ML20140A408

Responds to 850927 Order to Show Cause Re Amount of Unirradiated High Enriched U Fuel Onsite.Normal Compliment of Unirradiated High Enriched U Fuel Consists of Three Elements,Containing Total of 372 G

ML20140A408
Person / Time
Site:	Rhode Island Atomic Energy Commission
Issue date:	03/03/1986
From:	Dimeglio A RHODE ISLAND, STATE OF
To:	NRC OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY (SECY)
References
NUDOCS 8603190425
Download: ML20140A408 (3)

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C2rtification #645 196 979

y. a ba Rl STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS RHODE ISLAND ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION Nuclear Science Center South Ferry Road Narragansett, R.I. 02882-1197 March 3, 1986 Secretary of the Commission U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Uashington, DC 20555 Docket 50-193 License R-95

Dear Sir:

This letter is transmitted pursuant to the " Order to show cause" which was issued on September 27, 1985 concerning the amount of unirradiated high enriched uranium fuel on site. We did not respond within the 30 days be-cause we had no objections to the order and because we believed that the wording of the order - namely ". . . . . . .or failure to answer or request a hear-ing on this Order within the specified time period, the provisions set forth in Section III shall become effective without further order."- required no response.

Based on Section III of the Order we will require one element for replace-ment of a failed element, and two elements for that amount of fuel elements depleted in a 90-day period of normal fuel power operation. Therefore, the normal compliment of unirradiated high enriched uranium fuel is three elements containing a nominal total of 372 grams of fuel.

We note that or. January 25, 1986, 120 days from the effective date of this Order, we had three unirradiated fuel elements.

There will be occassions when the 90 days supply for burnup will be more than 2 fuel elements. While we are currently in such a situation, we do not expect this to reoccure because of conversions to low enriched uranium.

9603190425 860303 3 PDR ADOCK 0500

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Y Secretary of the Commission March 3, 1986 Page 2 1

This situation occurs for the following circumstances: 1

1. a full compliment of spent irradiated fuel awaiting shipment to reprocessing (maximum of 42 elements)

2. an operating core of 30 elements with minimum excess because several of the fuel elements are close to burnup (30 elements)

3. storage capacity in the pool for 72 elements.

In this situation, which existed when the Order to show cause was issued and until the last week in January 1986, the core excess reactivity was allowed to decrease since, if we had added a fresh element to the core, we would not have been able to unload the entire operating core. There-fore, now that the spent fuel has been shipped to reprocessing, the 90-day supply of fuel is fc::r elements, two of which will be used upon arrival to restore the excess reactivity to the core. As already stated, we do not expect this situation to reoccur.

The Rhode Island Atomic Energy Commission apologizes for any inconvenience this " late" response may have caused.

Very truly yours, -

c;b  :.

A. rancis DiMeglio Director AFD:cd cc: Region 1, Mr. Arthur Della Ratta Executive Legal Director U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, DC 20555 i

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g, Davis for Approp. Acticn cys: Denton a

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY gi n CORRESPONDENCE CONTROL TICKET Cunningham/ Burns .

PAPER NUMBER: CRC-86-0239 LOGGING DATE: Ma 13 bS" ACTION OFFICE: EDO AUTHOR: A.F. DiMeglio AFFILIATION: RHODE ISLAND LETTER DATE: Mar 12 86 FILE CODE: RD-31

SUBJECT:

Sept 27, 1986 order to show cause --amount of irradiated heu fuel on site ACTION: Appropriate DISTRIBUTION:

SPECIAL HANDLING: None NOTES:

DATE DUE:

SIGNATURE: . DATE SIGNED:

AFFILIATION:

Rec'd Off. EDO Date - 3-l4-%6 Time _ /H T D -

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