U.S. Department of Energy Nuclear Power 2010 Program Combined Construction and Operating License & Design Certification Demonstration Projects Lessons Learned Report August 30, 2012 Prepared by Longenecker and Associates DISCLAIMER This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The view and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. Acronyms and Abbreviations ABWR Advanced Boiling Water FSER Final Safety Evaluation Reactor Report ACRS Advisory Committee on GE-H General Electric–Hitachi Reactor Safety (NRC) ITAAC Inspection, Tests, ACR-700 Advanced CANDU Analyses and Acceptance Reactor 700 MWe Criteria AECL Atomic Energy of Canada LWR Light Water Reactor Limited NE Office of Nuclear Energy ALWR Advanced Light Water NEI Nuclear Energy Institute Reactor NP 2010 Nuclear Power 2010 AP1000 Advanced Passive Program Pressurized Water NRC U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Reactor Commission ASLB Atomic Safety and NSSS Nuclear Steam Supply Licensing Board System CFR Code of Federal NTDG Near-Term Deployment Regulations Group COL Combined Construction NuStart NuStart Energy and Operating License Development LLC COLA COL Application OMB Office of Management DAC Design Acceptance and Budget Criteria RAI Request for Additional DC Design Certification Information DCWG Design Centered Working R-COLA Reference COLA Group SER Safety Evaluation Report DF Design Finalization S-COLA Subsequent COLA DCD Design Certification STP South Texas Project Document TVA Tennessee Valley DOE Department of Energy Authority EPAct 05 Energy Policy Act of US-APWR US Advanced Pressurized 2005 Water Reactor EPC Engineering, WBS Work Breakdown Procurement, and Structure Construction WEC Westinghouse Electric EPR Evolutionary Power Company Reactor EPRI Electric Power Research Institute ESBWR Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor ESP Early Site Permit EVMS Earned Value Management System Table of Contents Executive Summary ..................................................................................... ii I. Purpose of the Report ............................................................................. 1 II. COL/DC Demonstration Project Overview ............................................ 1 A. Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 B. Objectives of the COL/DC Program ............................................................. 2 III. COL Demonstration Project Activities ................................................... 3 A. Demonstration Projects Work Scope ........................................................... 3 B. Organizations Involved in the COL/DC Projects ......................................... 3 C. Preparation, Submittal, and NRC Review of COL Applications .................. 5 D. Completion and Certification of Standardized Advanced LWR Designs .. 10 IV. COL Demonstration Projects: Results and Outcomes ....................... 15 V. Lessons Learned ................................................................................... 16 A. Introduction ................................................................................................. 16 B. Key Lessons Learned .................................................................................. 17 C. Other Lessons Learned ............................................................................... 27 VI. References ............................................................................................. 33 Figures: 1. North Anna Station Unit 3 ESBWR 2. Vogtle Unit 3 Construction Activities 3. Twin Unit AP 1000 Reactor Concept 4. ESBWR Reactor Concept Appendices: A. Dominion Virginia Power NP 2010 COL Demonstration Project Report B. NuStart Energy Development, LLC. NP 2010 COL Demonstration Project Report C. Westinghouse Electric Company NP 2010 AP-1000 DC Project Report D. General Electric – Hitachi NP 2010 ESBWR DC Project Report Lessons Learned from the i NP 2010 COL/DC Program Executive Summary In 2002, the Department of Energy (DOE) initiated the Nuclear Power 2010 (NP 2010) program to spur commercial development of nuclear power as a vital component of our Nation’s energy infrastructure. DOE worked together with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and industry to address the most significant barriers to deployment of new nuclear power plants. The program’s four stated goals were to: • Evaluate the business case for building new nuclear power plants • Identify sites for new nuclear power plants • Demonstrate untested regulatory processes • Develop advanced nuclear plant technologies The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) under 10 CFR Part 52 established an entirely new process for siting and licensing new nuclear power plants. A key provision of the improved CFR Part 52 is the ability to obtain a combined Construction and Operating License (COL) to build and operate a nuclear power plant before a significant investment in procurement and construction occurs. Key recommendations of the 2001 “Roadmap to Deploy New Nuclear Power Plants in the United States by 2010” included demonstration of the Part 52 licensing process and completion of near-term candidate reactor designs. These recommendations were the basis for the NP 2010 implementation of the Combined Construction and Operating License and Design Certification Demonstration Projects. The cornerstones of these important NP 2010 demonstration projects were DOE’s cooperative agreements with industry, initiated in 2005, to: • Demonstrate the process for submittal, approval, and issuance of a COL; • Achieve NRC certification of the selected nuclear plant designs; and • Complete the first-of-a-kind engineering for a standard plant. Under an agreement with NuStart Energy Development, LLC (an industry consortium), DOE supported the reference COL Application (COLA) for a Westinghouse Electric Corporation (WEC) AP1000 at Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Bellefonte site, as well as certification and design completion of the AP1000 design. A separate agreement with Dominion Nuclear North Anna, LLC, now Dominion Virginia Power, supported a reference COLA for a General Electric-Hitachi (GE-H) ESBWR at Dominion’s North Anna site, as well as certification and design completion of the ESBWR design. DOE subsequently established separate cooperative agreements with the two reactor vendors, WEC ii Lessons Learned from the NP 2010 COL/DC Program and GE-H, for the design certification (DC) and completion of the first-of-a-kind engineering of their advanced standard plant designs. After the initial COL submittals to the NRC, NuStart transferred their COL efforts from the Bellefonte site to the Southern Nuclear’s Vogtle site. In May 2010, Dominion announced a change in reactor technology at North Anna from the ESBWR to Mitsubishi’s US-APWR, at which point DOE ended the North Anna COL demonstration project. These changes, explained further in this report, were necessary responses to changing market conditions, and demonstrate the flexibility of the NP 2010 program as well as the flexibility inherent in NRC’s Part 52 Rule. The DOE NP 2010 COL/DC Demonstration Projects with industry have contributed to reducing the regulatory and technical uncertainty for building new nuclear power plants in the U.S. The NP 2010 program has successfully: • Demonstrated the COL licensing processes with the issuance of the first COL for Vogtle Units 3 & 4 in February 2012; • Enabled the certification of the most advanced passive light water reactors (LWRs) designs available globally, the WEC AP1000 and the GE-H ESBWR; 1and • Significantly contributed to finalizing the detailed standard plant design for the first few new nuclear plants. The NP 2010 COL/DC Demonstration program together with the financial incentives provided by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 are the two primary reasons why a large number of license applications for new nuclear construction are before the NRC today, and why the first new nuclear plants in over 30 years are under construction in the U.S. As with all significant endeavors, there are lessons to be learned from the planning and implementation of these important NP 2010 COL/DC demonstration projects. The lessons learned, as presented in this report, were developed based on input and information from project participants and the DOE project managers. These lessons learned were developed to help improve future development and demonstration efforts at DOE and identify other areas of potential improvement for public-private partnerships. The lessons learned inputs from the individual COL/DC project reports from NuStart, Dominion, Westinghouse and General Electric-Hitachi were analyzed, consolidated, and summarized into a prioritized list of key lessons learned and areas for improvement. The following provides