ML081750428

NRC Response to J. Tauro - Grandmothers, Mothers, and More for Energy Safety (Grammes) Regarding Oyster Creek

ML081750428
Person / Time
Site:	Oyster Creek
Issue date:	06/23/2008
From:	Collins S Region 1 Administrator
To:	Rumpf B, Casey Smith, Tauro J Grandmothers, Mothers & More for Energy Safety, State of NJ, US HR (House of Representatives)
Barkley R
References
FOIA/PA-2008-0306, RA-08-114
Download: ML081750428 (11)

Text

June 23, 2008

Janet Tauro Grandmothers, Mothers, and More for Energy Safety (Grammes) 747 Bay Avenue Brick, NJ 08724

Dear Ms. Tauro:

I am writing in response to your letter to me dated June 6, 2008, regarding the annual assessment meeting recently conducted by my staff at Oyster Creek, as well as several topics related to Oyster Creek License Renewal.

In your letter, you again requested that such meetings be transcribed. While the NRC does transcribe certain meetings where public input is solicited on specific subjects, such as the Oyster Creek license renewal environmental scoping meeting, we have consistently not transcribed other NRC public meetings, in part due to the high cost. The NRC conducts on the order of 800 public meetings per year; transcribing all such meetings would be cost prohibitive. We also believe we fully and accurately answered the public's questions raised during the question and answer session. Furthermore, the substance of the meeting with the licensee was published on the docket in our annual assessment letter to AmerGen, the licensee for Oyster Creek.

Regarding your specific concerns with the margin of safety of the drywell in areas previously subject to corrosion, we note that your organization is a party in an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) proceeding on this subject, and an appeal on a recent ASLB decision is now before the Commission. Based on this ongoing legal action, it would be inappropriate for any members of the NRC staff to discuss or comment on this matter at this time. I would note that the NRC recently issued correspondence on Oyster Creek-related issues to members of the New Jersey State and Congressional delegations; copies of those letters are enclosed for your information.

Regarding your concerns with the safety culture within NRC Region I, I understand that Marc Dapas of my staff discussed and clarified the remarks made by another Region I manager regarding the NRC safety review of the Oyster Creek drywell shell adequacy, and the actions that would be taken by the staff if any problems were noted during a future refueling outage. I trust this clarification addressed your concerns in this matter. We believe we have a strong safety culture in the NRC, particularly in Region I. A published assessment of the NRC's overall safety culture can be found on the NRC website under 2005 reports of the Office of the Inspector General; that assessment survey was very positive regarding the overall NRC safety culture in general, and NRC Region I in particular.

As a party in the ASLB process, you are aware that the Commission issued an order on May 28, 2008, requesting additional information from the NRC staff, AmerGen and citizens groups such as yours on the analysis of the factor of safety of the drywell shell at Oyster Creek through the J. Tauro 2 proposed license renewal period. I urge you to review the NRC staff's position in this matter, which was submitted on June 11, 2008 and June 18, 2008, copies of which were served to your organization's attorney.

If you have any further questions in this matter, please contact Richard S. Barkley, PE, of my staff at (610) 337-5065.

Sincerely, /RA/

Samuel J. Collins Regional Administrator

Enclosures:

1) Letter to the Honorable Chris Smith, dated May 16, 2008 2) Letter to the Honorable Brian Rumpf, dated May 20, 2008

ML081750428 DOCUMENT NAME: Letter to Janet Tauro - Oyster Creek Drywell.doc After declaring this document AAn Official Agency Record

@ it will be released to the Public. To receive a copy of this document, indicate in the box:

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• RConte *KFarrar **KLF for SCollins DATE 06/17/08 06/17/08 06/19/08 06/19/08 06/20/08 Enclosure 1 May 16, 2008

The Honorable Chris Smith United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Congressman Smith:

On behalf of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), I am responding to your letter, dated April 17, 2008, to Chairman Dale E. Klein. In your letter you expressed concern about not only the agency's methodologies for calculating risk assessments for metal fatigue of recirculation nozzles at Oyster Creek Generating Station (Oyster Creek), but also the agency's timeliness of providing information to your office. I would like to clarify the agency's position, discuss our evaluation, and reiterate our openness policy.

In your letter, you summarize the NRC's position as follows: "[Oyster Creek] did not employ conservative enough methodologies in calculating risk assessments for metal fatigue of recirculation nozzles." However, staff has not yet determined whether Oyster Creek employed sufficiently conservative methodologies. For assessing fatigue for one type of nozzle, the licensee employed a simplified analysis strategy that used one stress component to represent six stress components. We have asked the licensee to reanalyze that nozzle using the six stress components. The licensee submitted these results in a letter dated May 1, 2008, and the staff is determining whether the simplified methodology is adequately conservative. The analysis does not calculate risk but does calculate fatigue usage consistent with American Society of Mechanical Engineer (ASME)Section III analysis rules. The ASME Code contains acceptance criteria but does not stipulate which analysis methods should be used. Standard practice is to simplify complex analyses when appropriately justified. We asked Oyster Creek to perform a detailed analysis only to evaluate whether they appropriately simplified the analysis when it used one stress component.

The staff will document its review of the reanalysis, and will issue a publicly available supplement to the safety evaluation report, including a thorough evaluation of the fatigue analysis. In this supplement, the staff will include any nonproprietary details of the analysis.

The staff is prohibited from disclosing information to the public that legitimately constitutes proprietary information and is submitted by the licensees as proprietary pursuant to 10 CFR 2.390(b)(3).

Through our openness policy, we view nuclear regulation as the public's business. The NRC places a high priority on keeping Congress fully and currently informed. We will notify you as soon as possible of all further developments on the Oyster Creek license renewal process.

The schedule for a final decision on relicensing has not yet been determined. The April 29, 2008, date you mention in your letter was the Commission's adjudicatory affirmation session (which had been postponed and is now tentatively scheduled for May 28, 2008). It was not the date of a final agency decision on relicensing Oyster Creek. When the agency is prepared to make a relicensing decision, you will be notified promptly.

I trust that this information is responsive to your letter.

Sincerely, /RA/

R. W. Borchardt Executive Director for Operations cc: See next page

Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station cc: Site Vice President - Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station AmerGen Energy Company, LLC P.O. Box 388 Forked River, NJ 08731

Senior Vice President- Operations Support AmerGen Energy Company, LLC 4300 Winfield Road Warrenville, IL 60555 Kathryn M. Sutton, Esquire Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius LLP 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20004 Patrick Mulligan, Chief Bureau of Nuclear Engineering New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection 25 Arctic Parkway Ewing, NJ 08638

Vice President - Licensing and Regulatory Affairs AmerGen Energy Company, LLC 4300 Winfield Road Warrenville, IL 60555 Regional Administrator, Region I U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 475 Allendale Road King of Prussia, PA 19406-1415 Mayor of Lacey Township 818 West Lacey Road Forked River, NJ 08731 Manager Regulatory Assurance Oyster Creek Generating Station AmerGen Energy Company, LLC P.O. Box 388 Forked River, NJ 08731

Senior Resident Inspector U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission P.O. Box 445 Forked River, NJ 08731

Director - Licensing and Regulatory Affairs AmerGen Energy Company, LLC Correspondence Control P.O. Box 160 Kennett Square, PA 19348 Manager Licensing - Oyster Creek Exelon Generation Company, LLC Correspondence Control P.O. Box 160 Kennett Square, PA 19348

Ron Bellamy, Region I U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 475 Allendale Road King of Prussia, PA 19406-1415

Correspondence Control Desk AmerGen Energy Company, LLC 200 Exelon Way, KSA 1-N-1 Kennett Square, PA 19348

Plant Manager Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station AmerGen Energy Company, LLC P.O. Box 388 Forked River, NJ 08731

Associate General Counsel Exelon Generation Company, LLC 4300 Winfield Road Warrenville, IL 60555 Chief Operating Officer (COO)

AmerGen Energy Company, LLC 4300 Winfield Road Warrenville, IL 60555

Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station cc: Senior Vice President - Mid-Atlantic Operations AmerGen Energy Company, LLC 200 Exelon Way, KSA 3-N Kennett Square, PA 19348

Enclosure 2 May 20, 2008

The Honorable Brian E. Rumpf New Jersey Assemblyman 9 th District Legislative Offices 620 West Lacey Road Forked River, NJ 08731

Dear Mr. Rumpf:

On behalf of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), I am responding to your April 16, 2008, letter conveying the concerns of the Legislative Delegation for the 9 th District of New Jersey. You requested that the NRC release the analysis and results of AmerGens' 3-D structural analysis of the Oyster Creek Generating Station (Oyster Creek) drywall shell.

The NRC cannot release proprietary information to the public without consent of the owner of the information. Our standard practice is to obtain a nonproprietary summary report so that the public is aware of the findings for these analyses. The calculations contain proprietary design information owned by General Electric and other entities outside of AmerGen. As discussed in our regulations, the staff is required to protect from public disclosure information that has been submitted as proprietary information in accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 and that the NRC has found to be proprietary. A summary report balances the need to protect proprietary data with the necessity to make the findings of the analysis public.

As part of the licensee renewal process, the applicant must meet commitments and conditions prior to entering the period of extended operation. For example, the 3-D analysis is one of many commitments that AmerGen must meet prior to the period of extended operation. The staff will inspect these commitments and license conditions using an onsite NRC inspection team, whose results will be documented in a publicly available inspection report. The NRC is not currently in possession and control of the AmerGen calculations for its 3-D finite-element analysis of the drywell shell at Oyster Creek. However, AmerGen has committed to providing the full analysis onsite for review by not only the NRC staff but also the State of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection staff. The State of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has participated in other onsite audits or inspections at Oyster Creek, as well.

If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

/RA RPZimmerman for/

R. W. Borchardt Executive Director for Operations cc: See next page

Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station cc Site Vice President - Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station AmerGen Energy Company, LLC P.O. Box 388 Forked River, NJ 08731

Senior Vice President- Operations Support AmerGen Energy Company, LLC 4300 Winfield Road Warrenville, IL 60555 Kathryn M. Sutton, Esquire Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius LLP 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20004 Patrick Mulligan, Chief Bureau of Nuclear Engineering New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection 25 Arctic Parkway Ewing, NJ 08638

Vice President - Licensing and Regulatory Affairs AmerGen Energy Company, LLC 4300 Winfield Road Warrenville, IL 60555 Regional Administrator, Region I U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 475 Allendale Road King of Prussia, PA 19406-1415 Mayor of Lacey Township 818 West Lacey Road Forked River, NJ 08731 Manager Regulatory Assurance Oyster Creek Generating Station AmerGen Energy Company, LLC P.O. Box 388 Forked River, NJ 08731

Senior Resident Inspector U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission P.O. Box 445 Forked River, NJ 08731 Director - Licensing and Regulatory Affairs AmerGen Energy Company, LLC Correspondence Control P.O. Box 160 Kennett Square, PA 19348 Manager Licensing - Oyster Creek Exelon Generation Company, LLC Correspondence Control P.O. Box 160 Kennett Square, PA 19348 Ron Bellamy, Region I U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 475 Allendale Road King of Prussia, PA 19406-1415 Correspondence Control Desk AmerGen Energy Company, LLC 200 Exelon Way, KSA 1-N-1 Kennett Square, PA 19348 Plant Manager Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station AmerGen Energy Company, LLC P.O. Box 388 Forked River, NJ 08731

Associate General Counsel Exelon Generation Company, LLC 4300 Winfield Road Warrenville, IL 60555 Chief Operating Officer (COO) AmerGen Energy Company, LLC 4300 Winfield Road Warrenville, IL 60555

Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station cc Senior Vice President - Mid-Atlantic Operations AmerGen Energy Company, LLC 200 Exelon Way, KSA 3-N Kennett Square, PA 19348

Honorable Lisa P. Jackson Commissioner NJ Department of Environmental Protection 401 E. State St. 7th Floor, East Wing P.O. Box 402 Trenton, NJ 08625-0402