ML22132A310
| ML22132A310 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 04/21/2022 |
| From: | Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards |
| To: | |
| Abdullahi, Z, ACRS | |
| References | |
| NRC-1937 | |
| Download: ML22132A310 (38) | |
Text
Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Title:
Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards Thermal Hydraulics Subcommittee Open Session Docket Number: (n/a)
Location: teleconference Date: Thursday, April 21, 2022 Work Order No.: NRC-1937 Pages 1-22 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
Court Reporters and Transcribers 1716 14th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 234-4433
1 1
2 3
4 DISCLAIMER 5
6 7 UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSIONS 8 ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REACTOR SAFEGUARDS 9
10 11 The contents of this transcript of the 12 proceeding of the United States Nuclear Regulatory 13 Commission Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, 14 as reported herein, is a record of the discussions 15 recorded at the meeting.
16 17 This transcript has not been reviewed, 18 corrected, and edited, and it may contain 19 inaccuracies.
20 21 22 23 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com
1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + + + + +
4 ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REACTOR SAFEGUARDS 5 (ACRS) 6 + + + + +
7 ACCIDENT ANALYSIS: THERMAL HYDRAULICS SUBCOMMITTEE 8 + + + + +
9 OPEN SESSION 10 + + + + +
11 THURSDAY 12 APRIL 21, 2022 13 + + + + +
14 The Subcommittee met via Teleconference, 15 at 8:30 a.m. EDT, Jose March-Leuba, Chairman, 16 presiding.
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
2 1 COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
2 JOSE MARCH-LEUBA, Chairman 3 RONALD G. BALLINGER, Member 4 VICKI M. BIER, Member 5 CHARLES H. BROWN, JR. Member 6 VESNA B. DIMITRIJEVIC, Member 7 GREGORY H. HALNON, Member 8 WALTER L. KIRCHNER, Member 9 DAVID A. PETTI, Member 10 JOY L. REMPE, Member 11 MATTHEW W. SUNSERI, Member 12 13 ACRS CONSULTANT:
14 STEPHEN SCHULTZ 15 16 DESIGNATED FEDERAL OFFICIAL:
17 HOSSEIN NOURBAKHSH 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
3 1 CONTENTS 2
3 ACRS Chairman Introductory Remarks . . . . . . . 4 4 NRR Staff Open Session Remarks . . . . . . . . . 7 5 Westinghouse Electric Company Staff 6 Opening Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 7 Westinghouse Electric Company Staff 8 Open Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 9 NRC Staff Open Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 10 Public Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
4 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 8:30 a.m.
3 CHAIRMAN MARCH-LEUBA: This meeting will 4 now come to order.
5 This is a meeting of the Accident Analysis 6 Thermal-Hydraulic Subcommittee. I am Jose March-7 Leuba, the Subcommittee Chairman.
8 Because of COVID-19 concerns, this meeting 9 is being conducted in a hybrid manner. In addition to 10 in-person attendance at the NRC Headquarters, the 11 meeting is broadcasted via MS Teams.
12 Members in attendance are: Ron Ballinger, 13 Vicki Bier, Charles Brown, Vesna Dimitrijevic, Greg 14 Halnon, David Petti, Joy Rempe, and Matt Sunseri. In 15 addition, we have our consultant, Steve Schultz, on 16 the line.
17 Today, we are reviewing Topical Report 18 WCAP-18482-P, Revision 0, by Westinghouse Electric 19 Company, entitled, "Westinghouse Advanced Doped Pellet 20 Technology (ADOPT) Fuel."
21 Portions of our meeting will be closed to 22 the public to protect Westinghouse proprietary 23 information.
24 We have not received requests to provide 25 comments, but we will have an opportunity for spur-of-NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
5 1 the moment public comments before the beginning of the 2 closed section of the meeting.
3 The ACRS was established by a statute and 4 is governed by the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 FACA. As such, the Committee can only speak through 6 its published letter reports.
7 The rules for participation in all ACRS 8 meetings were announced in The Federal Register on 9 June 13th, 2019. The ACRS section of the U.S. NRC 10 public website provides our Charter, Bylaws, agendas, 11 letter reports, and full transcripts of the open 12 portions of all full and subcommittee meetings, 13 including the slides presented there.
14 The Designated Federal Official today is 15 Hossein Nourbakhsh.
16 A transcript of the meeting is being kept.
17 Therefore, speak into the microphones clearly and 18 state your name for the benefit of the court reporter.
19 Especially if you are joining the meeting 20 using the bridge line, please keep the microphone on 21 mute when not in use.
22 Members, this is not boilerplate. After 23 reviewing the Safety Evaluation, my conclusion will be 24 to write a positive ACRS letter recommending that the 25 staff issue the SER. However, a full Committee letter NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
6 1 will require a new presentation and will delay SER 2 publication by a couple of months, which I don't think 3 is warranted.
4 Therefore, I am proposing that, according 5 to our Bylaws, we use the P&P-approved meeting summary 6 procedure. I, as Subcommittee Chairman, will write a 7 couple of paragraphs that will be included in the 8 official summary of this meeting, if the full 9 Committee P&P approves it by a vote. Think of it as 10 a "letter lite."
11 During the presentations today, keep in 12 mind if any item rises to the importance of requiring 13 a letter, in which case we will follow standard 14 procedure and write a letter. Basically, if our 15 letter will have said, "Great job. Issue it," it is 16 not worth delaying SER publication. If our letter 17 would have substantive comments, then we need to be 18 aware that the delay is necessary.
19 At the end of the meeting, I will poll you 20 about your opinion. Once more, this situation is 21 covered in our Bylaws.
22 Finally, because of the possible position 23 of a conflict of interest, Member Rempe will be 24 limited in her participation into this discussion 25 regarding that obtained from the (audio interference)
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7 1 fuel testing and evaluation activities.
2 At this point, I'll request Mathew 3 Panicker from the NRC staff to present his opening 4 remarks.
5 Mathew?
6 MR. PANICKER: Thank you.
7 My name is Mathew Panicker. I am in the 8 Nuclear Metrics and Fuel Solutions of the Division of 9 Safety Systems. And I will be making the remarks for 10 DSS.
11 The Doped Fuel Topical Report from 12 Westinghouse is the first of probably seven TRs that 13 is being reviewed by the ACRS now. This was submitted 14 in May 2020, and we accepted it for comprehensive 15 review in June 2020. And the staff had several 16 opportunities to talk to Westinghouse during the audit 17 and the RAI responses, the last of which was a 18 supplemental submitted in November 2021.
19 The other Topical Report related to ATF is 20 WCAP-18446. It is "Incremental Extension Burnup Limit 21 for Westinghouse and CE Fuel Designs." And this is 22 another one.
23 The DSS is engaging Research to develop 24 the FAST code in order to support the ATF-related 25 Topical Reports for confirmatory calculations. And NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
8 1 there are other activities that the staff is doing.
2 They are preparing to review and license ATF fuels for 3 high burnup, increased enrichment, and they are all 4 related by the ATF Project Plan, which was updated in 5 September 2021 to reflect the industry's increased 6 focus on high burnups and increased enrichment fuel in 7 relation to ATF fuels.
8 Also, the ATF Project Plan describes a new 9 licensing burden, various increased stakeholder 10 engagement individually affiliated with new 11 technologies for any applications that are submitted.
12 So, we can understand, and possibly develop, the 13 issues like, of course, licensing delays.
14 In addition, the plan describes all the 15 stuff in our series: performing regulatory activities 16 for the application service, such as utilizing the 17 PIRT process to support the development of LARs or 18 other regulatory activities prior to submittal.
19 That's all I have now. If there are any 20 questions?
21 CHAIRMAN MARCH-LEUBA: Thank you, Matt.
22 We'll reserve the questions for the other 23 presentation, unless somebody has one.
24 So, at this point, we'll introduce Zach 25 Harper from Westinghouse to do the introductory NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
9 1 remarks for Westinghouse and introduce your team.
2 MR. HARPER: Thank you.
3 Good morning, everyone.
4 My name is Zach Harper. I appreciate the 5 ACRS's time today and appreciate the opportunity for 6 Westinghouse to present our advanced doped pellet 7 technology.
8 We have hard copies of the open and closed 9 presentation. If you need one, just let me know.
10 We have some team members here in the room 11 that we may end up calling on as subject matter 12 experts, and we also have a few team members on the 13 phone.
14 With me today are Kallie Metzger and Luke 15 Hallman. Kallie will present the open portion of the 16 meeting, and Luke will be the primary presenter for 17 the closed portion.
18 So, again, thank you for the opportunity, 19 and we look forward to the discussion.
20 DR. METZGER: Thank you, Zach.
21 Again, my name is Kallie Metzger. I'm the 22 Manager of the Accident Tolerant Fuel Program within 23 Westinghouse.
24 And I'd like to thank the Nuclear 25 Regulatory Commission staff, as well as the Advisory NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
10 1 Committee on Reactor Safeguards, for having us today 2 for this opportunity and the discussion.
3 Today's presentation material covers our 4 Westinghouse Topical on the Advanced Doped Pellet 5 Technology, or ADOPT, fuel, WCAP-18482.
6 To provide a little context for the ADOPT 7 fuel pellet, it fits into our portfolio of accident 8 tolerant fuels. We refer to the accident tolerant 9 fuel program as the EnCore fuel program because, much 10 like an encore, it's a response to our customer demand 11 for products with increased safety and economic 12 performance.
13 The portfolio is comprised of both 14 advanced cladding solutions as well as advanced fuel 15 technology products, and we are delivering the 16 accident tolerant fuel program in two phases. The 17 first phase includes chromium-coated zirc cladding 18 alongside ADOPT fuel pellets, and our second phase 19 includes silicon carbide composite cladding, as well 20 as advanced high density uranium nitride pellets.
21 The advanced cladding solutions, both 22 coated cladding zirconium alloys as well as silicon 23 carbide cladding, provide increased safety and 24 operational margin, and the chrome-coated zirconium 25 clad may enable high burnups.
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11 1 Similarly, the advanced fuel pellet 2 solutions, both ADOPT and uranium nitride, provide 3 higher density, enabling fuel cycle cost benefits, and 4 our ADOPT fuel pellets can also support high burnup.
5 A bit --
6 MEMBER REMPE: You know how ACRS members 7 are; we just interrupt.
8 (Laughter.)
9 DR. METZGER: Sure.
10 MEMBER REMPE: It's been a while since 11 we've had this opportunity to do this in person. So, 12 I thought I'd kind of start off a bit apologetic when 13 I finally did it.
14 But you're saying you have increased 15 safety margin and reduced cost. So, you're actually 16 offering these fuel assemblies to the plants for a 17 lower cost?
18 DR. METZGER: Well, I think that the 19 detail about the cost, there's nuance to it. But the 20 ability to have increased uranium loading in the fuel 21 pellet provides an economic benefit for increased fuel 22 cycle length and increased --
23 MEMBER REMPE: So, you're hoping, but 24 they're aren't giving a reduction like 20 percent off 25 or so? I was just curious in all that. And we're NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
12 1 still trying to evaluate the margin, but I'm sorry, I 2 just had to ask.
3 (Laughter.)
4 DR. METZGER: Absolutely. Understandable.
5 MEMBER BALLINGER: I would add that, 6 tongue in cheek, "Encore" is the name of a casino in 7 Boston.
8 MEMBER REMPE: A good one?
9 (Laughter.)
10 MEMBER BALLINGER: I have no idea, but 11 there's a lot of gambling going on there.
12 (Laughter.)
13 DR. METZGER: I daresay. Understood.
14 I'll get that back to the margining team.
15 (Laughter.)
16 So, a bit more about our ADOPT fuel 17 pellet. ADOPT stands for Advanced Doped Pellet 18 Technology. And it's a standard UO2 fuel pellet doped 19 with small amounts of alumina and chromia. These 20 additives facilitate densification and diffusion 21 during centering, resulting in a higher density and 22 enlarged grain size compared to standard UO2 fuel 23 pellets. This translates to benefits for higher 24 uranium density loading for improved fuel cycle 25 economics; larger grain size, providing improved NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
13 1 pellet-clad interaction at high temperatures; 2 increased oxidation resistance, and reduced transient 3 fission gas release.
4 Our Topical Report is focused on bringing 5 ADOPT to the U.S. PWR market.
6 Yes?
7 CHAIRMAN MARCH-LEUBA: I notice you didn't 8 mention extension of burnup here, even though that's 9 related.
10 DR. METZGER: That is covered, I believe, 11 in a separate Topical. This current Topical aims to 12 request burnups.
13 CHAIRMAN MARCH-LEUBA: But, in your 14 experience, does the doping of the pellet improve 15 burnup?
16 DR. METZGER: I believe that's covered in 17 our closed session, yes.
18 In terms of our operating experience, 19 ADOPT is a mature product. It is a fuel. It is a 20 commercial product for our European market with 21 extensive operating experience. We have over 23 years 22 of irradiation experience, 17 years of delivery on 23 reload scale; commercial operating experience with 24 burnups greater than 62 megawatt days per kgU, and 25 we've delivered more than 3400 fuel assemblies, or NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
14 1 over 680 metric tons of ADOPT fuel pellets. So, the 2 key takeaway is that ADOPT is a mature, standard, 3 commercial product.
4 MEMBER REMPE: Can you talk a little bit 5 about how much that experience is with PWRs versus 6 BWRs?
7 DR. METZGER: Sure. The bulk of our 8 operating experience in the European market has been 9 in support of BWRs. We do have experience with PWRs, 10 and that's the focus of the Topical and the WCAP 11 today.
12 MEMBER REMPE: And so, in the BWR, 13 historically, in the fuel they have a barrier coating.
14 Does any of that ADOPT fuel have a barrier coating 15 that you've had in the European market?
16 MR. MITCHELL: Dave Mitchell.
17 Yes, most of it had the barrier coating --
18 MEMBER REMPE: Would you talk on the mic?
19 CHAIRMAN MARCH-LEUBA: And say your name.
20 MR. MITCHELL: My name is David Mitchell 21 with Westinghouse.
22 Yes, most of the ADOPT fuel in Europe is 23 BWRs with lined cladding.
24 MEMBER REMPE: Okay. And so, can you talk 25 about it? Are you going to have that liner here? So, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
15 1 I mean, I'm just kind of thinking about. You're using 2 BWR --
3 MR. MITCHELL: No, the liner will not be 4 used in BWRs.
5 MEMBER REMPE: Okay. So, you're relying 6 on experience with BWR fuel with liner cladding, and 7 then, you're going to apply that for this Topical 8 Report?
9 MR. MITCHELL: Yes, because the standard 10 PCI methodologies that we have would be based on UO2 11 and would be conservative for ADOPT.
12 MEMBER REMPE: Okay. Thank you.
13 CHAIRMAN MARCH-LEUBA: And in all those 23 14 years of experience, and realizing that BWRs, mostly 15 when you have a leak or a failed fuel, it is mostly 16 from the outside, the lose part. Have you seen any 17 improvement on fuel failures? Or no significant 18 statistics, difference?
19 MR. MITCHELL: I think they take place at 20 different times. So, you can't back out the 21 difference in fuel integrity. ADOPT certainly is not 22 a detriment to it.
23 CHAIRMAN MARCH-LEUBA: Right, but nothing 24 that sticks out as this is going to cause more fuel 25 failure?
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16 1 MR. MITCHELL: No.
2 CHAIRMAN MARCH-LEUBA: Thank you.
3 MEMBER SUNSERI: Is there a technical 4 reason why there's such a delay in transitioning from 5 Europe to the U.S.? I mean, 23 years of experience 6 overseas -- no technical reason?
7 DR. METZGER: No technical reason.
8 MEMBER SUNSERI: Okay. Thank you.
9 DR. METZGER: Okay. And finally, a bit 10 more about our Topical and what's contained therein.
11 WCAP-18482 is a Topical Report to enable 12 the efficient licensing and region implementation of 13 Westinghouse ADOPT fuel. The Topical includes limits 14 of applicability. It discusses the interaction with 15 other Topical Reports and licensing considerations for 16 implementation; discusses our available qualification 17 data, and demonstrates applicability of existing 18 analytical methods and models, including nuclear 19 design, fuel rod design, thermal-hydraulic design, and 20 safety analysis. There will be additional detail 21 provided on these different areas in Luke Hallman's 22 closed topic presentation.
23 With that, I'll close out my opening 24 remarks and thank everyone again for this opportunity 25 and the discussion.
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17 1 CHAIRMAN MARCH-LEUBA: Okay. Remembering 2 that we are still in the open session, any more 3 questions for Westinghouse? We'll have an opportunity 4 to ask technical questions in the closed session.
5 (No response.)
6 Hearing none, who's doing the -- Mathew, 7 are you, or is Paul Clifford to do the presentation?
8 MR. PANICKER: Yes, I will do the open 9 session. Okay?
10 CHAIRMAN MARCH-LEUBA: Okay. NRC, go 11 ahead, whoever. So, you can go ahead.
12 MR. PANICKER: Next slide, please.
13 Yes, Westinghouse submitted this Topical 14 Report for ADOPT fuel in May 2020, and the staff 15 started reviewing it from June after accepting it.
16 The TR alludes, in general, to the type of additives 17 as a dopant, which are chromia, chromia oxide, and 18 alumina, alumina oxide. The TR has details on 19 microstructure, thermal and mechanical properties. In 20 addition, programs and experience where Westinghouse 21 has used this fuel in testing and reactors in Europe.
22 The fuel behavior: corrosion, swelling, 23 rod growth, fission gas release, Reactor Initiated 24 Accidents are described in the WCAP report.
25 The licensing criteria consists of fuel NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
18 1 rod design; safety analysis, both past and current 2 accident LOCA and non-LOCA, and containment integrity.
3 It has got a section on radiological consequence, and 4 finally, nuclear design and thermal-hydraulic design 5 when this fuel is used as the basis in the licensees' 6 facilities.
7 Next slide, please.
8 A short history of how the review of the 9 ADOPT Fuel Topical Report developed. There was a 10 virtual regulatory audited conducted by NRC staff, and 11 the documents were available to the staff for a very 12 long time, because of the mature nature of the audit.
13 Additionally, based on the audit, we 14 developed a request for additional information, and 15 the responses were received in two installments. And 16 because one or two of the issues had open issues, 17 Westinghouse supplemented them in November 2021.
18 Next slide, please.
19 This is a list of guidance used by the 20 staff to review this Topical Report: GDC 10, 246, 21 regarding the performance ECCS or LOCA considerations; 22 also, Appendix K, the LOCA analysis can be based on 23 extended care; GDC 35, which deals with emergency core 24 cooling, and the SRP is the guidance which was used 25 for reviewing it. Those are the categories or those NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
19 1 are the requirements, the guidelines for reviewing the 2 fuel system design; and also, containment functional 3 design is in Section 6.2.1, SRP Chapter 15, that deals 4 with transients and accident analysis.
5 Next slide, please.
6 So, ATF provides information and details 7 on microstructure, specific heat, thermal 8 conductivity, melting compression, thermal expansion, 9 elastic moduli, creep and hardening, and the details 10 on the revision programs and experience.
11 Next slide, please.
12 MEMBER REMPE: So, this is Joy, and I have 13 a question before you go to the next slide.
14 MR. PANICKER: Yes.
15 MEMBER REMPE: You know, historically, 16 when we look at power uprates, or whatever, we're 17 always interested in thermal conductivity degradation 18 as a function of burnup. Can you talk a little bit 19 about the type of data they provided in the open 20 session, or do we need to wait until the closed 21 session to hear about that?
22 MR. PANICKER: Thermal conductivity 23 depends on diffusivity -- we have to talk about it in 24 the closed session.
25 MEMBER REMPE: We can wait until the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1716 14th STREET, N.W., SUITE 200 (202) 234-4433 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20009-4309 www.nealrgross.com
20 1 closed session. Thank you.
2 MR. PANICKER: Uh-hum.
3 Next slide.
4 So, we looked at all this characterization 5 and licensing activity for fuel rods, FFRD, Reactivity 6 Initiated Accidents, gaseous swelling and cladding 7 strain, and then, all these listed for licensings:
8 clad strain, fuel rod internal pressure, clad fatigue, 9 clad oxidation, clad hydrogen pickup, axial growth, 10 clad-free standing, pellet overheating, pellet-clad 11 interaction, and interface to other safety analyses.
12 Next slide, please.
13 The staff responded that the TR provided 14 sufficient information on properties and 15 characterization of doped fuel, supplemented by the 16 responses through RAIs. The staff reviewed the ADOPT 17 fuel rod design criteria and safety analyses for both 18 LOCA and non-LOCA accident methodologies.
19 I think that's the end of this.
20 Next slide, please.
21 CHAIRMAN MARCH-LEUBA: I believe that's 22 the last one. Then, the next one is in --
23 MR. PANICKER: That's the last one, yes.
24 CHAIRMAN MARCH-LEUBA: So, Members, any 25 questions for the staff in the open session?
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21 1 (No response.)
2 At this point, I'd like to acknowledge 3 that Vice Chairman Walter Kirchner has joined us on 4 the conference, for the record.
5 I don't hear any questions. I would like 6 to make a comment for the record.
7 I find this Topical Report to be extremely 8 complex, but it is complex because it is very 9 complete. It is really rare that we review a fuel 10 product with 23 years of operating experience, and 11 that hasn't really been running in Europe for that 12 long. So, I find this an excellent work, and I wish 13 we could do more of these. Unfortunately, it's 14 impossible to do because you have to put your fuels 15 first somewhere. But I have no problems with your 16 Topical Report.
17 Any more comments and comments?
18 (No response.)
19 Then, I'm going to open the line for the 20 public.
21 Any member of the public that wants to 22 place a comment on there record and the transcript, 23 please identify yourself and say so. If you are in 24 the Teams meeting, just unmute yourself. If you are 25 on the bridge line, just press *6.
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22 1 We will wait five seconds for somebody to 2 make a comment.
3 (Pause.)
4 No comments.
5 This will conclude the open session of the 6 meeting, we will move to the more detailed technical 7 analysis in the closed session, which is different 8 phone numbers.
9 So, we are going to recess this session 10 for a moment, go off the transcript, and we will come 11 back at 9:15 in the closed session.
12 Please try to log into the new session 13 early because it always takes time to allow everybody 14 in from the lobby.
15 Thank you very much.
16 We are in recess for 15 minutes.
17 (Whereupon, at 8:55 a.m., the foregoing 18 matter went off the record in open session and went 19 back on the record in closed session at 9:15 a.m.)
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Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2022 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
LTR-NRC-22-18 Enclosure 2 ACRS Thermal-Hydraulic Phenomena Subcommittee Meeting TM Westinghouse Advanced Doped Pellet Technology (ADOPT ) Fuel, WCAP-18482-P/NP Kallie Metzger, Ph.D.
Manager, Accident Tolerant Fuel Program April 21, 2022 1
Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2022 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
LTR-NRC-22-18 Encore, ADOPTTM, and SIGATM are trademarks of Westinghouse Electric Company LLC, its affiliates, and/or its subsidiaries through the United States of America and may be registered in other countries throughout the world. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. 2
Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2022 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
LTR-NRC-22-18 Westinghouses EnCore Fuel Program The EnCore Fuel program is developing and commercializing advanced fuel products to improve safety and economic performance Chromium-Coated SiGATM Silicon Zr Cladding Carbide (SiC)
Advanced Cladding Composite Cladding
- Cr-Coated Zirconium - increases safety and operational margin, and may enable high burnup
- Silicon Carbide Cladding - safety and operational benefits Product Evolution Advanced Fuel ADOPT' Pellets Uranium Nitride
- ADOPT' fuel pellets - higher density, benefits to fuel cycle costs, and may support high burnup (UN) Pellets
- Advanced Pellet (UN) - provide improved fuel cycle economics, thermal properties, and lower operating temperatures U15N Fuel Photo courtesy of Los Alamos National Lab 3
Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2022 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
LTR-NRC-22-18 Enclosure 2 Introduction to ADOPT Fuel ADOPT (Advanced DOped Pellet Technology): Standard UO2 Pellet standard UO2 fuel doped with small amounts of Cr2O3 & Al2O3 Additives facilitate densification & diffusion during sintering resulting in a higher density & enlarged 20 µm grain size compared to undoped UO2
- Benefits: ADOPT' Pellet
- Higher uranium density for improved fuel cycle economics
- Larger grain size provides improved Pellet-Cladding Interaction (PCI) margin at high temperatures 20 µm
- Increased oxidation resistance
- Reduced transient fission gas release Topical Report is focused on bringing ADOPT technology to the US PWR market 4
Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2022 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
LTR-NRC-22-18 Operating Experience
- ADOPT fuel is a commercial product for the European market with extensive BWR operating experience and superior performance compared to standard UO2.
- 23 years of irradiation experience
- 17 years of deliveries in reload scale
- Commercial OE with burnups greater than 62 MWd/kgU
- More than 3400 fuel assemblies delivered
- More than 680 metric tons of ADOPT pellets delivered ADOPT is a standard commercial product 5
Westinghouse Non-Proprietary Class 3 © 2022 Westinghouse Electric Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.
LTR-NRC-22-18 Westinghouse Topical Report Overview
- WCAP-18482-P/NP is a topical report to enable efficient licensing and region implementation of Westinghouse ADOPT Fuel
- Proposes limits of applicability
- Discusses interaction with other topical reports and licensing considerations for implementation
- Discusses available qualification data
- Demonstrates applicability of existing analytical methods and models including:
- Nuclear Design
- Fuel Rod Design
- Thermal-Hydraulic Design, and
- Safety Analysis 6
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Staffs Evaluation of Westinghouse Electric Company Topical Report WCAP-18482-P/WCAP-18482-NP, Revision 0, Westinghouse Advanced Doped Pellet Technology (ADOPT') Fuel Mathew Panicker, Paul Clifford Nuclear Methods and Fuel Analysis Division of Safety Systems Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation ACRS Subcommittee Meeting Public Session April 21, 2022 1
Background
- Westinghouse Electric Company submitted topical report (TR) WCAP-18482-P/WCAP-18482-NP, Revision 0, Westinghouse Advanced Doped Pellet Technology (ADOPT') Fuel in May 2020.
- The TR includes:
- Additives: Cr2O3 (Chromia) and Al2O3 (Alumina)
- Microstructure of ADOPT
- Thermal Properties
- Mechanical Properties
- Irradiation Programs and Experience
- ADOPT fuel behavior: Corrosion, Swelling, Rod growth, Fission gas release, Reactivity Insertion Accident (RIA)
- Licensing Criteria: Fuel rod design, Safety Analyses (loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCA), Non-LOCA), Containment Integrity
- Radiological Consequence Analyses
- Nuclear Design, Thermal-Hydraulic Design 2
Overview and History
- WCAP-18482-P/WCAP-18482-NP, Revision 0, Westinghouse Advanced Doped Pellet Technology (ADOPT') Fuel submitted in May 2020
- The NRC staff performed acceptance review and accepted TR for review in June 2020
- Virtual regulatory audit was conducted by the NRC staff in November 2021
- Requests for Additional Information (RAIs) were issued in February 2021
- RAI responses:
- Responses to RAIs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, and 14 were received in March 2021
- Responses to RAIs 1, 9, 10, 11, and supplemental information for RAI 6 were received in June 2021
- Revised responses to RAIs 7a, 11, and supplemental response to RAI 9 were received in November 2021 3
Regulatory Evaluation
- 10 CFR 50.46(a)(1)(i) - each boiling or pressurized light water nuclear power reactor fueled with uranium oxide pellets within cylindrical zircaloy or ZIRLO cladding must be provided with an emergency core cooling system (ECCS) that must be designed so that its calculated cooling performance following postulated loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCA) conforms to the criteria set forth in Section 50.46(b)
- SRP Section 4.2, Fuel System Design
- No damage to fuel during NO and AOOs
- Fuel damage not severe to prevent CR insertion
- Number of fuel rod failures not underestimated for Pas
- Core coolability is maintained Other: - Fuel assemblies compatible with co-resident fuel
- Fuel assemblies to withstand handling and shipping loads
- SRP Section 6.2.1, Containment Functional Design
ADOPT Fuel Thermal and Mechanical Properties
- ADOPT TR provides information on:
- Microstructure
- Specific heat
- Thermal conductivity
- Melting temperature
- Thermal expansion
- Elastic moduli
- Creep and hardening
- Irradiation programs and experience
Characterization of ADOPT Fuel Performance and Licensing Criteria
- Fuel rod growth
- Reactivity Initiated Accident (RIA) performance
- Gaseous swelling and cladding strain
- Fuel Performance and Licensing
- Clad stress
- Clad strain
- Fuel rod internal pressure
- Clad fatigue
- Clad oxidation
- Clad hydrogen pickup
- Axial growth
- Clad free standing
- Pellet overheating
- Pellet-clad Interaction
- Interface to other safety analyses 6
ADOPT Fuel Conclusions
- TR provides sufficient information on properties and characterization of ADOPT fuel
- The NRC staff reviewed ADOPT fuel rod design criteria and safety analyses for both LOCA and non-LOCA methodologies 7
List of Acronyms ACRS Office of the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards AOO Anticipated Operating Occurrences CFR Code of Federal Regulations CR Control Rod FFRD Fuel Fragmentation, Relocation, Dispersal GDC General Design Criteria NO Normal Operation NRC U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission RAIs Requests for Additional Information SAFDLs Specified Acceptable Fuel Design Limits SRP NUREG-0800, Standard Review Plan for the Review of Safety Analysis Reports for Nuclear Power Plants 8