ML050660435
| ML050660435 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Dresden, Quad Cities  |
| Issue date: | 03/17/2005 |
| From: | Mohseni A NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD3 |
| To: | Crane C Exelon Generation Co |
| Rossbach L , NRR/DLPM, 415-2863 | |
| References | |
| TAC MC5802, TAC MC5803, TAC MC5804, TAC MC5805 | |
| Download: ML050660435 (7) | |
Text
March 17, 2005 Mr. Christopher M. Crane, President and Chief Nuclear Officer Exelon Generation Company, LLC 4300 Winfield Road Warrenville, IL 60555
SUBJECT:
DRESDEN AND QUAD CITIES NUCLEAR POWER STATIONS OPTIMA2 FUEL AMENDMENT REQUEST ACCEPTANCE REVIEW (TAC NOS. MC5802, MC5803, MC5804, AND MC5805)
Dear Mr. Crane:
By letter dated January 20, 2005, Exelon Generation Company LLC (Exelon) submitted a license amendment request for Dresden Nuclear Power Station, Units 2 and 3 (Dresden), and Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station, Units 1 and 2 (Quad Cities). The proposed amendment would permit transition to Westinghouse SVEA-96 Optima2 (Optima2) fuel at Dresden and Quad Cities. The purpose of this letter is to provide the results of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staffs acceptance review of this amendment request. The acceptance review determines whether or not there is sufficient detail to allow the NRC staff to proceed with its detailed technical review. The review also ensures that the application adequately characterizes the regulatory requirements and licensing basis of the plant.
Consistent with Section 50.90 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), an amendment to the license (including the Technical Specifications) must fully describe the changes requested, following as far as applicable the form prescribed for original applications.
Section 50.34 addresses the content of technical information required. This section stipulates that the submittal address the design and operating characteristics, unusual or novel design features, and principal safety considerations.
The NRC staff has reviewed your request and concluded that it does not provide technical information in sufficient detail to enable the staff to make an independent assessment regarding the acceptability of the proposed amendment in terms of regulatory requirements and the protection of public health and safety. Specific examples of areas which require additional information to be submitted are enclosed.
Based on the examples provided, the NRC staff does not consider your application to be complete and requests that Exelon revise the application to address the concerns contained in the enclosure. This request was discussed with Mr. Patrick Simpson of your staff on March 4, 2005. We have received a letter dated March 11, 2005, from Exelon withdrawing the January 20, 2005, amendment request and stating that Exelon plans to resubmit the proposed amendment request in its entirety following compilation of the additional information needed.
Given the above, this letter closes the TAC numbers for this review. Upon receipt of the revised
C. Crane amendment request containing the information requested, we will open new TACs and conduct a new acceptance review.
If you have any questions, please contact the Quad Cites Project Manager, Lawrence Rossbach, at (301) 415-2863.
Sincerely,
/RA/
Aby Mohseni, Acting Director Project Directorate III Division of Licensing Project Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket Nos. 50-237, 50-249, 50-254, and 50-265
Enclosure:
As stated cc w/encl: See next page
C. Crane March 17, 2005 amendment request containing the information requested, we will open new TACs and conduct a new acceptance review.
If you have any questions, please contact the Quad Cites Project Manager, Lawrence Rossbach, at (301) 415-2863.
Sincerely,
/RA/
Aby Mohseni, Acting Director Project Directorate III Division of Licensing Project Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket Nos. 50-237, 50-249, 50-254, and 50-265
Enclosure:
As stated cc w/encl: See next page DISTRIBUTION:
PUBLIC PDIII/2 r/f PCoates TMarsh/JLyons OGC FAkstulewicz GSuh ACRS MBanerjee MRing, RIII LRossbach AMohseni ADAMS Accession Number: ML050660435 OFFICE PM:PDIII-2 LA:PDIII-2 SC:SRXB-A SC:PD3-2 D:DLPM PD3:(A)D NAME LRossbach PCoates FAkstulewicz GSuh TMarsh AMohseni DATE 3/16/05 3/16/05 3/08/05 3/16/05 3/17/05 3/17/05 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY
Dresden and Quad Cities Nuclear Power Stations cc:
Site Vice President - Dresden Nuclear Power Station Vice President of Operations - Mid-West Exelon Generation Company, LLC Boiling Water Reactors 6500 N. Dresden Road Exelon Generation Company, LLC Morris, IL 60450-9765 4300 Winfield Road Warrenville, IL 60555 Dresden Nuclear Power Station Plant Manager Exelon Generation Company, LLC Vice President - Licensing and Regulatory 6500 N. Dresden Road Affairs Morris, IL 60450-9765 Exelon Generation Company, LLC 4300 Winfield Road Regulatory Assurance Manager - Dresden Warrenville, IL 60555 Exelon Generation Company, LLC 6500 N. Dresden Road Director - Licensing and Regulatory Morris, IL 60450-9765 Affairs Exelon Generation Company, LLC U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 4300 Winfield Road Dresden Resident Inspectors Office Warrenville, IL 60555 6500 N. Dresden Road Morris, IL 60450-9766 Associate General Counsel Exelon Generation Company, LLC Chairman 4300 Winfield Road Grundy County Board Warrenville, IL 60555 Administration Building 1320 Union Street Manager Licensing - Dresden, Morris, IL 60450 Quad Cities and Clinton Exelon Generation Company, LLC Regional Administrator 4300 Winfield Road U.S. NRC, Region III Warrenville, IL 60555 801 Warrenville Road Lisle, IL 60532-4351 Site Vice President - Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station Illinois Emergency Management Exelon Generation Company, LLC Agency 22710 206th Avenue N.
Division of Disaster Assistance & Cordova, IL 61242-9740 Preparedness 110 East Adams Street Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station Springfield, IL 62701-1109 Plant Manager Exelon Generation Company, LLC Document Control Desk - Licensing 22710 206th Avenue N.
Exelon Generation Company, LLC Cordova, IL 61242-9740 4300 Winfield Road Warrenville, IL 60555 Senior Vice President - Nuclear Services Exelon Generation Company, LLC 4300 Winfield Road Warrenville, IL 60555
Dresden and Quad Cities Nuclear Power Stations cc:
Regulatory Assurance Manager - Quad Cities Exelon Generation Company, LLC 22710 206th Avenue N.
Cordova, IL 61242-9740 Quad Cities Resident Inspectors Office U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 22712 206th Avenue N.
Cordova, IL 61242 David C. Tubbs MidAmerican Energy Company One River Center Place 106 E. Second, P.O. Box 4350 Davenport, IA 52808-4350 Vice President - Law and Regulatory Affairs MidAmerican Energy Company One River Center Place 106 E. Second Street P.O. Box 4350 Davenport, IA 52808 Chairman Rock Island County Board of Supervisors 1504 3rd Avenue Rock Island County Office Bldg.
Rock Island, IL 61201
Dresden and Quad Cities OPTIMA2 fuel amendment request dated January 20, 2005-Areas where application is incomplete
- 1. Lack of Detail and Technical Justification on Westinghouse Analytical Methods
- Exelons request does not specifically address each of the twenty eight plus safety evaluation (SE) limitations and conditions related to the applicability of Westinghouses topical reports.
- Instead of demonstrating compliance to each of the SE limitations and conditions, Exelons request states:
The use of the topical reports for DNPS and QCNPS reload core designs will be limited to the extent specified and under the limitations delineated in the NRC safety evaluations
- The license amendment should identify each of the SE limitations and conditions and then provide a detailed discussion demonstrating how each limitation and condition will be addressed for the upcoming cycle.
- 2. Lack of Detail and Technical Justification for Mixed Core Application
- Lessons learned from the Dresden and Quad Cities extended power uprate (EPU) licensing action completed on December 21, 2001, and which consisted of a mixed core with fresh GE-14 fuel assemblies along with GE analytical methods, prompted a letter to GE which provided staff expectations for future EPU and mixed core applications.
- The staff recognizes that Dresden and Quad Cities have previously been granted EPU license amendments. However, the mixed core issues associated with a transition to Westinghouse Optima2 fuel still exist at the current EPU core conditions.
- The letter to GE (dated June 25, 2003, accession number ML031780157) provides the following expectations for future EPU licensing applications which are directly applicable to Exelon's current request:
- Licensees must submit a plant-specific mixed core analysis that provides bounding fuel-dependent analyses or analyses based on cycle-specific core configurations that demonstrate that at the thermal limits, the core and fuel performance will satisfy all safety and regulatory requirements.
- Licensees must submit a plant-specific fuel transition report which demonstrates acceptable performance of the different fuel designs supplied by the different fuel vendors at EPU conditions.
- Licensees must submit a plant-specific analyses of ATWS, LOCA and thermal-hydraulic stability for the different fuel designs supplied by different fuel vendors for EPU conditions. Complete and comprehensive analyses of all the applicable transients and accidents for the "realistic core" which demonstrate acceptable performance with applicable regulations at the EPU level must be performed and submitted to the staff.
Enclosure
- 3. First Application of Westinghouse Fuel and Analytical Methods to an EPU Plant
- Since this is the first application of Westinghouse fuel and analytical methods to an EPU plant, Exelon's request needs to address the following:
- Demonstrate that the steady-state and transient neutronic and thermal hydraulic analytical methods and code systems used to perform the safety analyses supporting the EPU conditions are being applied within the NRC-approved applicability ranges.
- Demonstrate that for the EPU conditions, the calculational and measurement uncertainties applied to the thermal limits analyses are valid for the predicted neutronic and thermal-hydraulic core and fuel conditions.
- Demonstrate that the assessment database and the assessed uncertainty of models used in all licensing codes that interface with and/or are used to simulate the plant's response during steady state, transient or accident conditions remain valid and applicable for the EPU conditions.
- 4. Lack of Detail and Technical Justification for Optima2 Fuel Design
- Two of the cited topical reports, WCAP-15836-P (STAV7.2) and WCAP-15942-P (Fuel Mechanical Design), are still under NRC review. Completion is scheduled for June 2005. Exelons request must address any SE Limitations and Conditions which may result from the review of these two topical reports.
- Exelons request simply refers to the new fuel assembly design, Optima2, by referencing WCAP-15942-P. However, Westinghouse is not seeking approval of the Optima2 fuel assembly design - only approval of the overriding fuel mechanical design methods and criteria. WCAP-15942-P provides a sample application of the methodology as an illustration of the process which must be followed for each applicant. Therefore, the licensee (Exelon) has the burden to provide the mechanical specifications of their new fuel design and demonstrate that this new design satisfies the approved criteria using the approved methods.