ML072110273

Summary of the License Renewal Meeting Held Between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Staff and the Nuclear Energy Institute

ML072110273
Person / Time
Site:	PROJ0690
Issue date:	08/20/2007
From:	Hoffman S NRC/NRR/ADRO/DLR/RLRB
To:	Nuclear Energy Institute
Hoffman, S T, NRR, 415-3245
References
Project 690
Download: ML072110273 (10)

Text

August 20, 2007 ORGANIZATION: Nuclear Energy Institute

SUMMARY

OF THE LICENSE RENEWAL MEETING HELD BETWEEN THE U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION STAFF AND THE NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff and the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI)

License Renewal Task Force met on June 21, 2007, to discuss generic license renewal topics, lessons learned from the audit process, and license renewal process improvements. provides a listing of the meeting participants and Enclosure 2 contains the meeting agenda. A summary of the discussions follows:

1. Environmental topics from the May 31, 2007, meeting

a. NRC requests for additional information on Category I impacts The NRC staff indicated that it had discussed with the NRC's Office of the General Counsel (OGC) the issue of whether or not questions about Category 1 items are warranted during license renewal environmental reviews. According to OGC, the staff could adopt a Category I conclusion for an issue at a specific site if the Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal (GEIS) identifies the specific plant sites to which each generic determination applies, provided that no new and significant information calls into question the generic conclusions in the GEIS. Absent a listing of issues for each site, OGC indicated that the staff would require descriptive information about plant and site characteristics to confirm that the GEIS analysis applies to a specific site and to disclose this descriptive information in a site-specific supplement to the GEIS. The staff did not have an opportunity to determine if the GEIS included such a listing before the NEI meeting, but indicated that it would do so before the next NEI public telephone conference.

b. Clarification of non-GEIS or regulatory issues NEI was not prepared to discuss specific examples involving non-Category I items at this meeting. The Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant audit went well and this topic is not considered an urgent issue. NEI will discuss this topic in a future meeting.

c.

GEIS update status The NRC staff plans to issue the draft GEIS and proposed rule revision for public comment in the first calendar quarter of 2009. This proposed schedule, an extension of the original schedule because of the Fiscal Year 2007 budget continuing resolution, still requires Commission approval.

2. Severe accident mitigation alternative (SAMA) analyses: Information regarding use of output from SECPOP2000 code as input to MACCS2 code The MACCS2 code, used to quantify the economic impacts of a severe accident (and SAMA benefits), requires site-specific economic input data, e.g., land values and farm related information at a county level. The necessary data file may be constructed by the analyst, or developed using a code such as the SECPOP2000 code, developed by Sandia National Laboratory. A problem with the SECPOP2000 code was recently brought to the staffs attention by one renewal applicant, although other analysts may have known about and worked around the problem previously. Specifically, the SECPOP2000 code writes the economic output data in a different format than required by the MACCS2 code. One or more columns of data are shifted by several characters, such that the values read by the MACCS2 code are incorrect. The parameters affected are believed to have only a second order effect on results. Therefore, the results of the SAMA analysis are unlikely to change.

A knowledgeable analyst can work around the problem by reformatting the file written by SECPOP2000 to be compatible with the MACCS2 input file requirements. This problem would only affect SAMA analyses (for license renewal) and severe accident mitigation design alternatives analyses (for new reactor licensing) that rely on the use of the SECPOP2000 code for economic input parameters, and that were performed by analysts who were not aware of this code problem. Staff at Sandia responsible for the SECPOP2000 code have been informed of the problem.

3. Time-limited aging analysis (TLAA) and metal fatigue follow-up discussions from May 24, 2007, meeting In the May 24, 2007, meeting with NEI, the staff had discussed the recent audit finding in which an applicant had inappropriately projected transient cycles for 60 years operation based on past operating history when the plant was operating in a favorable condition. As a result, the projected cycles were significantly reduced for the design transients, in some cases even down to zero. The applicant then used the projected cycles to compute the components cumulative usage factors. The staff reiterated that this kind approach was unacceptable for evaluating the TLAA for associated components in accordance with 10 CFR 54.21(c)(1). The staff clarified that projecting the numbers of transient cycles in the application does not provide the applicant authorization to change the current design bases.

If the applicant opts to change the current design bases, the request for change has to be processed following the process stipulated in 10 CFR 50.

The staff also discussed the need to review the benchmarking of the transfer function used in the stress-based fatigue analysis. During the recent audits, the staff asked the two applicants who used two different on-line fatigue monitoring softwares to demonstrate their stress benchmarks.

4. Post-approval renewal inspection procedure (IP-71003)

The NRC staff plans to send NEI the draft revision of IP-71003 by the end of August 2007.

Once NEI has time to review the draft, a public meeting will be scheduled to discuss the revision and the NRCs plans for post-approval renewal inspections. A topic NEI was requested to discuss at the meeting is how licensees are managing their outstanding commitments that need to be completed before entering the period of extended operation.

NEI responded that normally licensees control the commitments using their existing commitment management process and that they will have the appropriate people at the meeting to discuss this topic.

5. License renewal interim staff guidance (LR-ISG) status The NRC staff plans to issue for public comment by the end of August 2007 the updated LR-ISG process and the LR-ISG on Generic Aging Lessons Learned (GALL) Report, aging management program (AMP) XI.E6.

6. Lessons learned from recent safety review audits For new AMPs that are consistent with the GALL Report (NUREG-1801), the license standard review plant (NUREG-1800) AMPs, indicates that the renewal application only needs a statement that the applicants AMP is consistent with the GALL Report program.

However, for these new programs, the staff does not have any detail to review during the audit. The staff proposed that applicants provide the same information for these new AMPs consistent with GALL as they would for a plant-specific AMP. If the details of the final AMP have not been developed yet, the applicant could describe options it could take for the AMP without having to indicate which approach would be selected. These descriptions would provide the staff with information on which to base its safety finding. It was agreed that the staff needs to provide guidance to the industry on what is needed for new AMPs that are consistent with the GALL Report.

7. New issues NEI indicated that the NRC staffs expectations regarding scoping for recovery from station blackout has changed for recent applications since the staff issued LR-ISG-02, Staff Guidance on Scoping of Equipment Relied on to Meet the Requirements of the Station Blackout (SBO) Rule (10 CFR 50.63) for License Renewal (10 CFR 54(a)(3)), dated April 1, 2002 (ADAMS Accession No. ML020920464). The staff disagrees. However, because the staff did not expect to discuss this topic during this meeting, the appropriate technical staff were not at the meeting. The staff will ensure that the appropriate staff are available at the next monthly call to discuss this topic.

One applicant previously provided the NRC staff with password protected, read-only access to its online database of onsite documents supporting its license renewal application. This facilitated the staffs preparation for the on-site audit. In response to NEIs request, the staff will investigate whether other applicants can provide the staff with the same access.

The staff is investigating whether cable tie wraps are credited for performing an intended function in accordance with a plants current licensing basis that would require them to be within the scope of license renewal. The staff needs to complete its evaluation and will discuss this topic in a future conference call or meeting.

Potential topics discussed for future LR-ISGs are cracking of boiling water reactor top guides, cycle projections for fatigue analyses, and information requirements for Category 1 environmental impacts.

8. Public participation A member of the public provided suggestions on areas of the GEIS for staff review in addressing Agenda Item 1.a.

/RA/

Stephen T. Hoffman, Senior Project Manager License Renewal Branch B Division of License Renewal Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Project No. 690

Enclosures:

As stated cc w/encls: See next page

ML072110273 OFFICE PM:RLRB:DLR LA:DLR BC:RLRC:DLR BC:REBB:DLR BC:RLRB:DLR NAME SHoffman IKing KChang RFranovich RAuluck DATE 08/20/07 08/02/07 08/17/07 08/06/07 08/13/07

List of Participants License Renewal Meeting Between the NRC Staff and the Nuclear Energy Institute June 21, 2007 PARTICIPANTS AFFILIATIONS 1.

Pao-Tsin (P. T.) Kuo U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 2.

Kenneth Chang NRC 3.

Rani Franovich NRC 4.

Eric Benner NRC 5.

Stephen Hoffman NRC 6.

K. Robert Hsu NRC 7.

Bob Palla NRC 8.

Yeon-Ki Chung NRC 9.

Duc Nguyen NRC 10.

Linh Tran NRC 11.

Peter Wen NRC 12.

Roy Matthew NRC 13.

Jill Caverly NRC 14.

Veronica Rodriguez NRC 15.

Christian Jacobs NRC 16.

Andrew Stuyvenberg NRC 17.

Bo Pham NRC 18.

Alicia Williamson NRC 19.

Samuel Hernandez NRC 20.

Jessie Muir NRC 21.

Gordon Clefton Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) 22.

James Ross NEI 23.

Julie Keys NEI 24.

Dave Flyte PPL Susquehanna 25.

Dave Kunsemiller FENOC/Beaver Valley 26.

Cliff Custer FENOC 27.

Garry Young Entergy 28.

Alan Cox Entergy 29.

Mark Giles Entergy 30.

Bob Vincent Entergy/Palisades 31.

Fred Polaski Exelon 32.

Richard Schallen Strategic Teaming and Resource Sharing (STARS) 33.

Eric Blocher STARS 34.

Chalmer Myer Southern Nuclear Company 35.

Mike McFarlane Southern Nuclear Company 36.

Ken Putnam FPL 37.

Gene Eckholt NMC/Prairie Island 38.

Michael Heath Progress Energy 39.

David Bremer NPPD/Cooper 40.

Ken Brune TVA 41.

Massoud Tefezzoli AREVA 42.

Kathryn Sutton Morgan Lewis 43.

Gary Stevens Structural Integrity 44.

Fiona Wang Taiwan Power Company 45.

L. H. Wang ITRI, Taiwan 46.

Jin-Yaw Liu ITRI, Taiwan 47.

R. Alice Hwang ATL 48.

Jon Cudworth Tetra Tech

Agenda License Renewal Meeting Between the U.S. NRC Staff and the Nuclear Energy Institute Meeting June 21, 2007 Topic Lead

1. Environmental topics from May 31, 2007, meeting

a. NRC requests for additional information on Category I impacts NRC

b. Clarification of non-GEIS or regulatory issues NEI c.

Generic Environmental Impact Statement update status NRC

2. SAMA analyses: Information regarding use of output from NRC SECPOP2000 code as input to MACCS2 code

3. Time-limited aging analysis and metal fatigue follow-up NRC discussions from May 24, 2007, meeting

4. Post-approval renewal inspection procedure (IP-71003)

NRC

5. Interim staff guidance (ISG)

a. Updated ISG process NRC

b. ISG on aging management program XI.E6 NRC

6. Lessons learned from recent safety review audits NRC/NEI

7. New issues NRC/NEI

8. Public participation All

Letter to Nuclear Energy Institute, from Stephen Hoffman, dated August 20, 2007

SUMMARY

OF THE LICENSE RENEWAL MEETING HELD BETWEEN THE U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION STAFF AND THE NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE DISTRIBUTION:

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Ms. Christine S. Salembier, Commissioner State Liaison Officer Department of Public Service 112 State St., Drawer 20 Montipelier, VT 05620-2601 Ms. Julie Keys Nuclear Energy Institute 1776 I St., N.W., Suite 400 Washington, DC 20006-3708 Mr. Frederick W. Polaski Manager License Renewal Exelon Corporation 200 Exelon Way Kennett Square, PA 19348 Mr. Clifford I. Custer Project Manager, License Renewal FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company P.O. Box 4 Route 168 (Mail Stop SIM-2)

Shippingport, PA 15077 Mr. Paul Gunter, Director Reactor Watchdog Project Nuclear Information & Resource Service 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 340 Takoma Park, MD 20912 Mr. Hugh Jackson Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy &

Environment Program 215 Pennsylvania Ave., SE Washington, DC 20003 Mary Olson Nuclear Information & Resource Service Southeast Office P.O. Box 7586 Asheville, NC 28802 Mr. Garry G. Young Manager, License Renewal Services 1448 SR 333, N-GSB-45 Russellville, AR 72802 Robert A. Vincent Licensing Lead - License Renewal Project Palisades Nuclear Plant 27780 Blue Star Memorial Highway Covert, MI 49043 Lorrie Bell, Project Manager Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation P.O. Box 411 Burlington, KS 66839 Roger Stewart Progress Energy Carolinas, Inc.

3581 West Entrance Road RNP A9 Hartsville, SC 29550 Michael H. Crowthers, Supervisor Nuclear Regulatory Affairs PPL Susquehanna, LLC Two North Ninth Street (GENPL4)

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