the report was developed in accordance with topical report VEP-NE-1A, " Relaxed Power Distribution control Methodology and Associated FQ Surveillance Technical specifications." The results of these analyses indicated that no key analysis parameters would become more limiting during Cycle 8 operation than the values-assumed in the currently applicable safety analyses. '

Further, the analyses demonstrated that the current TS are appropriate and require no additional changes.

The Core Surveillance Report consists of the NA-1 Cycle 8 N(z) function and the axial flux differences, which are based upon the currently-approved total peaking factor (F q

) limit of 2.19.

Based on the above, the staff finds the NA-1 Cycle 8 Core Surveillance Report to be acceptable and a waiver is hereby granted to the NA-1 TS 6.9.1.7 ,

reporting requirements.

Sincerely, Original signed by i

Leon B. Engle, Project Manager Project Directorate 11-2 Division of Reactor Projects-I/II i Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation cc: See next page DISTRIBUTION KDocket J Ue n DMiller NRC & Local PDRs LEngle PDII-2 Reading OGC (for info. )

SVarga,14/E/4 EJordan, 3302 MNBB Glainas,14/H/3 BGrimes, 9/A/2 i HBerkow MSinkule, RII J l

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Mr. W. R. Cartwright North Anna Power Station Virginia Electric & Power Company _ Units 1 and 2 cc:

Mr. William C. Porter, Jr. C. M. G. Buttery , M. D. , M. P.H.

County Administrator Department of Health Louisa County 109 Governor Street P.O. Box 160 Richmond, Virginia 23219 Louisa, Virginia 23093 Regional Administrator, Region II Michael W. Maupin, Esq. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Hunton and Williams 101 Marietta Street N.W., Suite 2900 P. O. Box 1535 Atlanta, Georgia 30323 Richmond, Virginia 23212 Mr. W. T. Lough Virginia Corporation Commission Mr. G. E. Kane Division of Energy Regulation P. O. Box 402 P. O. Box 1197 Mineral, Virginia 23117 Richmond, Virginia 23209 Old Dominion Electric Cooperative c/o Executive Vice President Innsbrook Corporate Center 4222 Cox Road, Suite 102 Glen Allen, Virginia 23060 Mr. W. L. Stewart Senior Vice President - Power Virginia Electric and Power Co.

Post Office Box 26666 Richmond, Virginia 23261 Mr. Patrick A. O' Hare Office of the Attorney General Supreme Court Building 101 North 8th Street Richmond, Virginia 23219 Resident Inspector / North Anna c/o U.S. NRC Senior Resident Inspector Route 2, Box 78 Mineral, Virginia 23117

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