ML082630145

Confirmatory Action Letter: Commitments to Address Degraded Spent Fuel Pool Storage Rack Neutron Absorber

ML082630145
Person / Time
Site:	Palisades
Issue date:	09/18/2008
From:	Caldwell J L NRC/RGN-III
To:	Schwarz C J Entergy Nuclear Operations
References
FOIA/PA-2009-0026, CAL 3-08-003
Download: ML082630145 (6)

Text

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION REGION III 2443 WARRENVILLE ROAD, SUITE 210 LISLE, IL 60532-4352 September 18, 2008

CAL No. RIII-08-003

Mr. Christopher J. Schwarz Vice President, Operations Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.

Palisades Nuclear Plant 27780 Blue Star Memorial Highway Covert, MI 49043-9530

SUBJECT:

CONFIRMATORY ACTION LETTER - PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANT COMMITMENTS TO ADDRESS DEGRADED SPENT FUEL POOL STORAGE RACK NEUTRON ABSORBER

Dear Mr. Schwarz:

This letter confirms commitments by Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (ENO) in your letter dated August 27, 2008, (Agencywide Documents Access & Management System [ADAMS]

Accession Number ML082410132), to address your July 2008 determination that the Palisades Nuclear Plant (PNP) spent fuel pool (SFP) region I storage racks contain less neutron absorber material than assumed in the spent fuel pool criticality analysis of record.

Recent measurements identified that the neutron absorber in the storage racks was degraded.

This caused you to be in noncompliance with the PNP Technical Specification (TS) 4.3.1.1.b, "Design Features - Fuel Storage - Criticality," and 10 CFR 50.68 "Criticality Accident Requirements," which do not credit the soluble boron in the SFP.

In addition, you have determined that TS 3.7.15, "Limiting Conditions for Operation - Plant Systems - Spent Fuel Pool (SFP) Boron Concentration," with respect to SFP region I, is nonconservative in accordance with NRC Administrative Letter 98-10, "Dispositioning of Technical Specifications That Are Insufficient to Assure Plant Safety."

Based on the information you provided and implementation of the commitments identified in this letter, the NRC concludes that the SFP has sufficient criticality margins to maintain the pool with a K-effective of less than 0.95 with soluble boron and K-effective less than 1.0 without soluble boron. Therefore, the NRC concludes that your spent fuel pool remains safe under current conditions.

In your letter, you confirmed four ENO commitments to remain in effect to ensure that the fuel assemblies within the spent fuel pool remain in a subcritical condition until compliance with the requirements in PNP TS 4.3.1.1.b, 10 CFR 50.68, and the Updated Final Safety Analysis Report (UFSAR) is established. Those commitments, as clarified in telephone discussions with L. Lahti of your staff, and R. Telson, the NRC Regi on III Branch Chief, on Sept ember 3 and 18, 2008, and R. Lerch, NRC Project Engineer, on September 10, 2008, are as follows:

1. ENO will add no fuel assemblies to the SFP. In addition, no fuel will be moved from region II to region I of the SFP.

C. Schwarz

2. ENO will develop a qualitative or quantitative basis prior to fuel moves that demonstrates that the moves in region I of the SFP will maintain or improve current margins to preclude criticality. ENO will notify the resident inspectors seven days prior to fuel moves in the SFP. NRC staff will not provide concurrence on the proposed fuel moves or the basis.

3. ENO will maintain SFP temperature between 75 °F and 125 °F in accordance with plant procedures.

4. ENO will maintain Boron concentration in the SFP greater than 2550 ppm at all times.

Your letter also provided specific ENO planned actions and target dates to restore regulatory compliance for near-term restricted use of the SFP, by February 18, 2009, prior to a 2009 scheduled refueling outage, and for long-term general use of the SFP by August 2010.

Achieving your near-term goal will be largely dependent on submittal of a high-quality license amendment application. The application must contain sufficient technical information, both in scope and depth, to permit the NRC staff to conduct an independent assessment of the proposed amendment with regard to applicable regulatory requirements and the protection of public health, safety, and security. We encourage ENO to engage NRC staff as early as possible. To aid in this effort, a public meeting was conducted on September 16, 2008, between members of your staff and appropriate NRC staff.

Pursuant to Section 182 of the Atomic Energy Act, 42 U.S.C. 2232, you are required to:

1. Notify me immediately if your understanding differs from that set forth above;

2. Notify me in writing if you intend to change, deviate from, or not complete any of the actions documented in your commitment letter as discussed in this Confirmatory Action Letter prior to the change or deviation;

3. Notify me if for any reason you cannot complete the actions and commitments within the specified schedule and advise me in writing of your modified schedule in advance of the change; and

4. Notify me in writing when you have completed the actions and commitments addressed in this Confirmatory Action Letter.

Issuance of this Confirmatory Action Letter does not preclude issuance of an order formalizing the above commitments or requiring other actions on the part of the licensee; nor does it preclude the NRC from taking enforcement action for violations of NRC requirements that may have prompted the issuance of this letter. In addition, failure to take the actions addressed in this Confirmatory Action Letter may result in enforcement action.

This Confirmatory Action Letter will remain in effect until the NRC has concluded that you have reestablished compliance with your license requirements for the spent fuel pool.

C. Schwarz

Reestablishment of compliance is expected to require your submittal and our approval of an acceptable license amendment request to revise technical specifications associated with the SFP and your implementation of the amended technical specifications.

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter and your response will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the NRC's ADAMS, accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To the extent possible, any response should not include any personal privacy, proprietary, or safeguards information so that it can be made available to the public without redaction. If personal privacy or proprietary information is necessary to provide an acceptable response, then please provide a bracketed copy of your response that identifies the information that should be protected and a redacted copy of your response that deletes such information. If you request withholding of such material, you must specifically identify the portions of your response that you seek to have withheld and provide in detail the bases for your claim of withholding (e.g., explain why the disclosure of information will create an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy or provide the information required by 10 CFR 2.390(b) to support a request for withholding confidential commercial or financial information). If safeguards information is necessary to provide an acceptable response, please provide the level of protection described in 10 CFR 73.21.

Sincerely,

/RA/

James L. Caldwell Regional Administrator

Docket No. 50-255 License No. DPR-20

DISTRIBUTION See next page Letter to C. Schwarz from J. Caldwell dated September 18, 2008

SUBJECT:

CONFIRMATORY ACTION LETTER - PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANT COMMITMENTS TO ADDRESS DEGRADED SPENT FUEL POOL STORAGE RACK NEUTRON ABSORBER

cc: Senior Vice President Vice President Oversight Senior Manager, Nuclear Safety & Licensing Senior Vice President and COO Assistant General Counsel Manager, Licensing W. DiProfio W. Russell G. Randolph Supervisor, Covert Township Office of the Governor T. Strong, State Liaison Officer Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Michigan Office of the Attorney General C. Schwarz

Reestablishment of compliance is expected to require your submittal and our approval of an acceptable license amendment request to revise technical specifications associated with the SFP and your implementation of the amended technical specifications.

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's "Rules of Practice," a copy of this letter and your response will be made available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the NRC's ADAMS, accessible from the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To the extent possible, any response should not include any personal privacy, proprietary, or safeguards information so that it can be made available to the public without redaction. If personal privacy or proprietary information is necessary to provide an acceptable response, then please provide a bracketed copy of your response that identifies the information that should be protected and a redacted copy of your response that deletes such information. If you request withholding of such material, you must specifically identify the portions of your response that you seek to have withheld and provide in detail the bases for your claim of withholding (e.g., explain why the disclosure of information will create an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy or provide the information required by 10 CFR 2.390(b) to support a request for withholding confidential commercial or financial information). If safeguards information is necessary to provide an acceptable response, please provide the level of protection described in 10 CFR 73.21.

Sincerely,

/RA/

James L. Caldwell Regional Administrator

Docket No. 50-255 License No. DPR-20

DISTRIBUTION See next page Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested

DOCUMENT NAME: G:\PALI\Palisades SFP CAL.doc Publicly Available Non-Publicly Available Sensitive Non-Sensitive To receive a copy of this document, indicate in the concurrence box "C" = Copy without attach/encl "E" = Copy with attach/encl "N" = No copy OFFICE RIII RIII RIII RIII NAME RLerch:dtp RTelson KO'Brien CPederson by GShear for DATE 09/12/08 09/12/08 09/12/08 09/18/08 OFFICE NRR RIII NAME ELeeds JCaldwell DATE 09/18/08 09/18/08 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY

Letter to C. Schwarz from J. Caldwell dated September 18, 2008

SUBJECT:

CONFIRMATORY ACTION LETTER - PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANT COMMITMENTS TO ADDRESS DEGRADED SPENT FUEL POOL STORAGE RACK NEUTRON ABSORBER

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