NRC grills Entergy on Vt. Yankee safety
Toolbox
By Susan Smallheer Rutland Herald - Published: January 9, 2008
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is still not satisfied with information from Entergy Nuclear about its analysis of the aging and metal fatigue of key safety components at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
In a marathon three-hour technical hearing before federal regulators Tuesday at NRC headquarters outside Washington, D.C., Entergy Nuclear engineers failed to completely satisfy the questions posed by their federal counterparts about the aging and stresses on feedwater nozzles inside the reactor.
Entergy Nuclear is seeking a license amendment to its original license to operate Vermont Yankee to keep the reactor running another 20 years beyond its federal license of 2012. It submitted its formal application two years ago after a couple of years of preparation, but the NRC has asked Entergy repeatedly for additional information.
"Entergy wants to use the calculations which we're not very comfortable with," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said after the session, which was open to the public via telephone.
"We still need more information. How did they arrive at their conclusions? They're going to have to provide more information," Sheehan said.
After the give and take between the NRC staff and Entergy, the public was allowed to raise questions, and the anti-nuclear activists listening in criticized the NRC for allowing Entergy to short-circuit the public information process and not provide full information about its analysis.
The issue of aging and metal fatigue was raised by the anti-nuclear New England Coalition, and its challenges or formal contention against Entergy's proposed new license is still pending before another arm of the NRC.
Sheehan said there is currently no firm timetable for a decision from NRC about the license amendment request. Entergy Nuclear is gearing up to file its application with the Vermont Public Service Board, which also has to approve the license extension.
Sheehan said the NRC had requested that the additional information be in NRC's hands by the next meeting of the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards.
John Dreyfuss, director of nuclear safety assurance for Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, said after the hearing the NRC wanted more information about the methods used by Entergy Nuclear staff to come to the conclusions it did.
In particular, Dreyfuss said, the NRC wants information about Entergy's analysis about whether feedwater nozzles on the reactor are in good enough shape that they can last the full 60 years contemplated by the license extension.
Dreyfuss said Entergy engineers had used what he called "a generic methodology" for some of the requested analysis, and he said the NRC was uncomfortable approving Entergy's work because it may set a precedent for other nuclear reactors also seeking license extensions.
"I don't think the NRC was ready to approve the methodology generically for the industry," he said. "They have to concern themselves with not just one licensee, but all licenses," he said. Dreyfuss called it "a belt-and-suspenders approach."
"We've got some really good challenges on license renewal, challenging in a lot of different respects," Dreyfuss said.
He said the feedwater nozzles, which are a key safety component inside the reactor, are subject to a lifetime of transients, or changes in pressure and temperature, which would age its steel and could cause them to corrode or crack.
Dreyfuss said Entergy would be going before the NRC's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, which reviews all license extensions on behalf of the full NRC, next month. And Dreyfuss said Entergy was preparing the additional analysis even before the federal regulators asked for it.
Ray Shadis, the senior technical advisor for the anti-nuclear group New England Coalition, said afterward the plant needed "a real-world analysis, not just on some generic component."
He said Entergy Nuclear hadn't even done the work itself, but had farmed it out to a New Hampshire firm.
"They are relying on generic models on generic components. If they are applying for relicensing, the analysis must be grounded in real-world conditions and as stringent as when the plant was first licensed," Shadis said.
Dreyfuss said the company expected a decision from the NRC on its full request late this year.
Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com
37