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 A NRC/EDO
To:	Markey E J 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 The Honorable Edward J. Markey United States Senate Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Markey:

February 14, 2014 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 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, -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 SECRETARY The Honorable Edward J. Markey United States Senate Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Markey:

January 14, 2014 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 i ssued , 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 Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel

Mail Stop: T-3F23 Washington, DC 20555-0001

Administrative Judge Paul S. Ryerson, Chair

paul.ryerson@nrc.gov Administrative Judge Michael F. Kennedy michael.kennedy@nrc.gov

Administrative Judge Richard E. Wardwell richard.wardwell@nrc.gov

Anthony C. Eitreim, Esq.

Chief Counsel

anthony.eitreim@nrc.gov

Carter Thurman, Law Clerk

carter.thurman@nrc.gov

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of the Secretary of the Commission

Mail Stop: O-16C1 Washington, DC 20555-0001

Hearing Docket

hearingdocket@nrc.gov

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of the General Counsel

Mail Stop: O-15D21 Washington, DC 20555-0001 Catherine Kanatas, Esq.

catherine.kanatas@nrc.gov David Roth, Esq.

david.roth@nrc.gov Mary Spencer, Esq. mary.spencer@nrc.gov Anita Ghosh, Esq. anita.ghosh@nrc.gov David Cylkowski, Esq.

david.cylkowski@nrc.gov Esther Houseman, Esq.

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

edward.williamson@nrc.gov John Tibbetts, Paralegal

john.tibbetts@nrc.gov

OGC Mail Center OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of Commission Appellate Adjudication

Mail Stop: O-16C1 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 2NextEra Energy Seabrook, LLC 801 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., #220 Washington, DC 20004 Steven C. Hamrick, Esq.

steven.hamrick@fpl.com NextEra Energy Seabrook, LLC 700 Universe Boulevard Juno Beach, FL 33408 William Blair, Esq.

william.blair@fpl.com

Counsel for the Applicant Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

2300 N Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20037-1122 David R. Lewis, Esq.

david.lewis@pillsburylaw.com

Friends of the Coast and New England Coalition (NEC) Post Office Box 98 Edgecomb, ME 04556

Raymond Shadis, Pro Se Representative

Debbie Grinnell debbie@c-10.org shadis@prexar.com Beyond Nuclear 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400

Takoma Park, MD 20912 Paul Gunter, Director, Reactor Oversight Project paul@beyondnuclear.org New Hampshire Sierra Club 40 N. Main Street

Concord, NH 03870 Kurt Ehrenberg, Field Organizer kurtehrenberg@gmail.com

Seacoast Anti-Pollution League P.O. Box 1136

Portsmouth, NH 03802 Doug Bogen, Executive Director dbogen@metrocast.net State of New Hampshire Office of the Attorney General

33 Capitol Street

Concord, NH 03301 K. Allen Brooks, Assistant Attorney General k.allen.brooks@doj.nh.gov Michael A. Delaney, Attorney General michael.a.delaney@doj.nh.gov Peter Roth, Assistant Attorney General peter.roth@doj.nh.gov State of Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General Environmental Protection Division One Ashburton Place, 18 th 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 28 TH day of February 2014