ML11130A006

Summary of Telephone Conference Call Held on May 5, 2011, Between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and PSEG Nuclear, LLC, Concerning Questions Pertaining to the Salem Nuclear Generating Station, Units 1 and 2, License Renewal Applicat

ML11130A006
Person / Time
Site:	Salem
Issue date:	05/26/2011
From:	Cuadradodejesus S License Renewal Projects Branch 1
To:	Public Service Enterprise Group
CuadradoDeJesus S
References
Download: ML11130A006 (8)

Text

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LICENSEE: PSEG Nuclear, LLC FACILITY: Salem Nuclear Generating Station, Units 1 and 2,

SUMMARY

OF TELEPHONE CONFERENCE CALL HELD ON MAY 5, 2011, BETWEEN THE U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION AND PSEG NUCLEAR, LLC, CONCERNING QUESTIONS PERTAINING TO THE SALEM NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION, UNITS 1 AND 2, LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the staff), representatives of PSEG Nuclear, LLC (the applicant), and Exelon Nuclear, held a telephone conference call on May 5, 2011, to discuss and clarify the staff's questions concerning the Salem Nuclear Generating Station, Unit 1 and Unit 2, license renewal application. The telephone conference call was useful in clarifying the intent of the staff's questions.

Enclosure 1 provides a listing of the partiCipants; Enclosure 2 contains a brief summary of the discussion and status of the items; Enclosure 3 contains the draft request for additional information (D-RAI), and Enclosure 4 contains references on boric acid corrosion.

The applicant had an opportunity to comment on this summary.

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~el *Cuadrado de Jesus, Project Manager Projects Branch 1 Division of License Renewal Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket Nos. 50-272 and 50-311

Enclosures:

As stated cc w/encls: Listserv

TELEPHONE CONFERENCE CALL SALEM NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION, UNITS 1 AND UNIT 2, LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION LIST OF PARTICIPANTS May 5,2011 PARTICIPANTS AFFILIATIONS Samuel Cuadrado de Jesus U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

Bennett Brady NRC John Wise NRC Bo Pham NRC Christopher Wilson Exelon Philip O'Donnell Exelon Albert Piha Exelon Don Warfel Exelon Ali Fakhar PSEG ENCLOSURE 1

SUMMARY

OF MEETING ON QUESTIONS ON THE SALEM NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION, UNITS 1 AND 2 LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION May 5,2011 The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the staff), representatives of PSEG Nuclear, LLC, and Exelon Nuclear, held a telephone conference call on May 5, 2011, to discuss and clarify the following draft request for additional information (D-RAI) related to aging management of stainless steel components and steel components with stainless steel cladding exposed to treated borated water with high oxygen content.

Discussion:

At the beginning of the discussion, the NRC explained that Generic Aging Lessons Learned (GALL) Report, Revision 1 (GALL 1) had considered boron an inhibitor of corrosion. While it is true that Borates in the correct content may be an inhibitor of corrosion Boron by itself does not.

This may have led to the error in GALL Revision 1. For BWRs, in systems with treated boron water, the GALL recommends the Water Chemistry and the One-Time Inspection Programs.

The phrase "boron, a recognized corrosion inhibitor" was removed from GALL 2 but the authors did not follow through on making the correction in all the line items.

The NRC is now asking current PWR applicants to review the systems with treated borated water and with greater than 100 parts per billion (ppb) oxygen, to identify equipment that may need to add the One-Time Inspection Program to verify the effectiveness of the Water Chemistry Program credited for aging management. The draft RAI identified some of the systems at Salem that might be affected and the NRC asked the applicant to review additional systems as necessary.

The NRC will be issuing an Interim Staff Guidance on this issue.

The applicant asked for the source documents on this question. The NRC agreed to send the applicant the references as shown in Enclosure 4.

The applicant asked whether systems with treated borated water that had less than 100 ppb oxygen could be excluded from the scope of potentially affected systems. The NRC agreed that they could.

As a result of the discussion the applicant stated that they'll address the concerns in draft RAI 3.2.1.48 through a LRA supplement letter.

The NRC will not send a formal RAJ. The NRC will review the applicants' supplement and will revise the Salem Safety Evaluation Report when the NUREG version is published.

ENCLOSURE 2

DRAFT REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Draft RAI 3.2.1.48

Background:

The staff has determined that existing guidance in the Standard Review Plan for Review of License Renewal Applications for Nuclear Power Plants (SRP-LR) and Generic Aging Lessons Learned (GALL) Report does not adequately address aging management in treated borated water environments that contain dissolved oxygen above a 100 ppb threshold. Specifically, for pressurized water reactors (PWRs), the guidance recommends using the Water Chemistry Program only for aging management of loss of material due to pitting and crevice corrosion and cracking due to stress corrosion cracking in stainless steel components exposed to treated borated water, whereas the combination of the Water Chemistry Program and One-Time Inspection Program is used for boiling water reactor (BWR) treated water environments.

In its development of the GALL Report, the staff originally attributed the lesser corrosiveness of PWR primary water (treated borated) relative to that of BWR primary water (treated) to the presence of boron. However, the low corrosiveness of PWR primary water is not due to the presence of boron, but rather very low dissolved oxygen levels and other chemistry controls.

The boron compounds in treated borated water are not actively managed to ensure that they are in a form or of an appropriate concentration to inhibit corrosion. Thus, Systems Structures and Components (SSCs) exposed to an environment of treated borated water with elevated oxygen should be age managed by a combination of the Water Chemistry Program and One Time Inspection Program to account for the greater corrosiveness, regardless of whether the water is borated.

In the LRA, the applicant stated that stainless steel and steel with stainless steel cladding components exposed to treated borated water will be managed for loss of material due to pitting and crevice corrosion and cracking due to stress corrosion cracking with the Water Chemistry Program for those items associated with LRA Table 3.2.1, item 3.2.1-48; Table 3.2.1, item 3.2.1-49; Table 3.3.1, item 3.3.1-90; and Table 3.3.1, item 3.3.1-91.

Issue:

1. The staff noted that several AMR items reference the LRA Table 3.2.1 and 3.3.1 items above; however, the associated treated borated water environments may not be controlled to less than 100 ppb dissolved oxygen, and thus, the aging effects may not be effectively managed. Examples of applicable systems in the LRA include, but are not limited to, the containment spray system, safety injection system, and the spent fuel cooling system.

2. The staff believes that the UFSAR Supplement should include AMP changes that address the updated staff guidance to ensure that the licensing basis for the period of extended operation is clear.

ENCLOSURE 3

-2 Request:

1. Identify the AMR items that use only the Water Chemistry Program to age manage stainless steel and steel with stainless steel cladding components exposed to treated borated water with greater than 100 ppb oxygen for loss of material due to pitting and crevice corrosion and cracking due to stress corrosion cracking.

2. For the identified items, state how the effectiveness of the Water Chemistry Program will be verified.

Update the UFSAR Supplement for the Water Chemistry Program, and the program used to verify its effectiveness, to ensure that the usage of these programs to manage treated borated water with greater than 100 ppb oxygen is reflected in the licensing basis for the period of extended operation.

REFERENCES Corrosion in Boric Acid:

Boric Acid Corrosion Guidebook, Rev. 1, EPRI.

Borates as Corrosion Inhibitors Corrosion (3rd Edition) Volumes 1-2, Edited by: Shreir, L.L.; Jarman, RA.; Burstein, G.T., 1994 (pg. 17:13) (Table 17.1)

Corrosion Inhibitors, I.L. Rosenfeld, 1981, (Table 8-5) (pg. 174, pg. 257) 100 oob Oxygen threshold Boric Acid Corrosion Guidebook, Rev. 1, EPRI. (pg. 3-4) (Figure 4-3)

D. J. DePaul, Corrosion and Wear Handbook for Water-Cooled Reactors, McGraw-Hili, New York, 1957 (pg. 140, pg. 147)

Corrosion Basics: An Introduction, National Association of Corrosion Engineers, Houston, 1984. (pg. 131, pg. 135)

A.J. Sedriks, Corrosion of Stainless Steel, 2 nd Edition, 1996. (Figure 7.35 BWR Water Chemistry Guidelines - 2004 Revision, EPRI.

Non-Class 1 Mechanical Implementation Guideline and Mechanical Tools, Revision 4, EPRI, January 2006 ENCLOSURE 4

May 26,2011 LICENSEE: PSEG Nuclear, LLC FACILITY: Salem Nuclear Generating Station, Units 1 and 2,

SUMMARY

OF TELEPHONE CONFERENCE CALL HELD ON MAY 5,2011, BETWEEN THE U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION AND PSEG NUCLEAR, LLC, CONCERNING QUESTIONS PERTAINING TO THE SALEM NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION, UNITS 1 AND 2, LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the staff), representatives of PSEG Nuclear, LLC (the applicant), and Exelon Nuclear, held a telephone conference call on May 5, 2011, to discuss and clarify the staff's questions concerning the Salem Nuclear Generating Station, Unit 1 and Unit 2, license renewal application. The telephone conference call was useful in clarifying the intent of the staff's questions.

Enclosure 1 provides a listing of the participants; Enclosure 2 contains a brief summary of the discussion and status of the items; Enclosure 3 contains the draft request for additional information (D-RAI), and Enclosure 4 contains references on boric acid corrosion.

The applicant had an opportunity to comment on this summary.

IRA!

Samuel Cuadrado de Jesus, Project Manager Projects Branch 1 Division of License Renewal Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket Nos. 50-272 and 50-311

Enclosures:

As stated cc w/encls: Listserv DISTRIBUTION:

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05/20/2011 05/25/2011 05/25/2011 05/26/2011 j OFFICIAL RECORD COpy

Letter to PSEG Nuclear, LLC from Samuel Cuadrado de Jesus dated May 26, 2011

SUMMARY

OF TELEPHONE CONFERENCE CALL HELD ON MAY 5, 2011, BETWEEN THE U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION AND PSEG NUCLEAR, LLC, CONCERNING QUESTIONS PERTAINING TO THE SALEM NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION, UNITS 1 AND 2, LICENSE RENEWAL APPLICATION DISTRIBUTION:

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