ML040350122
| ML040350122 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Davis Besse  |
| Issue date: | 02/03/2004 |
| From: | Caldwell J Region 3 Administrator |
| To: | Hayes L, Hayes P - No Known Affiliation |
| References | |
| Download: ML040350122 (5) | |
Text
February 3, 2004 Mr. and Mrs. Pat and Lori Hayes
[ADDRESS DELETED UNDER 10 CFR 2.790(a)]
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Hayes:
Thank you for your interest and concern over the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRC) regulation of the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant, as expressed in the letters signed by a number of Kelleys Island residents and presented at the November 12, 2003, Public Meeting of the NRC Davis-Besse Oversight Panel in Oak Harbor. Donna Lueke, who presented the letter, suggested that this reply be sent to you to share with the other Kelleys Island residents.
In particular, you expressed concerns about emergency planning for residents and visitors on Kelleys Island in the event of an accident at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station.
Our primary mission is to protect public health and safety and ensure that each nuclear power plant operates safely. This is our most important responsibility, and we take our mission very seriously.
Federal oversight of radiological emergency planning and preparedness associated with commercial nuclear facilities involves both the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the NRC. While the NRC has overall responsibility, FEMA takes the lead in reviewing and assessing offsite planning and response and in assisting State and local governments. We review and assess our licensees onsite planning and response capabilities.
We also work closely with FEMA in support of its assessment of offsite emergency preparedness.
Since your concerns involve emergency planning outside the Davis-Besse site - which is reviewed by FEMA - we have forwarded your letter to that agency. In addition, we have provided a copy to the Ohio Emergency Management Agency for its review.
Federal regulations require nuclear power reactor licensees to prepare comprehensive emergency plans to ensure that prompt and effective actions can and will be taken to notify and protect citizens in the vicinity of a nuclear facility in the unlikely event of a radiological emergency. Emergency plans for nuclear power plants specify two concentric emergency planning zones (EPZs), centered around each plant, which represent areas for which detailed planning is needed.
The first zone, called the plume exposure pathway EPZ, is an area with a radius of about 10 miles from the center of the plant for which emergency planning is considered appropriate.
The major protective actions planned for the 10-mile EPZ are evacuation and sheltering.
Outside of 10 miles, direct exposure to radiation is expected to be sufficiently low so that evacuation or sheltering would not be necessary.
Mr. and Mrs. Hayes Kelleys Island, like the other Lake Erie islands, is outside the 10-mile EPZ, and, therefore, has not been explicitly included in the emergency plans developed by Ottawa County and the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.
The second zone, called the ingestion exposure pathway EPZ, is an area with a radius of about 50 miles from the center of the plant. Within the 50-mile EPZ, precautionary actions such as putting livestock on stored feed and other protective actions may be employed to reduce exposure to the public from the ingestion of potentially contaminated food and water. These precautionary or protective actions would only be necessary for the population within the segment or slice of the EPZ that is actually impacted by the path of the plume.
Should conditions warrant, protective actions planned for the plume exposure pathway EPZ can and would be expanded to include other affected areas.
You also expressed concern about the possible restart of the Davis-Besse plant. While performing NRC-required inspections and repairs of control rod drive tubes in the top of the reactor in March 2002, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company personnel discovered substantial corrosion damage to the vessel head.
Because of the damage - and the violations of NRC requirements that led to it - the agency has required that FirstEnergy perform thorough reviews of plant safety systems as well as address the reactor vessel head damage before restart. The company replaced the reactor head with an unused one from another plant. The reviews of the design and function of the safety systems have resulted in a number of repairs and improvements to plant equipment.
The damage to the reactor vessel head - and the management decisions that contributed to the problem - are viewed most seriously by the NRC. No other operational issue has received more attention from the agency in the past two years.
In April 2002, the NRC set up a special panel to oversee the agencys response to the vessel head damage and to manage the inspection program for ongoing work at the plant. The panel set forth a checklist of the important tasks that must be completed by FirstEnergy before the agency would consider permitting the plant to restart.
Since then, the NRC has conducted extensive inspections by nearly 50 members of the NRC staff and contractors. These inspections are continuing. The NRC has also added a third resident inspector to its staff at the Davis-Besse plant to expand its daily coverage of activities there.
The oversight panel has held at least 35 public meetings near Oak Harbor, Ohio: a monthly meeting with the utility, open to public observation, in the afternoon followed by a meeting directly with the public in the evening. Some 30 additional public meetings have been held in the Oak Harbor area, the Region III Office in Illinois, and NRC Headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, to discuss specific issues.
Mr. and Mrs. Hayes Shortly after the vessel head damage was found, the NRC created a web site for the many documents related to Davis-Besse issues, including NRC inspection reports, meeting transcripts, and documents submitted by FirstEnergy. These documents can be reviewed at the NRC home page - www.nrc.gov. Select Davis-Besse from the Key Topics listing.
Throughout this period, the NRC has been firmly focused on the safety of the Davis-Besse plant and residents of the surrounding area. The schedule and economic impact of the continuing outage on FirstEnergy have not been a factor in NRC actions.
As the NRC considers the request of FirstEnergy to restart Davis-Besse, I can assure you that the agency will make its decision in a careful, deliberate, and responsible manner.
The NRCs decision will be based on sound regulatory and technical findings, in keeping with the requirements of federal statutes and NRC regulations. FirstEnergy will not be permitted to resume operation of the Davis-Besse plant unless we have sufficient evidence that the plant equipment and the plant management and staff are ready to safely return the plant to service and operate it safely.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain the NRCs regulatory process for the Davis-Besse plant.
Sincerely,
/RA/
James L. Caldwell Regional Administrator cc:
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Ohio Emergency Management Agency Ottawa County
DOCUMENT NAME: C:\\ORPCheckout\\FileNET\\ML040350122.wpd
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JCaldwell DATE 01/08/04 01/09/04 01/09/04 02/03/04 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY
Mr. and Mrs. Hayes ADAMS Distribution DB0350 JLC1 GEG SAR1 CDP1 KXR RML2