Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Title: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards Docket Number: (not applicable) Location: Rockville, Maryland Date: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 Work Order No.: NRC-1142 Pages 1-301 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC. Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433 1 1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3 + + + + + 4 ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REACTOR SAFEGUARDS 5 (ACRS) 6 + + + + + 7 WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 2006 8 + + + + + 9 ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND 10 + + + + + 11 The Advisory Committee met at the Nuclear 12 Regulatory Commission, Two White Flint North, Room 13 T2B3, 11545 Rockville Pike, at 1:30 a.m., Graham 14 Wallis, Chairman, presiding. 15 COMMITTEE MEMBERS: 16 GRAHAM B. WALLIS, Chair 17 WILLIAM SHACK, Vice Chair 18 J. SAM ARMIJO 19 SANJOY BANERJEE 20 MARIO V. BONACA 21 RICHARD S. DENNING 22 THOMAS S. KRESS 23 OTTO L. MAYNARD 24 DANA A. POWERS 25 JOHN D. SIEBER 2 1 ACRS STAFF PRESENT: 2 MICHAEL JUNGE 3 JAKE ZIMMERMAN 4 MICHAEL MODUS 5 JIM DAVIS 6 KENNETH CHANG 7 TOMMY LE 8 HERMAN GRAVES 9 TONY SHAW 10 MIRELA GAVRILAS 11 ALSO PRESENT: 12 TIM O'CONNOR 13 DAVID DELLARIO 14 PETE MAZZAFERRO 15 GEORGE INCH 16 JIM MADOFF 17 DAN NAUS 18 LES DOLE 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 I N D E X 2 Opening Remarks by the ACRS Chairman ...... 4 3 Final Review of the License Renewal Application 4 for the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station . 6 5 Results of the Study to Determine the Need for 6 Establishing Limits for Phosphate Ion 7 Concentration ...............64 8 Integrating Risk and Safety Margins ...... 149 9 Adjourn 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 8:34 A.M. 3 CHAIRMAN WALLIS: The meeting will now 4 come to order. This is the first day of the 534th 5 meeting of the Advisory Committee on Reactor 6 Safeguards. During today's meeting the Committee will 7 consider the following: final review of the license 8 renewal application for the Nine Mile Point Nuclear 9 Station; results of the study to determine the need 10 for establishing limits for phosphate ion 11 concentration; integrating risk and safety margins; a 12 subcommittee report on PWR sump performance and the 13 preparation of ACRS Reports. 14 This meeting is being conducted in 15 accordance with the provisions of the Federal Advisory 16 Committee Act. Dr. John T. Larkins is the Designated 17 Federal Official for the initial portion of the 18 meeting. 19 We have received no written comments or 20 requests for time to make oral statements from members 21 of the public regarding today's sessions. 22 A transcript of portions of the meeting is 23 being kept and it is requested that the speakers use 24 one of the microphones, identify themselves and speak 25 with sufficient clarity and volume so that they can be 5 1 readily heard. 2 There are a few items of current interest. 3 In the handout on Items of Interest, you'll notice 4 some speeches by Commissioners and you'll notice that 5 there's an SRM on the pressurized thermal shock 6 rulemaking place. So those who were here yesterday 7 will note that there is progress, perhaps, in that 8 area. 9 Sanjoy Banerjee, you will note, is here 10 today. He's joined us as an official member of the 11 ACRS. It's a personal pleasure for me to welcome him. 12 Please join me. 13 (Applause.) 14 I note that this is the last meeting for 15 Richard Denning. On behalf of the Committee, I'd like 16 to thank you, Rich, for your outstanding contributions 17 to the Committee in reviewing several complex 18 technical issues. We wish you good luck in your 19 future endeavors. I would note that you have been an 20 exemplary member, offering insightful comments in many 21 different areas and at times helping the Committee to 22 converge to consensus when that initially appeared to 23 be difficult. Thank you very much, Rich. 24 (Applause.) 25 MR. DENNING: Thank you and if I could 6 1 just say a word, it's been a privilege being a member. 2 It's often been a challenge. I'd like to commend the 3 staff who do just a terrific job in supporting us and 4 it really has been very enjoyable, just working with 5 this Committee. And so I'm just going to pretend that 6 this isn't the last day until I walk out that door 7 today. Thank you. 8 CHAIRMAN WALLIS: This is a place where 9 assumptions are made. Maybe we should assume that 10 you're still here. 11 (Laughter.) 12 On a sadder note, I'm sure you know that 13 Graham Leach, former member and consultant of the 14 ACRS, died on June 22nd after a short illness. We 15 shall really miss him and his wise advice and pleasant 16 company. So we send out sincere condolences to his 17 family. 18 I'd like to begin the meeting. The first 19 item on the agenda is the license renewal application 20 for Nine Mile Point. Jack Sieber, my colleague on my 21 right, is the expert on this matter and I'll pass the 22 gavel over to you, Jack, to lead us through this one. 23 MEMBER SIEBER: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 24 I would point out that P.T. Quo is usually here. He's 25 off on medical leave at this time. I've heard that he 7 1 much preferred to be here than where he is right now. 2 The Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station is the 3 subject of today's, this morning's session. We had a 4 subcommittee meeting in April, actually on April 5th 5 of this year where we went through the application and 6 the safety evaluation, both of which are quite thick 7 documents and each of us, I think, got a copy of them. 8 So we've had the pleasure of carrying them around and 9 trying to read them all for some time now. 10 We did not write an interim letter in 11 April and because things were sufficiently in good 12 shape at that time that we felt that the staff or the 13 licensee did not need any special advice from us as to 14 how to proceed. 15 So what I would like to do now is to 16 introduce Jake Zimmerman of the staff who will guide 17 us through the license renewal application process and 18 the staff's response to that. 19 Jake? 20 MR. ZIMMERMAN: Thank you. Good morning. 21 Again, I'm Jake Zimmerman. I'm the Chief of License 22 Renewal Branch B in the Division of License Renewal, 23 Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. 24 With me today is Mr. Tommy Le. Mr. Le is 25 the senior project manager responsible for leading the 8 1 staff's review of the Nine Mile Point license renewal 2 application. Mr. Le will discuss the staff's final 3 safety evaluation report after the Applicant has made 4 their presentation. 5 Also with me today is Mr. Robert Hsu. 6 He's the assistant team leader for the Aging 7 Management Program and Review Audit Activities. Mr. 8 Hsu is here to answer any of your questions related to 9 the audits that were conduct at Nine Mile. 10 Also, joining us later during the staff's 11 presentation will be Mr. Michael Modus who is the team 12 leader for the Region 1 inspections. He'll be joining 13 us via phone. 14 Finally, I'd like to acknowledge the staff 15 that's here with us today in the audience that 16 provided us outstanding support throughout this 17 review. They're also here to answer any additional 18 questions that you may have. 19 This was a challenging review for us and 20 the Applicant is going to discuss their recovery 21 project that they went through. But the staff did 22 conduct a detailed and thorough review of this license 23 renewal application which was submitted in May of 24 2004. 25 During that review of the original 9 1 application, the staff did identify issues associated 2 with quality of information provided and Applicant's 3 resources to support our review activities. As a 4 result, in March of 2005, the Applicant requested a 5 90-day grace period to address these issues and they 6 will address that during their presentation of the 7 recovery project. 8 We believe the Applicant appropriately 9 responded to these issues and in July 2005, submitted 10 their amended license renewal application. The staff 11 resumed its review and as Dr. Sieber pointed out, we 12 did issue the draft SER with open items and discussed 13 that with the subcommittee in April of 2006. 14 So the staff is here today to present the 15 results of the final safety evaluation report and with 16 that, I'll turn it over to the Applicant, Mr. Tim 17 O'Connor, who is going to lead us through the 18 Applicant's presentation. 19 MR. O'CONNOR: Thank you. My name is Tim 20 O'Connor.