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Subject:
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Status
of PRM-50-93/95
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Date:
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5/24/2016
1:52:17 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time
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From:
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| To: | |
| CC: |
Mr.
Leyse,
I am writing to
provide an update on your letters dated November 17, 2009, and June 7, 2010, in
which you submitted petitions to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
In your letter dated November 17, 2009, you requested that the NRC amend the
regulations in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part
50 and Appendix K to Part 50 to require that the rates of energy release,
hydrogen generation, and cladding oxidation from the metal-water reaction
considered in emergency core cooling system evaluation calculations be based on
data from multi-rod (assembly) severe fuel damage experiments. In addition, you
requested that the NRC create a new regulation to establish a minimum allowable
core reflood rate in the event of a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA). In your
letter dated June 7, 2010, you requested that the NRC order Vermont Yankee
Nuclear Power Station (Vermont Yankee) to lower the licensing basis peak
cladding temperature to 1,832 degrees F in order to provide a necessary margin
of safety in the event of a LOCA.
The NRC
docketed your November 17, 2009, letter as petition for rulemaking (PRM) 50-93.
A notice of receipt and request for public comment on PRM-50-93 was published in
the Federal Register on January 25, 2010 (75 FR 3876). Your letter dated
June 7, 2010, was submitted as a petition for enforcement action under 10 CFR
2.206. On August 6, 2010, the NRC denied your § 2.206 petition because it did
not demonstrate that Vermont Yankee was in violation of any NRC regulations.
Because your § 2.206 petition asserted that there were generic inadequacies in
NRC regulations, the NRC decided to review it under 10 CFR 2.802 as a petition
for rulemaking and docketed it as PRM-50-95. Because PRM-50-93 and PRM-50-95
address similar issues, the NRC consolidated these two petitions for review as a
single petition for rulemaking activity. Another Federal Register notice
was published on October 27, 2010 (75 FR 66007), and the comment period was
reopened. The public comment period ended on November 26, 2010. Thirty-two
public comments have been received to date on the combined petitions. These
comments have been posted at regulations.gov (ID:
NRC-2009-0554).
The NRC staff
is considering the merits of your PRM and the public comments received. As
described in the NRC’s letter to you dated August 25, 2011, the NRC has decided
to increase the visibility to the public of the NRC’s review of these particular
petitions. The NRC will publicly release its draft interim reviews regarding
each group or category of issues on a periodic basis as the review progresses.
These draft interim reviews will be posted on regulations.gov. So far, the NRC
has publicly released four draft interim reviews:
- Evaluation of CORA test series (8/23/11)
- Evaluation of LOFT LP-FP-2 (9/27/11)
- Evaluation of conservatism of 2200F, metal-water reaction rate correlations, and “the impression left from run 9573” (10/16/12)
- Evaluation of request to establish minimum reflood rate (3/8/13)
The NRC staff
will consider and respond to the comments you made regarding PRM-50-93 and
PRM-50-95 at the Commission briefing on public participation in NRC regulatory
decision-making on January 31, 2013, in the review of these
petitions.
The NRC is
considering the remaining issues and will notify you as the draft interim
reviews are completed. Once the petitions have been resolved, a notice will be
published in the Federal Register explaining the Commission’s finding.
You will also receive a letter at that time notifying you of the action that the
Commission has taken.
Please feel
free to contact me at Daniel.Doyle@nrc.gov or 301-415-3748 if
you have questions.
Sincerely,
Dan
Doyle
Project
Manager
U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission
(301)
415-3748
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