ML20084F189

Forwards Recent Correspondence Re Spent Fuel Pit Leaks.Util Will Make Decision Whether to Replace 1/6-inch Stainless Steel Liner or Seal Existing Leak W/Epoxy.Leaks Will Be Repaired During Next Refueling Outage

ML20084F189
Person / Time
Site:	Turkey Point
Issue date:	05/05/1976
From:	Farley D FLORIDA, STATE OF
To:	Thornburg H NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTION & ENFORCEMENT (IE)
Shared Package
ML20084F146	List: ML20084F148 ML20084F155 ML20084F166 ML20084F189 ML20084F203 ML20084F207 ML20084F215 ML20084F222 ML20084F256
References
NUDOCS 8304200634
Download: ML20084F189 (7)

Text

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ _ _ _

o 0 - -

h /

y[l;(

n .,

STATE OF FLCHIDA LATION i 5 DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL RE -

., 2562 EXECUTIVE CENTER CIRCLE, EAST MONTGOMERY BUILDING TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA 32301 AEUBIN o'D. ASKEW JOSEPH W. LANDERS, Jr.,

GOVERNOR SECRETARY May 5, 1976 Mr. Harold D. Thornburg, Acting Director Office of Inspection and Enforcement U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Comnission Washington, D. C. 20555

Dear Mr. Thornburg:

Attached per your request is a copy of recent correspon-dence concerning the spent fuel pit leaks at Florida Power and Light's Turkey Point Facility. Additional in-formation on efforts to correct 'he leaks has been recently received from Dr. Uhrig of Flor a Power and Light. Dr.

Uhrig has indicated that a decision will be made shortly, perhaps within a week, whether to replace the 1/6 inch stainless steel liner in the Unit No. 3 tank with an 1/4 inch liner or to seal the existing liner with epoxy. It is our understanding that the leaks will be corrected during the next refueling of Unit No. 3, after the storage capacity of the storage pit for Unit No. 4 is expanded.

As new information becomes available, we will forward it to you. I erely l an Farley, Direct r Division of Enviro Ital Permitting DF/ hor Enclosures s y,D51 8304200634 760528 g

PDR ADOCK 05000250 H PDR

. p 6U

T g

• pd STATE CF FLoninA V '

Ibd!dh[ Britartment of Ahministration -

• * ' O f floo of The S ec r et a ry

, *eo wet #

Roou 330. Cam. ton Bt.po.

Lt. Gov. J. II. *Jian* William. TALhlIASSEE neuben o o. A.kew sectataat er me.ueneaanom ,

April 16, 1976 ,

l l

l l

Mr. Marshall Mcdonald l President I Florida Power & Light Company Post Office Box 013100 Miami, Florida 33101 .

Dear Marshall:

Your initiative in providing me with information on the spent fuel leakage problem at Florida Power & Light Company's Turkey Point Unit No. 3 is greatly appreciated.

It is my intention to provide copies of your letter, and its enclosed visit report of A. D. Schmidt, to those state agencies to whom it will be of interest.

The Power Plant Siting Act, as you know, has been fostering a dialogue between the electric utilities of the State and the governmental agencies of the State. This type of information, which you have willingly expended the time and effort to provide to state agencies, marks one additional step toward improved communications among all concerned.

Sincerely, Lt. Gov nor J. H. " Jim" Williams k Secret y of Administration JHW/Spr

..m e

. 9

?

(

. , g g V o"%

I e FLORIOA POWER & UGHT COMPANY March 23, 1976 Lt. Governor J. H. Williams APR 7 IW6 Eo The Capitol Tallahassee, Florida 32304  ;

"f f Department Of Administration !

Office Of the Secretary.

S[

7 yQ

%.n 2

Dear Jim:

.J .c. *A Tc m gn Last Thursday, we at Florida Power & Light had the opportunity to provide .n ,,C Chairman Mayo, Commissioner Bevis, Director Dodd and nine staff members k of the Florida Public Service Commission a tour through our St. Lucie nuclear plant. Fuel loading at this plant has been completed, and we gm are presently conducting final pre-operational tests.

During that tour and throughout the daf's activities, we received a num-ber of questions regarding spent fue? storage at the St. Lucie facility, interest apparently precipitated by a Miami Herald article addressing i

the leaks at our Turkey Point plant. Judging from the PSC's interest in spent fuel storage, it occurred to me that an appropriate action on my part would be to apprise state officials of information .made av. ail.able.

. In order to provide you with original information, I am enclosing the cover letter of an internal report on the leaks in the spent fuel stor-age pits at Turkey Point. This report was prepared by Mr. A. D. Schmidt, FPL's Vice President of Power Resources, at my request after the Herald article of March 14th. If you have any questions pertaining to this report, either Mr. Schmidt or I will be happy to answer them for you.

i The leaks were reported to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as required.

The Commission did not consider them to be a health hazard for either the general public or for the plant personnel. In this regard, I think it is important to note that the Herald article failed to mention that

1) cooling water circulated in the spent fuel tanks is not highly radio-active and 2) the leaking water is not entering the environment.

In order to place this matter in perspective, I asked for some standards

_ _ _ _ - _ for comparing radiation andxcen=hntion both within..the_ spent _ fuel stor-age pits and at the exterior spots where there formerly had been seepage of the boric acid water to the outside of the structure.

APR 8 jgg '

DIRECTOR'S OFFICE DN. OF STATE PL/sNNING

, . HELPING OUILO FLORIDA

I*** /

b/ V; 8

}

Lt. Governor J. H. Williams Page Two March 23, 1976 t

The maximum radiation level, taken from a reading about one inch from the 2 surface of the structure and approximately twelve feet above ground 1cvel, j is less than 5% of the dose that an individual would receive from an x-ray examination of a gastro intestinal tract. An individual would have t to stand against the wall for an hour to receive up to this maximum f amount of radiation. This could only be accomplished if he was standing j on a ladder, in a fenced off area where there is no reason for employees i to be. The maximum removable contamination would require contact for an j hour, producing less than one half of the dose received from one chest l x-ray.

I It is estimated that there would be no detectable short-term or long-term radioactive effect on an individual if he drank a cup of the spent fuel pit cooling watcr. For that matter, there would be no detectable radio-active effect if an individual drank' ten cups of spent fuel pit cooling water. These are the reasons why the leakage was not of significant concern to either the Nuclear Pegulatory Commission or to Florida Power &

Light Company.

Currently there is no leakage to the outside of the spent fuel storage pits.

We have the option to replace the metal linings to these pits during a refueling of the plant when the plant is shut down. We are considering this action at the present time because of the emotionalism involved --

not because of any perceived health hazard. As you know, we are trying to hold down the cost to cur customers wherever feasible.

If you have any specific questions about this situation, I would be happy to answer them, or to have our experts meet with you or any of your staff.

Sincerely yours, J

Marshall Mcdonald President

_ _ MMcD:mp ..__ 2. _ r ._ _

Enclosure - - - ~

G e

9

( .

. pO O

.e f t0A10A PowtR & LICHT COMPAM *

. ,y , ,,

INTER 4FFICE CORRESPONDENCE

~

tocation Miami, Florida u Mr. Marshall Mcdonald oarc March 17, 1976 A. D..Schmidt r:ou corics vo Messrs.

suancri VISIT TO TURKEY POINT TO E. A. Adomat '

H. L. Allen .

INSPECT THE SPENT FUEL P1'TS J. R. Bensen

• I visited the Turkey Point Plant on Monday aCternoon, March 15,. I 1976, to update myself on, actual conditions of the spent fuel  !

pits. I was accompanied on the tour by Mr. J. R. Bensen, Manager of Power Resources - Nuclear and Mr. H. E. Yaeger, Manager of the Turkey Point Plant.

The two nuclear units at Turkey Point, Units 3 and 4, each have spent fuel storage pits adjacent to the reactor contain-  ;

New and spent fuel is transferred underwater ment structures.

j through a transfer tube between the containment structures and the spent fuel pits. .

l' The spent fuel storage pits are constructed with massive I concrete walls varying from 4 to 5 feet in thickness and i lined with stainless steel. Between the stainless steel  !

liner and concrete are leak chase channels imbedded in the concrete. The purpose of these channels is to monitor for j:

. leakage through the liner. These channels also provide a system to collect and reprocess any leakage that occurs.

The size of the spent fuel storage pits is approximately ,

i 25 feet wide by 40 feet lony and 40 feet deep, or' about the  !

size of the average home s#1mming pool but 4 or 5 times '

l deeper. 4 i

New or unirradiated fuel is not radioactive and can be handled with the bare hands; however, as the fuel is irra- .

diated, fission products are generated that are hi'ghly ~

radioactive and as the result, spent fuel is highly radio-active. The thick concrete walls and the depth of water in  ;.

the spent fuel pits are provided to take advantage of their ,

{,

excellent radiation shielding properties. Consequently, it-is possible to work safely in the spent fuel storage pit . '

'[/n' room and adjacent areas. Spent fuel continues to generate '

heat after it is removed from the reactor due to the decay of fission products. This heat is known as decay heat and J ',' '

1 the rate of the heat generation decreases rapidly beginning -

when the reactor is removed from service. After several . .

months, the rate of decay heat generation is rela'tively low.

However, the decay heat does increase the temperature of the -

. .t n1 CollRTESY WINS FRIENDS ...ron FLonsor. ron roun coupAnr... von vous '

()

-  !! arch 17,1976 .

- (o,) ,

s -

.*Y.

• spent fuel pool water and a cooling system is provided to remove the decay heat. pool water is circulated through a heat exchanger to remove the heat and control the temperature of the, water in the pool.

At Turkey point access to all areas of the plant are controlled by fences, gates or other physical barriers. In order to enter those areas of the plant where there is the potential of ex-posure to radiation, it is necessary to log in through a guarded control point where personnel radiation monitoring devices are issued to each individual. .

j I first visited the external wall area of Unit 3 spent fuel

storage pit where leakage was first detected. All areas l

were completely dry indicating no current leakage through the I concrete structure; howeve'r, there was evidence that spent

fuel storage pool water had 1 caked at sometime in the past.

I was able to safely stand immediately adjacent to the walls in the areas of the previous leaks.

I next visited the spent fuel storage pool area, wa'lking around the ledge at the top of the pool with the water some 2 to 3 feet below the ledge. I observed the spent fuel elements stored in the spent fuel racks some 25 feet below the surface. The pool water was crystal clear with a greenish tinge resulting from the underwater lighting system. I then observed the discharge from the spent fuel pool leak chase channel emptying in a 50 gallon plastic drum which was equipped with a float switch that operated a small pump to return the spent fuel water through'a filter and back into the spent fuel i -

pool. The leakage stream was abcut the size of your small fin-ger and had been measured to be flowing at about 1 gallons

per minute. g i I then visited the spent fuel pool cooling water pump and -heat exchanger room. The cooling pump was not operating as it was not required to keep the pool water cool. I was told that with the two regions of spent fuel in the pool, one of which was discharged last November, it was only necessary to operate the cooling pump about one day per month as there was very little decay heat being generated.

i I then visited the areas where leakage had been experienced with Unit 4 spent fuel storage pit. I again observed stains --.

on the walls'similar to those observed on Unit 3 and here -

again the walls were dry as no leakage was currently being __

experienced. I was told there had recently been leakage in one area and observed a metal trough and a plastic hose in-stalled to collect the leakage and drain the spent fuel pool e

s

• L ,

(

g,-

a O

s.s .

(3 .

f- "

. 3 4. , .

water to the waste hold up tank .

from the plant is collected in th All radioactive waste water discharge in accordance - ewith wastefedprocessed hold up tank and re-to redu evels suitable for eral regulation.

The fuel transfer pit section of -

4 pit was blocked off and drained on F b

, there from the spent is currently no leakage fuelfr pit decreased e ruary 5, 1976 Leakage after thi is believed that the leak is in thom this spent fuel pit. It eration and 4,

we are the pit. currently searching for theeI transfer pit area and u

canal, the Unit 4 spent fuel pit e will bit is anticipated t ooding the transfer

) Upon the completio e leak tight, contaminated area,n which of took myapproximately tour to the potentially 2 hours2.314815e-5 days <br />5.555556e-4 hours <br />3.306878e-6 weeks <br />7.61e-7 months <br /> radioacti ve meter indicated zero radiation exposu

• the radiation control check point .

, my dosi-re as I cleared through 1In the case of Unit No. 3 posing design of pool.

of the liner leakage is operatingallons or collecting and dis- per minute g in accordance with the '

Unit No. 4 spent fuel storage p

. managed, It has experienced leakage in the pastool is currently not lea but in a slightly different

• and was being safely

?

The spent fuel stcrage leakage manner than Unit No. 3 i

any other conditions encountered area of any nuclear power plant es any different in than thnot presen I leakage ir,being recovered and isThe espent radiation controlled t

fuel pool water safety of the public. environment not beingand does released nottopresent the a th reat to the health and gfQhdhd4->I4"'N l

1 A. D. Schmidt ,

ADS:pg l

• me -

e ,

I