ML14059A537

Responds to December 18, 2013 Letter to Chairman Allison Macfarlane Re Renewal of License for Seabrook Station

ML14059A537
Person / Time
Site:	Seabrook
Issue date:	02/14/2014
From:	Satorius M NRC/EDO
To:	Markey E US SEN (Senate)
SECY RAS
References
50-443-LR, ASLBP 10-906-02-LR-BD01, RAS 25640
Download: ML14059A537 (10)

Text

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-0001 February 14, 2014 The Honorable Edward J. Markey United States Senate Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Markey:

On behalf of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), I am responding to your letter of December 18, 2013, to Chairman Allison Macfarlane. As the Secretary of the Commission explained in a January 14, 2014, letter to you, the Commission is unable to address your requests regarding renewal of the license for Seabrook Station nuclear power plant because that license renewal is the subject of a current adjudication before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, and the Commission has an appellate role in those proceedings. I would like to provide you with an update on NRC staff activities regarding the Seabrook Station license renewal review, as it relates to the alkali-silica reaction (ASR) issue.

The NRC staff's safety review of the Seabrook Station license renewal application is ongoing and no regulatory decision has been made on the application. The original safety review schedule was revised, to address the staff's concerns with the applicant's proposed plant-specific ASR monitoring program, and to add a second meeting with the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards' License Renewal Subcommittee. The status of the remaining schedule milestones is currently "to be determined." In addition, during November 2013, NRC staff conducted an onsite audit of the ASR monitoring program and issued a report December 23, 2013, indicating the need for additional information. In a January 15, 2014, letter to NextEra Seabrook Energy, LLC, the staff requested additional information to support its review of the applicant's program.

The NRC shares your concern regarding NextEra's condition monitoring program, based solely on periodic insitu surface crack index and crack width measurements, to assess the progression of ASR. The NRC assures you that the staff is pursuing this, among other concerns, through our recently issued requests for additional information. The NRC will ensure that the ASR monitoring program includes methods and/or techniques to adequately monitor the condition of the affected structures in a manner that provides reasonable assurance that the ASR aging effects will be adequately managed.

With regard to the large-scale testing being conducted at the University of Texas- Austin, the NRC understands that this is a research effort intended to quantify the effect of different levels of ASR severity on the structural performance of ASR-affected reinforced concrete structures that do not have through-wall reinforcement, similar to that in the majority of the affected walls in safety-related structures at Seabrook Station. The NRC has requested information to further clarify the role of that testing with respect to our license renewal review. Should NextEra elect to use the results of the large-scale testing to resolve the ASR non-conforming condition, the testing methodology and results, and the method(s) of evaluation used, will be subject to NRC review pursuant to applicable regulatory processes. The NRC also continues, under its Reactor Oversight Process, to carefully and deliberately monitor, assess, and inspect NextEra's ongoing

efforts to address the long-term resolution of the Seabrook ASR issue. Our inspections have determined that ASR-affected structures at the Seabrook Station remain capable of performing their intended safety functions.

I hope this information is useful to you. If you need any additional information, please contact me or the Office of Congressional Affairs at (301) 415-1776.

Sincerely,

~:.A -J -f. uvL

-f- Mark A. Satorius Executive Director for Operations

Identical Letter Sent To:

The Honorable Elizabeth Warren United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 The Honorable John F. Tierney United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable James P. McGovern United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Stephen F. Lynch United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable William R. Keating United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Niki Tsongas United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 The Honorable Joseph P. Kennedy Ill United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C . 20555-0001 January 14, 2014 SECRETARY The Honorable Edward J. Markey United States Senate Washington , D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Markey:

On behalf of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) , I am responding to your letter of December 18, 2013 , to Chairman Allison Macfarlane in which you recommended that the NRC make no decision on the June 1, 2010, application made by NextEra Energy Seabrook for a twenty year renewed operating license for the Seabrook plant until the concrete degradation the plant is experiencing is fully tested , understood and remedied by way of an amendment to NextEra's current operating license. More specifically, you asked that the Commission affirm that no decision on the license renewal application for the Seabrook operating license be made until an analysis of tests with respect to the phenomenon of alkali silica reaction (ASR) being performed by the University of Texas is completed and peer review of the results is done. You further requested that NextEra seek and obtain a license amendment that would incorporate measures that would result in the monitoring of the progression of any ASR and predict the remaining service life of the plant before and after any repair.

Due to the fact that the license renewal application for the Seabrook Unit 1 plant is a subject of a current adjudication before an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, I must advise that under agency regulations , the Commission has an appellate role in proceedings commenced before its Atomic Safety and Licensing Boards. Because of that role, I trust that you will understand that the Commissioners must remain impartial during the pendency of a case , whether it is before a Licensing Board or on appeal to the Commission. However, I am referring your concerns to the attention of the NRC staff.

A copy of your letter and this response , as well as any response of the NRC staff, when issued ,

will be served on the participants in the Seabrook license renewal proceeding .

Sincerely, Annette Vietti-Cook Secretary of the Commission

Identical letter sent to:

The Honorable Edward J. Markey United States Senate Washington, D.C. 20510 The Honorable Elizabeth Warren United States Senate VVashington , D.C. 20510 The Honorable John Tierney United States House of Representatives Washington , D.C. 20515 The Honorable James P. McGovern United States House of Representatives Washington , D.C. 20515 The Honorable Stephen F. Lynch United States House of Representatives Washington , D.C. 20515 The Honorable William R. Keating United States House of Representatives Washington , D.C. 20515 The Honorable Niki Tsongas United States House of Representatives Washington , D.C. 20515 The Honorable Joseph P. Kennedy Ill United States House of Representatives Washington , D.C. 20515

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION In the Matter of )

)

NEXTERA ENERGY SEABROOK, LLC ) DOCKET NO. 50-443-LR (Seabrook Station, Unit 1) )

)

(License Renewal) )

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that copies of the foregoing LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS TO SENATOR EDWARD J. MARKEY, ET AL., IN RESPONSE TO DECEMBER 18, 2013, LETTER have been served upon the following persons by the Electronic Information Exchange.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel Office of the General Counsel Mail Stop: T-3F23 Mail Stop: O-15D21 Washington, DC 20555-0001 Washington, DC 20555-0001 Catherine Kanatas, Esq.

Administrative Judge catherine.kanatas@nrc.gov Paul S. Ryerson, Chair David Roth, Esq.

paul.ryerson@nrc.gov david.roth@nrc.gov Mary Spencer, Esq.

Administrative Judge mary.spencer@nrc.gov Michael F. Kennedy Anita Ghosh, Esq.

michael.kennedy@nrc.gov anita.ghosh@nrc.gov David Cylkowski, Esq.

Administrative Judge david.cylkowski@nrc.gov Richard E. Wardwell Esther Houseman, Esq.

richard.wardwell@nrc.gov esther.houseman@nrc.gov Edward Williamson, Esq.

Anthony C. Eitreim, Esq. edward.williamson@nrc.gov Chief Counsel John Tibbetts, Paralegal anthony.eitreim@nrc.gov john.tibbetts@nrc.gov Carter Thurman, Law Clerk OGC Mail Center carter.thurman@nrc.gov OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of the Secretary of the Commission Mail Stop: O-16C1 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555-0001 Office of Commission Appellate Adjudication Hearing Docket Mail Stop: O-16C1 hearingdocket@nrc.gov Washington, DC 20555-0001 ocaamail@nrc.gov

NEXTERA ENERGY SEABROOK, LLC (Seabrook Station Unit 1) - Docket No. 50-443-LR LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS TO SENATOR EDWARD J.

MARKEY, ET AL., IN RESPONSE TO DECEMBER 18, 2013, LETTER NextEra Energy Seabrook, LLC Beyond Nuclear 801 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., #220 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400 Washington, DC 20004 Takoma Park, MD 20912 Steven C. Hamrick, Esq. Paul Gunter, Director, Reactor Oversight Project steven.hamrick@fpl.com paul@beyondnuclear.org NextEra Energy Seabrook, LLC New Hampshire Sierra Club 700 Universe Boulevard 40 N. Main Street Juno Beach, FL 33408 Concord, NH 03870 William Blair, Esq. Kurt Ehrenberg, Field Organizer william.blair@fpl.com kurtehrenberg@gmail.com Seacoast Anti-Pollution League Counsel for the Applicant P.O. Box 1136 Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP Portsmouth, NH 03802 2300 N Street, N.W. Doug Bogen, Executive Director Washington, DC 20037-1122 dbogen@metrocast.net David R. Lewis, Esq.

david.lewis@pillsburylaw.com State of New Hampshire Office of the Attorney General 33 Capitol Street Friends of the Coast and Concord, NH 03301 New England Coalition (NEC) K. Allen Brooks, Assistant Attorney General Post Office Box 98 k.allen.brooks@doj.nh.gov Edgecomb, ME 04556 Michael A. Delaney, Attorney General Raymond Shadis, Pro Se Representative michael.a.delaney@doj.nh.gov Debbie Grinnell Peter Roth, Assistant Attorney General debbie@c-10.org peter.roth@doj.nh.gov shadis@prexar.com State of Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General Environmental Protection Division One Ashburton Place, 18th Floor Boston, MA 02108 Matthew Brock, Assistant Attorney General matthew.brock@state.ma.us Jillian Riley, Legal Analyst jillian.riley@state.ma.us

[Original signed by Clara Sola]

Office of the Secretary of the Commission Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 28TH day of February 2014 2