Saturday, September 28, 2013

Hardened Vent: the basis was apparently only recently documented.

As is clear from my recent entries, it was only following my recent inquiry that NRC published the basis for the capacity of the hardened vent system.  Here it is:
http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1322/ML13221A011.pdf
The document is dated August 9, 2012, however this is backdated by one year.  The correct date is August 9, 2013.

What I am gong to try to find out now, is what actions the NRC went through in order to produce the above document.

I requested the basis for the following:


1.2 The HCVS shall include the following design features:
1.2.1 The HCVS shall have the capacity to vent the steam/energy equivalent of 1 percent of licensed/rated thermal power (unless a lower value is justified by analyses), and be able to maintain containment pressure below the primary containment design pressure. 

Page 3 of 3 of the August 12, 2013, document ML13221A011, lists 10 references as follows:

References:
1. “American National Standard for Decay Heat Power in Light Water Reactors.” American
Nuclear Society Standards Committee Working Group ANS 5.1. Approved August 29,
1979.
2. NUREG/CR-3908, “Survey of the State of the Art in Mitigation Systems.” January 1988.
3. Generic Letter 89-16, “Installation of a Hardened Wetwell Vent.” September 1, 1989.
4. Information Notice 9639, “Estimates of Decay Heat using ANS 5.1 Decay Heat Standard
may very significantly.” July 5, 1996.
5. HSK-R-40/d, “Filtered Venting for Containment Vessels of Light Water Reactors (LWR):
Design Requirements.” March 1993.
6. Technical Report 1998-03, “Decay Heat Estimates for MNR.” February 23, 1999.
http://www.nuceng.ca/papers/decayhe1b.pdf
7. Decay heat illustration2.PNG. http://enm.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Decay heat
illustration2.PNG.
8. IAEA-TECDOC-1661, “Mitigation of Hydrogen Hazards in Severe Accidents in Nuclear
Power Plants.” July 2011.
9. NUREG/CR-5597, “In-Vessel Zircaloy Oxidation/Hydrogen Generation Behavior during
Severe Accident.” September 1990.
10. NUREG/CR-2726 SAND82-1137R3, “Light Water Reactor Hydrogen Manual.” August
1983.
Date: August 9, 2012
ADAMS Accession No.: ML13221A011

It is noteworthy that of the ten references, reference 8, IAEA-TECDOC-1661, July 2011, is the only reference that has been published since the Fukushima detonations.  It is also noteworthy that although reference 8 itself has 100 pertinent references in the matter of Mitigation of Hydrogen Hazards in Severe Accidents in Nuclear Power Plants, none of the other nine references of document ML13221A011 are cited. 

On page 1 of 3 of is the assertion:
Generic Letter 89-16 (Reference 3) related to installation of hardened wetwell vents was issued in September 1989 and stated that the system installed by Boston Edison Company at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station and associated analysis was acceptable. The design analysis included a vent design objective of venting approximately 1 % of decay heat for a 56 psi saturated steam conditions in the torus.

So, I downloaded reference 3, but the attachment that discusses the Pligrim analysis is not included.  I'll contact NRC's PDR and ask for the attachment.  

The NRC's PDR very courteously provided the best copy that they could.  I e-mailed the following request:

From: Bobleyse@aol.com [mailto:Bobleyse@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2013 7:24 PM
To: JLD_Public Resource
Cc: CHAIRMAN Resource; CMROSTENDORFF Resource; CMRAPOSTOLAKIS Resource; CMRMAGWOOD Resource; CMRSVINICKI Resource
Subject: Fwd: Please assist (again)

JLD_Public Resource

The document that the PDR courteously sent is not completely readable, and those parts that are readable are not expediently readable. You should recognize that the matter is of intense importance.  Accordingly, you should take actions that will provide a very readable document in ADAMS, and those actions should proceed immediately.

Robert H. Leyse                 bobleyse@aol.com

And I received the following infuriating reply:
Subject: RE: Please assist (again)
Date: 10/1/2013 8:00:32 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time
From: JLD_Public.Resource@nrc.gov
To: Bobleyse@aol.com

Thank you for contacting the NRC’s Japan Lessons-Learned Project Directorate. Your comments will be considered to the extent possible.

Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
Nuclear Regulatory Commission

And, we pay those clowns for that kind of service.  I suppose the staff of the NRC's PDR may be chastised for providing courteous attention to my request; that courteous attention is beyond the requirements on NRC regulations.

 

 

  

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Documentation of Sizing of Hardened Venting of Boiling Water Reactors

It has been difficult, but via Senator Risch, documentation of the NRC basis for sizing hardened vents has become available.

http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1322/ML13221A011.pdf

The third page of the above link is dated August 9, 2012.  The correct date is August 9, 2013.   Also, the document is not identified as having been produced at the request of this blogger, Robert H. Leyse.  I e-mailed NRC asking for corrections and received the following non-commitment:

Subject: RE: Satorius letter to Senator James E. Risch, August 29, 2013
Date: 9/26/2013 12:40:49 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time
From: JLD_Public.Resource@nrc.gov
To: Bobleyse@aol.com

Thank you for contacting the NRC’s Japan Lessons-Learned Project Directorate. Your comments will be considered to the extent possible.

Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Below is the e-mail that I sent requesting action:

From: Bobleyse@aol.com [mailto:Bobleyse@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2013 10:15 PM
To: JLD_Public Resource
Subject: Satorius letter to Senator James E. Risch, August 29, 2013

Mark A. Satorius
Executive Director for Operations

The attachment consists of five pages.  Page 1 is your cover letter to Senator Risch, August 29, 2013.   Page 2 is a copy of an e-mail that was allegedly sent to me on August 9, 2013.  Pages 3, 4, and 5  constitute a three page document that responds to my request for references that document the basis for technical requirement 1.2.1 that is in Order EA-13-109.

Page 5 of the attachment is page 3 of the three page document that responds to my request for references that document the basis for technical requirement 1.2.1 that is in Order EA-13-109.  This page 5 has the following in its final two lines. 

Date: August 9, 2012

ADAMS Accession No.: ML13221A011

Now, I have conducted an Advanced Search via the ADAMS Accession No.: ML13221A011 and I find that the Document Date is 08/09/2013 and that the date that it was added to ADAMS was 08/13/2013.

I believe  that you should correct the date of the three page document from August 9, 2012, to August 9, 2013.  I also believe that the three page document should acknowledge that it was prepared at the request of Robert H. Leyse.

Robert H. Leyse       bobleyse@aol.com

Following are the first two pages of the five page attachment that is referenced above.  The last three pages are the documentation that I requested and that also opens this entry, http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1322/ML13221A011.pdf


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Hardened Vent References that yield 1%

On August 9, 2013, the NRC issued the three page document, prepared at my request, Basis for Venting Capacity in Order ER-13-109.  Here it is:





































The above three page document is not without its problems. On page 3 it has a Date: August 9, 2012; the correct date is August 9, 2013. In addition, although the document was prepared in response to my request, this is not discussed, so there is no way of tracking the document with Leyse as a key word. This led me to immediately send the following e-mail to the NRC.

From: Bobleyse@aol.com
To: jld_public.resource@nrc.gov
Sent: 9/24/2013 8:14:48 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time

Subj: Satorius letter to Senator James E. Risch, August 29, 2013

Mark A. Satorius
Executive Director for Operations

The attachment consists of five pages. Page 1 is your cover letter to Senator Risch, August 29, 2013. Page 2 is a copy of an e-mail that was allegedly sent to me on August 9, 2013. Pages 3, 4, and 5 constitute a three page document that responds to my request for references that document the basis for technical requirement 1.2.1 that is in Order EA-13-109.

Page 5 of the attachment is page 3 of the three page document that responds to my request for references that document the basis for technical requirement 1.2.1 that is in Order EA-13-109. This page 5 has the following in its final two lines.
 
Date: August 9, 2012

ADAMS Accession No.: ML13221A011

Now, I have conducted an Advanced Search via the ADAMS Accession No.: ML13221A011 and I find that the Document Date is 08/09/2013 and that the date that it was added to ADAMS was 08/13/2013. I believe that you should correct the date of the three page document from August 9, 2012, to August 9, 2013. I also believe that the three page document should acknowledge that it was prepared at the request of Robert H. Leyse.

Robert H. Leyse

The three page document that I have pasted above may be found in an enlarged version at: 

http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1322/ML13221A011.pdf



Friday, September 20, 2013

Petition to NRC to require in-core thermocouples

NRC told Mark Leyse that work was in progress when it really had been completed.  Followng is the NRC report followed by the reaction by Mark Leyse.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Licensing the General Electric Test Reactor GETR TR-1

It was a great game in the late 1950's. Here is one of the early contacts that GE set up with the NRC. The Washington D. C. office did the spade work that greased the skids.








The above contact was effective. The meeting followed shortly and its success is documented below.  The left margin has been cut, but with patience the reader will understand that the forthcoming review was well set up for acceptance of the licensing of the GETR.








Wednesday, September 18, 2013

GETR Control Rods 1960

The control rods used boron impregnated stainless steel as a structural material as well as poison.  Below outlines the problems.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

GREEN START-UP

This has never been called a green start-up, however, the following is clear.