ML17059B509

Forwards Proprietary & non-proprietary Versions of Rev 1 to GE-NE-523-B13-01869-043,Rev 1 to Gene B-13-01739-22 & Rev 1 to Gene B13-01739-40.Proprietary Versions Withheld Per 10CFR2.790

ML17059B509
Person / Time
Site:	Nine Mile Point
Issue date:	04/25/1997
From:	Mccormick M NIAGARA MOHAWK POWER CORP.
To:	NRC OFFICE OF INFORMATION RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IRM)
Shared Package
ML17059B510	List: ML17059B509 ML17059B511 ML17059B512 ML17059B513
References
NMP1L-1209, NUDOCS 9704290019
Download: ML17059B509 (14)

Text

C e w iI CATEGORY 2 REGULATOO INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION ITEM (RIDE)

ACCESSION NBR:9704290019 DOC.DATE: 97/04/25 NOTARIZED: YES DOCKET ¹ FACI4,:50-220 Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, Unit 1, Niagara Powe 05000220 AUTK.NAME AUTHOR AFFILIATION MCCORMICK,M.J. Niagara Mohawk Powe-r Corp.

RECIP.NAME RECIPIENT AFFILIATION Document Control Branch (Document Control Desk)P Forwards proprietary 6 non-proprietary versions of Rev 1 to+ vw4//in'UBJECT:

GE-NE-523-B13-01869-043,Rev 1 to GENE B-13-01739-22 6 Rev +~~gg4g 1 to GENE, B13-01739-40.Proprietary versions withheld per C NOTES:

10CFR2.790.

DISTRIBUTION CODE'POID COPIES RECEIVED'LTR l ENCL TITLE: Proprietary Review Distribution Pre Operating License & Operating SIZE'~

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R T RECIPIENT COPIES RECIPIENT COPE ES ID CODE/NAME LTTR ENCL ID CODE/NAME LTTR ENCL PDl-1 LA 1 1 PD1-1 PD 1 1 0 HOOD,D 1 1 INTERNAL: ACRS 1 1 ILE CENTER 0 1 1 OGC/HDS3 1 0 EXTERNAL: NRC PDR t~o8 D

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NOTE TO ALL "RIDS" RECIPIENTS:

PLEASE HELP US TO REDUCE WASTE. TO HAVE YOUR NAME OR ORGANIZATION REMOVED FROM DISTRIBUTION LISTS OR REDUCE THE NUMBER OF COPZES RECEIVED BY YOU OR YOUR ORGANIZATION, CONTACT THE DOCUMENT CONTROL DESK (DCD) ON EXTENSION 415-2083 TOTAL NUMBER OF COPIES REQUIRED: LTTR 7 ENCL

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NIAGARA MOHAWK G E N E RAT I 0 N NINE MILE POINT NUCLEAR STATION/LAKEROAD, P.O. BOX 63, LYCOMING, NEW YORK 13093/TELEPHONE (315) 349-2660 FAX (315) 349-2605 BUSINESS GROUP MARTINJ. McCORMICKJR. P.E.

Vice President April 25, 1997 Nuciear Engineering NMP1L 1209 U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Attn: Document Control Desk Washington, DC 20555 RE: Nine Mile Point Unit 1 Docket No. 50-220

Subject:

Request for Revised Non-Proprietary SubmQtal on Nine Mile Point Unit I (NMPl) Core Shroud Tssues Gentlemen:

By letter dated April 8, 1997, Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation (NMPC) submitted the results of the Nine Mile Point Unit 1 core shroud inspections conducted during the Spring 1997 outage and requested approval of an alternate repair to the tie rod stabilizer assemblies installed in 1995. The April 8, 1997, submittal contained information considered by the preparer General Electric (GE) to be proprietary. An application to withhold the information from public disclosure was included in the submittal under affidavit.

By telephone conversation April 24, 1997, the NRC informed NMPC that there was insufficient non-proprietary material in the submittal for a Safety Evaluation (SE) to be prepared which would be suitable for public use. The staff requested that specific portions of the submittal be re-evaluated for qualification as proprietary material, The staff also made reference to some of that same material which had been used during the NRC/NMPC public meeting held April 14, 1997.

NMPC and GE have reviewed and revised the material as requested. Enclosed are proprietary and non-proprietary versions of GE reports GE-NE-523-B13-01869-043, Rev. 1, and GENE B13-01739-22 and 40, Rev. 1. The material considered by the preparer GE to be proprietary in the subject reports is exempt from disclosure pursuant to 10CFR2.790. Therefore, on behalf of GE, NMPC hereby makes application to withhold these documents from public r otr ~soacx osoooEoo Il 6'o Po/( I'~~+

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Page 2 disclosure in accordance with 10CFR2.790 (b)(l). An affidavit executed by GE detailing the reasons for the request to withhold the proprietary information has been included.

Sincerely, Martin J. McCormick Jr.

Vice President - Nuclear Engineering MJM/MSL/lmc Enclosures xc: Mr. H. J. Miller, Regional Administrator, Region I Mr. B. S. Norris, Senior Resident Inspector Mr. S. S. Bajwa, Acting Director, Project Directorate I-l, NRR Mr. D. S. Hood, Senior Project Manager, NRR Records Management

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General Electric Company AFFIDAVIT I, Michael A. Smith, being duly sworn, depose and state as follows:

(1) I am Manager, Safety Evaluations, General Electric Company ("GE") and have been delegated the function of reviewing the information described in paragraph (2) which is sought to be withheld, and have been authorized to apply for its withholding.

(2) The information sought to be withheld is contained in the GE proprietary reports GE-NE 523-B13-01869-043, Assessment of the Vertical Weld Cracking on the NMP1 Shroud, Revision 1, Class III (GE Nuclear Energy Proprietary Information), dated April 1997, GENE B13-01739-40, Shroud Repair Anomalies Nine Mile Point Unit 1, RF014, Revision 1, Class III (GE Nuclear Energy Proprietary Information), dated April 1997, and GENE B13-01739-22, Design Report for Improved Shroud Repair Lower Support Retainers, Revision 1, Class III (GE Nuclear Energy Proprietary Information), dated April 1997. The proprietary information is delineated by bars marked in the margin adjacent to the specific material.

(3) In making this application for withholding of proprietary information of which it is the owner, GE relies upon the exemption from disclosure set forth in the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"), 5 USC Sec. 552(b)(4), and the Trade Secrets Act, 18 USC Sec. 1905, and NRC regulations 10 CFR 9.17(a)(4), 2.790(a)(4), and 2.790(d)(1) for "trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential" (Exemption 4). The material for which exemption from disclosure is here sought is all "confidential commercial information", and some portions also qualify under the narrower definition of "trade secret", within the meanings assigend to those terms for purposes of FOIA Exemption 4 in, respectively, Critical Mass Ener Pro'ect v. Nuclear Re ulato Commission 975F2d871 (DC Cir. 1992), and Public Citizen Health Research 0 . 8 04004804CCCi. 9 F.

(4) Some examples of categories of information which fit into the definition of proprietary information are:

Information that discloses a process, method, or apparatus, including supporting data and analyses, where prevention of its use by General Electric's competitors without license from General Electric constitutes a competitive economic advantage over other companies; AFFI1.doc

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b. Information which, ifused by a competitor, would reduce his expenditure of resources or improve his competitive position in the design, manufacture, shipment, installation, assurance of quality, or licensing of a similar product; Information which reveals cost or price information, production capacities, budget levels, or commercial strategies of General Electric, its customers, or its suppliers; Information which reveals aspects of past, present, or future General Electric customer-funded development plans and programs, of potential commercial value to General Electric;

e. Information which discloses patentable subject matter for which it may be desirable to obtain patent protection.

The information sought to be withheld is considered to be proprietary for the reasons set forth in both paragraphs (4)a., (4)b, and (4)e., above.

(5) The information sought to be withheld is being submitted to NRC in confidence.

The information is of a sort customarily held in confidence by GE, and is in fact so held. The information sought to be withheld has, to the best of my knowledge and belief, consistently been held in confidence by GE, no public disclosure has been made, and it is not available in public sources. All disclosures to third parties including any required transmittals to NRC, have been made, or must be made, pursuant to regulatory provisions or proprietary agreements which provide for maintenance of the information in confidence. Its initial designation as proprietary information, and the subsequent steps taken to prevent its unauthorized disclosure, are as set forth in paragraphs (6) and (7) following.

(6) Initial approval of proprietary treatment of a document is made by the manager of the originating component, the person most likely to be acquainted with the value and sensitivity of the information in relation to industry knowledge. Access to such documents within GE is limited on a "need to know" basis.

(7) The procedure for approval of external release of such a document typically requires review by the staff manager, project manager, principal scientist or other equivalent authority, by the manager of the cognizant marketing function (or his delegate), and by the Legal Operation, for technical content, competitive effect, and determination of the accuracy of the proprietary designation. Disclosures outside GE are limited to regulatory bodies, customers, and potential customers, and their agents, suppliers, and licensees, and others with a legitimate need for the information, and then only in accordance with appropriate regulatory provisions or proprietary agreements.

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g I (8) The information identified in paragraph (2), above, is classified as proprietary because it contains detailed results of analytical models, methods and processes, including computer codes, which GE has developed and applied to perform evaluations of indications in the core shroud for the BWR.

The development and approval of the BWR Shroud Repair Program was achieved at a significant cost, on the order of one million dollars, to GE.

The development of the evaluation process contained in the paragraph (2) documents along with the interpretation and application of the analytical results is derived from the extensive experience database that constitutes a major GE asset.

(9) Public disclosure of the information sought to be withheld is likely to cause substantial harm to GE's competitive position and foreclose or reduce the availability of profit-making opportunities. The information is part of GE's comprehensive BWR safety and technology base, and its commercial value extends beyond the original development cost. The value of the technology base goes beyond the extensive physical database and analytical methodology and includes development of the expertise to determine and apply the appropriate evaluation process. In addition, the technology base includes the value derived from providing analyses done with NRC approved methods.

The research, development, engineering, analytical and NRC review costs comprise a substantial investment of time and money by GE.

The precise value of the expertise to devise an evaluation process and apply the correct analytical methodology is dificult to quantify, but it clearly is substantial.

GE's competitive advantage will be lost ifits competitors are able to use the results of the GE experience to normalize or verify their own process or ifthey are able to claim an equivalent understanding by demonstrating that they can arrive at the same or similar conclusions.

The value of this information to GE would be lost if the information were disclosed to the public. Making such information available to competitors without their having been required to undertake a similar expenditure of resources would unfairly provide competitors with a windfall, and deprive GE of the opportunity to exercise its competitive advantage to seek an adequate return on its large investment in developing these very valuable analytical tools.

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STATE OF CALIFORNIA )

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COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA )

Michael A. Smith, being duly sworn, deposes and says:

That he has read the foregoing a6idavit and the matters stated therein are true and correct to the best of his knowledge, information, and belief.

Executed at San Jose, California, this ~ day of ~ I i997.

Michael A. Smith General Electric Company Subscribed and sworn before me

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PAULA F. HUSSEY COMM. ttr 1N6120 z~  ! < . Notary Public Catifornta SANA CLAAACOUNIY My Comm. Expires DEC 1,1998 Notary Public, State of Califor a AFFI1.doc

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