ML23355A232
| ML23355A232 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | 99900003 |
| Issue date: | 01/18/2024 |
| From: | Phillpot S NRC/NRR/DANU/UAL2 |
| To: | Hayes M NRC/NRR/DNRL/NLIB |
| References | |
| Download: ML23355A232 (6) | |
Text
January 18, 2024 MEMORANDUM TO:
Michelle Hayes, Chief Licensing and Regulatory Infrastructure Branch Division of New and Renewed Licenses Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation FROM:
Stephen Philpott, Senior Project Manager /RA/
Advanced Reactor Licensing Branch 2 Division of Advanced Reactors and Non-Power Production and Utilization Facilities Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
SUBJECT:
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
SUMMARY
OF THE OCTOBER 2, 2023, PARTIALLY CLOSED MEETING WITH GE-HITACHI TO DISCUSS PRELIMINARY FEEDBACK ON THE BWRX-300 SAFETY STRATEGY TOPICAL REPORT READINESS ASSESSMENT The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff held a partially closed meeting with GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, LLC (GEH) on October 2, 2023, to provide preliminary NRC staff feedback as part of its readiness assessment of the GEH draft topical report NEDC-33934P, BWRX-300 Safety Strategy, for the BWRX-300 small modular reactor design.
The purpose of this meeting was for the NRC staff to discuss some preliminary observations regarding the draft topical report (Draft Revision A) made available for NRC staff viewing in a GEH-controlled Electronic Reading Room (eRR).
The staff is conducting the readiness assessment in accordance with the NRC Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulations Office Instruction LIC-116, Revision 0, Preapplication Readiness Assessment, (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML20104B698) and as outlined in Appendix A, Pre-Application Engagement Guidance, to the NRC Draft Interim Staff Guidance, Review of Risk-Informed, Technology-Inclusive Advanced Reactor ApplicationsRoadmap, (ML22048B546).
CONTACT: Stephen Philpott, NRR/DANU (301) 415-2365
The meeting notice can be found under ML23265A227. This meeting notice was posted on the NRC public website as a partially closed meeting because the draft topical report was not submitted to the NRC but was made available for NRC staff viewing as preliminary draft and proprietary commercial information. The NRC staffs presentation slides are available at ML23355A235.
The NRC staff opened the meeting by giving a brief overview of the background and purpose of the readiness assessment being conducted regarding GEHs proposed draft topical report BWRX-300 Safety Strategy. The NRC staff summarized the previous pre-application engagements regarding the BWRX-300 Safety Strategy which began in June 2022. Details of these prior engagements are noted in the NRC staffs presentation slides. The NRC staff also provided some general feedback from its readiness assessment review which began on July 26, 2023. Specifically, the NRC staff stated that while they are open to efforts to align with international regulatory frameworks, GEH and any applicants using the BWRX-300 safety strategy will need to demonstrate compliance with the NRCs requirements specified in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 50, Domestic Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities, or address differences between the safety strategy and those requirements. Additionally, the staff noted that it remains unclear how the safety strategy addressed previous feedback the NRC staff provided on this topic including meeting specific 10 CFR Part 50 requirements.
Prior to the meeting, the NRC staff provided some preliminary observations on the draft Licensing Tropical Report (LTR) to be discussed in the closed portion of the meeting.1 (The preliminary observations are non-publicly available because they relate to specific information in the draft topical report that was not submitted to the NRC but was made available for NRC staff viewing as preliminary draft and proprietary commercial information as part of the readiness assessment process.)
The staff from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) review team attended this meeting as part of a 2019 memorandum of cooperation between the NRC and CNSC (ML19168A017), and a September2022 Charter on Collaboration on GEHs BWRX-300 Design (ML22284A024).
At the conclusion of the open portion of the meeting, the public was invited to make comments or ask questions of the NRC staff. No comments or questions from members of the public were received.
During the closed portion of the meeting, the NRC staff and GEH staff discussed specific details related to the preliminary observations, some of which had been discussed with GEH in prior meetings. The topics discussed included justification for the use of non-safety-related equipment to mitigate anticipated operational occurrences and the potential need for associated exemptions, application of design-basis accident acceptance criteria within the safety strategy, and safety classification and reliability of functions and related components. There were no regulatory decisions made during this meeting.
1 See ML23355A238 for the staffs preliminary observations (non-public) dated September 29, 2023.
GEH informed the NRC staff that it intends to revise the draft Safety Strategy LTR and provide responses to the preliminary observations. GEH will make the revised draft LTR and the preliminary observation responses available to the NRC staff via the GEH-controlled eRR, after which the NRC staff will resume the readiness assessment. The NRC staff will review the revised draft topical report and provide its feedback in a future meeting with GEH, to be scheduled after these updates are provided. On December 1, 2023, the NRC staff provided an update to the Readiness Assessment Engagement Plan to revise the schedule and plan for completing the readiness assessment (ML23355A267).
Project No. 99900003
Enclosure:
List of Attendees
SUBJECT:
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
SUMMARY
OF THE OCTOBER 2, 2023, PARTIALLY CLOSED MEETING WITH GE-HITACHI TO DISCUSS PRELIMINARY FEEDBACK ON THE BWRX-300 SAFETY STRATEGY TOPICAL REPORT READINESS ASSESSMENT DATE: JANUARY 18, 2024 DISTRIBUTION:
PUBLIC NRLB R/F AGrady, NRR AStubbs, NRR BParks, NRR BSmith, NRR BLee, NRR BWitick, NRR CCheung, NRR CVanWert, NRR DTaneja, NRR ERobinson, NSIR EDickson, NRR JGlisan, NRR JShea, NRR JAshcraft, MHayes, NRR MBiro, NRR MFranovich, NRR MPohida, NRR NHansing, NRR RPatton, NRR RNolan, NRR SVasavada, NRR SRosenberg, NRR SJones, NRR SLee, NRR SPhilpott, NRR TScarbrough, NRR YWong, NRR RidsNrrOd Resource RidsNrrDnrl Resource RidsNrrDnrlNLIB Resource RidsOgcMailCenter Resource RidsAcrsMailCenter Resource ADAMS Package Accession No.: ML23355A229 Meeting Summary: ML23355A232 NRC-001 OFFICE NRR/DANU/UAL2:PM NRR/DNRL/NRLB: LA NRR/DNRL/NRLB:BC NRR/DANU/UAL2:PM NAME SPhilpott SGreen MHayes SPhilpott DATE 12/21/2023 01/10/2024 1/18/2024 1/18/2024
M. Hayes 5
OFFICIAL RECORD COPY
OFFICIAL USE ONLY - PROPRIETARY INFORMATION Off OFFICIAL USE ONLYOFFICIAL USE ONLY Enclosure U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
SUMMARY
OF THE OCTOBER 2, 2023, PARTIALLY CLOSED MEETING WITH GE-HITACHI TO DISCUSS PRELIMINARY FEEDBACK ON THE BWRX-300 SAFETY STRATEGY TOPICAL REPORT READINESS ASSESSMENT List of Attendees Name Organization Name Organization Angelo Stubbs U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
Phillip Henderson GEH Anne-Marie Grady NRC Shelby Small GEH Benjamin Parks NRC Terry Beltz GEH Brian Lee NRC Thomas Demitrack GEH Brian Smith NRC Thomas Walker GEH Brian Wittick NRC Kenton McMeekin Ontario Power Generation (OPG)
Calvin Cheung NRC Nikola Popov OPG Chris Van Wert NRC Andrew Rahn Tennesee Valley Authority (TVA)
Dinesh Taneja NRC Dakota Huddleston TVA Edward Robinson NRC Edward Schulte TVA Elijah Dickson NRC James Ashe TVA Jim Shea NRC Jason Morton TVA Jordan Glisan NRC Jeffrey Padgett TVA Joseph Ashcraft NRC Kevin Casey TVA Marie Pohida NRC Kevin Groom TVA Michelle Hayes NRC Norman Mynatt TVA Mihaela Biro NRC Owen Scott TVA Mike Franovich NRC Raymond Schiele TVA Nicholas Hansing NRC Robert Kirkpatrick TVA Rebecca Patton NRC Robert Long TVA Ryan Nolan NRC Stephen Kimura TVA Shilp Vasavada NRC Stephen Mergy TVA Stacey Rosenberg NRC Steven Brown TVA Stephen Philpott NRC Steven Hilmes TVA Steve Jones NRC Teri Conner TVA Thomas Scarbrough NRC Tony Lentz TVA Yuken Wong NRC William Ryan TVA Sanja Simic Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC)
Andrew Brenner Holtec Yong Chang Liu CNSC Clark Shurtleff Holtec Andrej Sipaj GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, LLC (GEH)
Justin Hawkins Holtec Bruce Bennett GEH Rick Springman Holtec David Hinds GEH Thomas Marcille Holtec Frostie White GEH Ewa Muzikova Ultra Safe Nuclear George Wadkins GEH Steven Pope Information Systems Laboratories, Inc.
Jesus Diaz-Quiroz GEH Jana Bergman Curtiss Wright Louis Lanese GEH Nilesh Matthew Warden GEH