ML25090A227
| ML25090A227 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | 05200050, 99902078 |
| Issue date: | 04/08/2025 |
| From: | Rohrman R NRC/NRR/DNRL/NRLB |
| To: | Jardaneh M NRC/NRR/DNRL/NRLB |
| Shared Package | |
| ML25090A226 | List: |
| References | |
| Download: ML25090A227 (1) | |
Text
MEMORANDUM TO:
Mahmoud Jardaneh, Chief New Reactor Licensing Branch Division of New and Renewed Licenses Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation FROM:
River J. Rohrman, Project Manager New Reactor Licensing Branch Division of New and Renewed Licenses Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
SUBJECT:
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
SUMMARY
OF THE MARCH 21, 2025, OBSERVATION PUBLIC MEETING ON THE NUSCALE US460 FUEL STORAGE RACK DESIGN TOPICAL REPORT REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION RESPONSES The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) held an observation public meeting on March 21, 2024, to discuss NuScale Power, LLCs (NuScale or the applicant) request for additional information (RAI) responses for the NuScale US460 Fuel Storage Rack Design Topical Report, TR-145417 available in the NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management Systems (ADAMS) Accession No. ML23283A336. The RAI questions are available at ML25044A058 and the responses at ML25051A299. This meeting was part of the review process for the topical report and facilitated discussion of the information the NRC staff is looking for and provided NuScale an opportunity to provide clarifications. The meeting consisted of open and closed portions.
During the open portion of the meeting, the NRC staff gave feedback on the nonproprietary RAI question regarding NuScales use of 5% as the reactivity uncertainty in the depletion code, TRITON/ORIGEN-S. The applicants justification stems from NEI 12-16, Guidance for Performing Criticality Analyses of Fuel Storage at Light-Water Reactor Power Plants, Revision 4 (ML19269E069) which is endorsed by Regulatory Guide 1.240, Fresh and Spent Fuel Pool Criticality Analyses, March 2021. NEI 12-16, Section 4.3.2, BWR Depletion Uncertainty, allows the use of 5% reactivity uncertainty if the lattice depletion code is used consistently with previous nuclear design calculations for commercial power reactor licensing.
CONTACT:
River J. Rohrman, NRR/DNRL Getachew Tesfaye, NRR/DNRL 301-415-8013 April 8, 2025 Signed by River Rohrman on 04/08/25
M.Jardaneh 2
The NRC staff comments included:
Over 20 precedents were provided by NuScale without establishing a nexus to their use case with TRITON/ORIGEN-S as the depletion code.
Fuel design changes in the future will need to be evaluated pursuant to this topical report, and reasonable assurance is needed that the depletion code does currently and will continue to produce reliable and predictable results.
More information is needed to provide the assurance within this use case and to establish an applicability range for the topical report.
In response to the NRC staffs feedback, NuScale verbally provided a history of the 5%
reactivity uncertainty use and engineering justification. NuScale stated that EPRI intended the uncertainty to be used with no further requirement. The technical basis for the 5% in NEI 12-16 is available in EPRIs presentation to the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ML21078A131). EPRI also included TRITON in the validation and basis of the benchmarks in the topical reports that were referenced in the RAI response. NuScale reiterated their position that NEI 12-16 provides an option to use the 5% depletion uncertainty which is shown to be conservative alongside the methodology in Section 4.2.1 of the NEI document, which they have followed in this topical report.
The closed portion of the meeting was held to discuss the proprietary information related to the remaining RAI questions.
The public meeting notice dated March 21, 2025, was posted on the NRC public website, and can be found under ML25074A001. The enclosure to this summary provides a list of the meeting participants.
Docket Nos.: 99902078 and 05200050
Enclosure:
List of Attendees cc w/encl.: NuScale Power, LLC GovDelivery
Pkg: ML25090A226 Memo: ML25090A227 Meeting Notice: ML25074A001
- via email NRR-106 OFFICE NRR/DNRL/NRLB: PM NRR/DNRL/NLIB: LA NRR/DNRL/NRLB: PM NAME RRohrman SGreen GTesfaye DATE 03/31/25 04/01/25 04/07/25 OFFICE NRR/DNRL/NRLB: BC NRR/DNRL/NRLB: PM NAME MJardaneh RRohrman DATE 04/07/25
Enclosure U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
SUMMARY
OF THE MARCH 21, 2025, OBSERVATION PUBLIC MEETING ON THE NUSCALE US460 FUEL STORAGE RACK DESIGN TOPICAL REPORT REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION RESPONSES LIST OF ATTENDEES March 21, 2025 Name Organization Mahmoud Jardaneh U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
Getachew Tesfaye NRC River Rohrman NRC Scott Krepel NRC Kent Wood NRC Hiruy Hadgu NRC Lisette Madalena NRC Thomas Griffith NuScale Kenny Anderson NuScale Kris Cummings NuScale Harlie Gray NuScale Allyson Callaway NuScale Ken Rooks NuScale Mark Shaver NuScale Gary Becker NuScale Tim Schmitt Framatome Rebecca Knott Framatome Glen Seeburger Framatome Joseph Faldowski Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
Bob Hall EPRI Tim Polich RoPower Dan erbnescu RoPower