ML053500434

NRC Response to Entergy Operations, Incorporated (Entergy) Letter of Intent to Adopt 10 CFR 50.48(c) (NFPA 805 Rule) for Arkansas Nuclear One Units 1 and 2

ML053500434
Person / Time
Site:	Arkansas Nuclear
Issue date:	01/31/2006
From:	Catherine Haney Plant Licensing Branch III-2
To:	Forbes J Entergy Operations
Holland D, NRR/DLPM, 415-1436
References
Download: ML053500434 (4)

Text

January 31, 2006 Mr. Jeffrey S. Forbes Site Vice President Arkansas Nuclear One Entergy Operations, Inc.

1448 S.R. 333 Russellville, AR 72802

SUBJECT:

NRC RESPONSE TO ENTERGY OPERATIONS, INCORPORATED (ENTERGY) LETTER OF INTENT TO ADOPT 10 CFR 50.48(c) (NFPA 805 RULE) FOR ARKANSAS NUCLEAR ONE, UNITS 1 AND 2

Dear Mr. Forbes:

This letter responds to your letter dated November 2, 2005, Agencywide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS) accession no. ML053140128, in which you informed us that Entergy intends to adopt National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 805, Performance-Based Standard for Fire Protection for Light Water Reactor Electric Generating Plants, 2001 Edition (NFPA 805 Rule), in accordance with the requirements of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), Paragraph 50.48(c) for Arkansas Nuclear One (ANO), Units 1 and 2.

Your letter requests enforcement discretion for existing identified noncompliances in accordance with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRCs) Interim Enforcement Policy (69 FR 33684 and 70 FR 2662). Since you have met the deadline to receive discretion for existing identified noncompliances, NRC approves your request.

In your letter, you informed us that your transition to the performance-based standard for fire protection will commence during the first quarter of 2006. You indicated that your transition leading to development of the license amendment requests (LARs) for both units is expected to take 36 months. You provided numerous reasons for requesting an enforcement discretion window of 3 years, as opposed to the 2-year window approved by the Commission. Some of the key reasons that you provided for requesting an extension are:

! Limited availability of experts within and outside of Entergy; and

! Dissimilarity between ANO Unit 1, which is a Babcock & Wilcox plant and ANO Unit 2, which is a Combustion Engineering plant and consequential differences in the analyses.

Under the enforcement discretion policy currently in place, the discretion period for both ANO Unit 1 and ANO Unit 2 begins December 31, 2005, and will expire on December 31, 2007.

However, issues similar to the ones that you have raised as the basis to request a 36-month enforcement discretion window have been raised by a number of other licensees that have sent us letters of intent to adopt NFPA 805. The NRC staff is considering your request and will contact you when we have reached a decision.

J. Forbes Please note that in order to receive enforcement discretion, you must: (1) evaluate the risk significance of all noncompliances to assure that they do not constitute Red findings, (2) enter them into your corrective action program, and (3) implement and maintain appropriate compensatory measures, until the NRC staff approves your LARs to transition to NFPA 805 and issues the safety evaluation report. Please refer to NRC Regulatory Issue Summary (RIS) 2005-07, Compensatory Measures to Satisfy the Fire Protection Program Requirements, to determine appropriate compensatory measures.

Your letter states that the ANO units are dissimilar and that they will be the first two units to transition to NFPA 805 in NRC Region IV. As such, you have proposed that we consider ANO units as pilot plants for the initial implementation of NFPA 805, and requested that we waive all licensing and review fees for the LARs for both ANO units. NRC has already selected two pilot plants to enable us to develop and refine the regulatory structure supporting the NFPA 805 implementations. The Chief Financial Officer will respond to you separately on your request for a fee waiver per regulation 10 CFR 170.11.

A number of utilities have requested meetings with the NRC staff to review their project plan and discuss transition issues. We recognize the benefits of communication among transitioning licensees, the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR), and regional staff. Therefore, we plan to hold periodic workshops at the regional offices on NFPA 805 implementation issues.

We recognize that ANO Units 1 and 2 will be the first two Region IV plants to transition to NFPA 805 and lessons learned from your transition would be beneficial to the Region IV staff and other licensees who are transitioning. These workshops will allow you to communicate ongoing transition issues and facilitate the development of final acceptable solutions. It will also afford you a chance to learn from other licensees transition issues industry wide. In addition, the opportunity always exists for on-site visits to ANO with NRR and regional staff on an as-needed basis.

If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact Drew Holland at (301) 415-1436.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Catherine Haney, Director Division of Operating Reactor Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket Nos. 50-313 and 50-368 cc: See next page

ML053500434 NRR-106 OFFICE DRA/FPB DRA/FPB BC: DRA/FPB BC: DRIS/IRIB OE NAME NIqbal PLain SWeerakkody RGibbs CNolan DATE 12/ 16 /05 12/ 21 /05 01/ 04 /06 01/ 06 /06 01/ 12 /06 OFFICE BC: R-IV/DRS/EB2 CFO/DFM D: NRR/DRA NAME LSmith RSuri JLyons (S.Weerakkody for)

DATE 01/ 05 /06 (Email) 01/ 17 /06 01/ 17 /06 OFFICE LA:LPLIV PM:LPLIV BC:LPLIV D: NRR/DORL NAME DJohnson DHolland DTerao CHaney DATE 01/ 23 /06 01/24/06 01/ 24 /06 01/31/06 Arkansas Nuclear One cc:

Senior Vice President Vice President, Operations Support

& Chief Operating Officer Entergy Operations, Inc.

Entergy Operations, Inc. P. O. Box 31995 P. O. Box 31995 Jackson, MS 39286-1995 Jackson, MS 39286-1995 Wise, Carter, Child & Caraway Director, Division of Radiation P. O. Box 651 Control and Emergency Management Jackson, MS 39205 Arkansas Department of Health 4815 West Markham Street, Slot 30 Little Rock, AR 72205-3867 Winston & Strawn 1700 K Street, N.W.

Washington, DC 20006-3817 Senior Resident Inspector U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission P. O. Box 310 London, AR 72847 Regional Administrator, Region IV U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 611 Ryan Plaza Drive, Suite 400 Arlington, TX 76011-8064 County Judge of Pope County Pope County Courthouse Russellville, AR 72801 September 2005