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{{#Wiki_filter:. 1.A      cF?,5 ~-z +43 Official Transcript of Proceedings NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Title:            Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards Subcommittee on Power Uprates OPEN SESSION Docket Number:    (n/a)                      Process Using ADAMS Template ACRS/ACNW-005 SUNSI Review Complete Location:        Rockville, Maryland MAR 3 12008 Date:            Thursday, March 20, 2008 Work Order No.:  NRC-2076                                Pages 1-199 NEAL R. GROSS AND CO., INC.
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Court Reporters and Transcribers 1323 Rhode Island Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 234-4433 t1-oV M OFCEW
 
DISCLAIMER UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION'S ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REACTOR SAFEGUARDS March 20, 2008                    :        .
The contents of this transcript of the proceeding of the United    "tesNucklear Regulatory Commission Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, taken on March 20, 2008, as reported herein, is a record of the discussions recorded at the meeting held on the above date.
This transcript has not been reviewed, corrected and edited and it may contain inaccuracies.
 
1 1                      UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 2                    NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 3                                +++++
4              ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REACTOR SAFEGUARD 5                                  (ACRS) 6 7                    SUBCOMMITTEE ON POWER UPRATES 8
9                                  THURSDAY 10                              MARCH 20,      2008 11 12                          ROCKVILLE,      MARYLAND 13                                  +++++
14                              OPEN SESSION 15                                  +++++
16                    The Subcommittee met in            Open Session at 17  the    Nuclear Regulatory        Commission,        Two White      Flint 18  North,      Room T2B3,  11545 Rockville Pike,          at 8:30 a.m.,
19  Dr. Said Abdel-Khalik,        Chairman,      presiding.
20  SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:
21            SAID ABDEL-KHALIK,        Chair 22            MARIO V. BONACA 23              SANJOY BANERJEE 24            J. SAM ARMIJO 25            OTTO L. MAYNARD NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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2 1 NRC STAFF PRESENT:
2            ZENA ABDULLAHI,      Designated Federal Official 3            CATHERINE HANEY 4            JOHN G. LAMB 5            KAMISHAN MARTIN 6            TONY NAKANISHI 7            PETER YARSKY 8            MUHAMMAD RAZZAQUE 9            RICHARD LOBEL 10  ALSO PRESENT:
11              TOM JOYCE 12              PAUL DAVISON 13              BILL KOPCHICK 14              DON NOTIGAN 15              ED BURNS 16              PAUL LINDSAY 17              PAUL DUKE 18              FRAN BOLGER 19              TED DelGAIZO 20              SKIP DENNY 21            VINCENT ZABIELSKI 22              BRIAN MOORE 23              FRANCIS SAFIN 24              SHELLY KUGLER 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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3 1                          TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 AGENDA ITEM/TOPIC:                                                  PAGE 3 Opening Remarks                                                          4 4 Introduction 5            Catherine Haney                                              6 6            John Lamb                                                    7 7 Hore Creek EPU - Overview 8            Tom Joyce,    PSEG,    Nuclear Senior 9                  Vice President of Operations, 10                    Salem and Hope Creek                                  13 11              Paul Davison,    PSEG,    Hope Creek Site 12                    Engineering Director                                  16 13  Operations Training, Emergency Operating 14  Procedures,      Operator Actions                                      41 15              Bill Kopchick,    PSEG,    Shift Operatiol 'IS 16                    Superintendent,        Hope Creek 17  Power Ascension and Testing                                            78 18              Bill Kopchick,    PSEG,    Shift Operatioi 'is 19                    Superintendent,        Hope Creek 20  Human Performance Timelines                          /
21              Kamishan Martin,    NRR                                    96 22  Reactor Systems                                                      106 23            Muhammad Razzaque,        NRR 24              Tony Nakanishi,    NRR 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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4 1 Containment Analysis Methodology                                  160 2            Paul Davison,    Hope Creek Site 3                  Engineering Director 4            Ted DelGaizo,    Mainline Engineering 5            Mr. Skip Denny,    GE-Hitachi 6 Containment Q and A by members                                    186 7 Flow Accelerated Corrosion and 8 Pressure Temperature Limit Curves                                193 9            Paul Davison,    PSEG,    Hope Creek Site 10                    Engineering Director 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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5 1                          P-R-O-C-E-E-D-N-G-S 2                                                                  (8:30 a.m.)
3                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              The meeting will now 4 come to order.            This is      the first        day of a two-day 5 meeting        of    the    Advisory        Committee        on    Reactor 6 Safeguards        Power    Uprates      Subcommittee.            I'm      Said 7 Abdel-Kahlik,            Chairman        of      the      Power      Uprates 8 Subcommittee's          review    of    the Oak        Creek    Generating 9 Station Extended Power Uprate Application.
10                    Subcommittee        members      in  attendance          are 11 Mario        Bonaca,    Sam    Armijo,      Sanjoy      Banerjee,        Otto 12 Maynard.        We also expect Michael Coradini to join us 13 later today.        Also in attendance are ACRS consultants, 14 Graham Wallis and tom Kress.                ACRS members Jack Sieber 15 and John Stetkar and ACRS consultant Alan Pierce are 16 expected to join us tomorrow.
17                    The purpose of this two-day meeting is                        to 18 hear presentations by and hold discussions with the 19 Hope      Creek    licensee,      PSEG,    the      NRC  staff,      their 20 consultants and other interested persons regarding the 21 proposed        EPU.          The    subcommittee          will      gather 22 information,        analyze      relevant issues and facts and 23 formulate        proposed        positions          and    actions          as 24 appropriate        for deliberations by the ful committee.
25 Zena Abdullahai is the designated federal official for NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., NW.
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6 1  this meeting.
2                    Parts    of    this meeting will be              closed, 3 because the material to be presented is considered 4 proprietary        by    the    Applicant,          PSEG  and/or        its 5 contractors,        General Electric-Hitachi and Continuum 6 Dynamics, Incorporated.                The proposed times for the 7 closed        sessions    are    identified          in  the    agenda.
8 Attendees who are required to leave during the closed 9 sessions        can call      301-415-7360 to          obtain a status 10 report as to when they can rejoin the meeting.
11              1    We received a request for a teleconference 12 from Mr. Jerry Humphreys who represents the State of 13 New      Jersey.      A bridge      telephone        number  was      made 14 available.        I understand that Mr. Humphreys has not 15 signed a proprietary agreement for General Electric-16 Hitachi and, therefore, cannot participate in today's 17 closed sessions involving GEH proprietary information.
18 However,        having      signed      the      relevant    propriety 19 agreement with Continuum Dynamics, Incorporated, Mr.
20 Humphreys should be able to participate in tomorrow's 21 closed session, discussions of the steam dryer based 22 on CDT's analyses and methodologies.                    Please note that 23 the bridge connection is only for listening in.
24                    A transcript of the meeting is being kept 25 and will be made available as stated in the Federal NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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7 1 Register Notice.          It is requested that speakers first 2 identify themselves and speak with sufficient clarity 3 and volume so that they can be readily heard.                      We will 4 now proceed        with    the    meeting,        and    I call    on Ms.
5 Catherine Haney of NRR to start the meeting.
6                  MS. HANEY:      Thank you.          Good morning.        I'm 7 the      Director    of  the    Division        of    Operator    Reactor 8 Licensing in the office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
9 Over the next two days, you will hear the results of 10 a very thorough review by our staff of the application 11 submitted by Public Service Enterprise Group Nuclear, 12 Limited Liability Corporation, PSEG.
13                  We had frequent communications with the 14 licensee over the last several months including calls, 15 conference calls, meetings,                letters,      etcetera.          We 16 believe that this helped with our thorough review of 17 the application.            In addition,          there were several 18 rounds        of requests for additional              information that 19 were issued to the licensee.                The RA~s were submitted 20 as they were developed allowing the licensee as much 21 time as possible to review and respond to our RAIs.
22 The input from the licensee was then reviewed by our 23 technical staff.
24                  Some of the more challenging review areas 25 that you will hear about over the next two days are NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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L8 1  the steam dryer stress analysis and the fuel and core 2 design analysis.              As presented          in    the draft safety 3 evaluation without the steam dryer which was provided 4 to    the ACRS on February              14th,      2008,    and the steam 5 dryer safety evaluation input which was provided on 6 February          29th,    2008,    there      are    currently    no      open 7 technical issues.            This two-step process was something 8 that we used with the ACRS was unique.                        Typically, we 9 supply        one safety evaluation            report.        However,        to 10 allow sufficient extra                time for ACRS to review the 11 application,            we    did    reach        an    agreement      about 12 submitting it          in two stages, and we do appreciate your 13 willingness to take it              that way.
14                      I'm pleased with the thoroughness of the 15 review conducted by the NRC.                  The staff had extensive 16 interactions with PSEG on several of                          these diverse 17 issues,        as I've mentioned.            And at this point,              I'd 18 like      to    turn    the presentation          over    to my Project 19 Manager,          John    Lamb,      and      he'll      introduce          the 20 discussions for the day.
21                      MR. LAMB:      Good morning.          My name is John 22 Lamb.        I am a Senior Project Manager in the office of 23 Nuclear Reactor Regulation,                  NRR.      I  am the Project 24 Manager          in    the    Division        of    Operating      Reactor 25 Regulatory Licensing, DORL, assigned to the Hope Creek NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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9 1 Generating Station, Hope Creek Extended Power Uprate, 2 EPU.
3                    As you know, we only gave you 19 days to 4 review        the    steam    dryer    information.            The    staff 5 realizes        the    significant        this    places    on  the    ACRS 6 members.        On behalf of the staff, I would like to take 7 this      public      opportunity        to    thank      the    ACRS        for 8 accommodating          our schedule and reviewing                the steam 9 dryer      portion      on  a    short    turnaround.          The    staff 10 greatly appreciates the ACRS members'                      effort in this 11 regard.
12                    To    quote    the    famous      mathematician        and 13 astronomer,        Johannes Kepler,          I    prefer the      sharpest 14 criticism          of    a    single      intelligent        man    to      the 15 thoughtless        approval of the masses.                  So this quote 16 brings to mind our purpose over the next two days is 17 to convince you that the staff's safety evaluation, 18 SE,    for the Hope Creek EPU provides the following --
19 one, there is reasonable assurance that the health and 20 safety of the public will not be endangered by the 21 proposed        EPU    and    two,    the    proposed      EPU    will        be 22 conducted          in    compliance        with      the    Commission's 23 regulations.
24                    After two days of hearing presentations 25 from the        staff and the licenseI,                we hope that you NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVEJ N.W.
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10 1 agree      that    this will      --  agree      with this    and will 2 recommend to the ACRS full committee on April 10th, 3 2008 that the proposed EPU amendment be issued and 4 reflect this in your letter report.
5                    fore I go over the agenda,            I would like to 6 present some background                information related            to the 7 staff's        review of the proposed Hope Creek EPU.                      Hope 8 Creek is        a boiling water reactor,            BWR. The proposed 9 EPU would          increase      the maximum        authorized      thermal 10 level from the current licensed thermal power level of 11 3,339 megawatts thermal to 3,840 megawatts thermal.
12 This represents an approximate 15% increase from the 13 current licensed thermal power.
14            Hope Creek was granted a measurement uncertainty 15 recapture,        MUR,  power uprate          of    1.4% in  Amendment 16 Number 131 dated July 30th,                  2001.        The MUR changes 17 were      based on      the    installation        of  the  CE Nuclear 18 Power,        LLC  cross-flow        ultrasonic        flow measurement 19 system and its          ability to achieve increased accuracy 20 in measuring feedwater flow.                  This MUR increased the 21 power      from the    original      licensed        thermal  power        of 22 3,293        megawatts    thermal        to  the      current    licensed 23 thermal power level of 3,339 megawatts thermal.                              The 24 ACRS did not review this MUR as is                        the custom with 25 MURs.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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11 1                    on Jule 25th, 1996,          the NRC licensed Hope 2 Creek      for  full power      operation        at  3,293 megawatts 3 thermal.          As you know,      Hope Creek would not be the 4 unit with          the  highest      thermal      power    level    if    you 5 approve the issuance of the proposed EPU amendment.
6 The      units    with  the    highest      thermal      power    in      the 7 country are Palo Verde 1, 2 and 3,                    at 3,990 megawatts 8 thermal which are pressurized water reactors,                            PWRs.
9 PWR      units      with    the    highest        thermal    power          as 10 Susquehanna 1 and 2 at 3,952 megawatts thermal.                          South 11 Texas Projects 1 and 2,              which are PWRs,          are rated at 12 3,853 megawatts thermal.                So this proposed EPU would 13 make Hope Creek the eighth highest unit in the country 14 at a licensed thermal power level of 3,840 megawatts 15 thermal.
16                    As far as the method of NRC review,                      the 17 staff's        review for the PSEG application was based on 18 NRC's review standard for extended power uprates.                            The 19 review standard includes a safety evaluation template 20 as well as matrices              that correspond          to maintenance 21 areas that are to be reviewed by the staff as well as 22 specific guidance and acceptance criteria that applies 23 to those areas.          The staff plans to issue the proposed 24 EPU amendment in          the beginning of May 2008 provided 25 ACRS writes a letter report that states that the Hope NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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12 1 Creek EPU should issued.
2                      PSEG plans to implement the proposed 15%
3 Hope Creek EPU in              two steps.          One,    a proposed 11.5%
4 increase        will    occur      in    the    first      operating      cycle 5  following Hope Creek EPU approval.                            Then two,        the 6 licensee        will    implement        the    remaining      3.5  percent 7 proposed uprate during a subsequent operating cycle 8  following        the    proposed        amendment        of  the    --      the 9 approval of the amendment.                  You will hear more detail 10  about this in a little                while from PSEG.
11                      Basically, PSEG's application followed the 12  guidelines          of  a constant        pressure      power uprate          of 13  General Electric's topical report.                        After I conclude 14  my remarks,          PSEG will provide an overview on their 15  licensing        approach        as well      as    their modifications 16  required and their implementation schedule.                              Today, 17  you will hear a great deal of more                          detail on fuel 18  methods        from the        staff    and    PSEG in      both open and 19  closed sessions.            PSEG applied for an EPU amendment by 20  letter dated September                18th,      2006.        There were        37 21  supplements.            The majority of these dealt with the 22  steam dryer.            The staff spent a great deal of time 23  reviewing        the    steam    dryer      information        to  make        a 24  finding of reasonable assurance.                          So like any good 25  movie plot, we will save the most interesting steam NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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13 1 dryer information until the second day.
2                    The majority of tomorrow will consist of 3  steam      dryer    discussions        in  both      open  and      closed 4 sessions.            I would      summarize        the  agenda      as      the 5  following.        The bulk of day one is devoted to fuel 6 methods and the bulk of day two is devoted to steam 7 dryer.        As you can see from the agenda and the slides, 8 the remainder of the time is devoted to operations 9 training, human factors, power ascension and testing, 10 containment          analyses,      flow-accelerated            corrosion, 11 probabilistic          safety    assessment,          risk  evaluation, 12 materials and chemical              engineering,          electrical and 13 grid        reliability,        INC      and      source    terms          and 14 radiological consequences.
15                    So this concludes my presentation as far 16 as the introduction.              I would like to turn it over to 17 Mr.      Thomas    P. Joyce,      PSEG    Senior      Vice    President, 18 operations for Salem/Hope Creek.                      This is a position 19 Mr. Joyce has held since June 2007.                        Mr. Joyce has 20 more than 32 years of experience in commercial nuclear 21 power operations.            Prior to working at PSEG, Mr. Joyce 22 was site vice president at Exelon Is Braidwood Station.
23 Mr.      Joyce    holds    a bachelor        of    science    degree        in 24 nuclear engineering from the University of Missouri 25 and a master of business administration degree from NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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14 1  Keller Graduate School of Management.                          Here is      Mr.
2  Joyce.
3                    MR. JOYCE:      Good morning.            My name is Tom 4  Joyce.          As John    Lamb    stated,      I  am PSEG's Nuclear 5  Senior Vice President of Operations for both Salem and 6 Hope Creek units.            I am very pleased to come before 7  the ACRS Subcommittee today and have my team,                            along 8  with a number of industry experts, present information 9  to    support    our application          for    the    extended power 10  uprate of the Hope Creek facility.                      I,  along with the 11  Hope Creek management team, have been actively engaged 12  in    advancing this important plant initiative.
13                    I am confident that our robust effort has 14  been      reflected    in    the    application          and  that        the 15  presentations today and tomorrow will confirm the NRC 16  staff's        conclusions in the safety evaluation.                    I also 17  wanted        to  take    this    opportunity            to  extend          my 18  appreciation to the NRC's NRR staff's                      professionalism 19  throughout        this    process.          The      NRC    process        was 20  challenging and resulted in                the desirable outcome of 21  a strengthened product.                The regulatory          challenges 22  ultimately serve to enhance our effort and further the 23  mutual goal of meeting the standards of projection of 24  the public.
25                    With respect to my and the team's approach NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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15 1 to this project,          the focus is        first      and foremost on 2 safety, both nuclear as well as industrial.                            Without 3 this        cornerstone,        no    other      objectives        can        be 4 satisfied.          As you will hear over the next two days, 5 this      project      has    evaluated        a    comprehensive            and 6 exhaustive list          of technical issues, all of which have 7 been resolved          or addressed        with      sufficient      safety 8 margins.
9                    We will continue to evaluate information 10 related        to our power uprate            and take        conservative 11 actions if        necessary.      As an example,            you will hear 12 bout      our    power    ascension        testing        program      which 13 formalizes        the safety philosophy by establishing a 14 criteria        for  conservative        actions        based    on plant 15 conditions and data.                This is      the approach we take 16 when running          the plant and we            take    the regulatory 17 safety obligation to the public and ourselves with the 18 utmost seriousness.            Simply put, it          is the right thing 19 to do.
20                    With respect to your questions,                  it    is my 21 expectation        that if    the presenter does not know the 22 answer during the individual topic discussion, we will 23 get you a satisfactory answer before the close of the 24 session.
25                    Turning to the agenda,                today we will be NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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16 1 covering            an  overview        of    the    EPU    project,      power 2 ascension and operations,                    fuels topics,        containment 3 analysis          response,        flow-accelerated          corrosion        and 4 pressure and temperature limits.                        And tomorrow we will 5 be covering steam dryer vessel internals PSA and grid 6 reliability.
7                        Principle presenters will be Paul Davidson 8 who is        the Engineering Director at Hope Creek,                          Bill 9 Kopchick from the Operations Department,                          Don Notigan 10 from      our Fuels          Department,        Ed Burns      from Air        and 11 Engineering and the PRA, and during the closed session 12 for the dryer, Dr. Alan Bilanin from CDI will also be 13 presenting some information.
14                        So if  there are no other questions or not 15 questions for me,              I would like to turn this over to 16 Paul Davison to provide the overview of the uprate.
17 Paul?
18                        MR. DAVISON:          Good      morning.      As      Tom 19 mentioned,            my name is        Paul Davison.          I am the Hope 20 Creek Site Engineering Director.                            I'm also the EPU 21 Site Sponsor and also the Test Director for the EPU 22 project.          The overview of this session will talk about 23 the extended power uprate and will cover the seven 24 topics        listed      on  the    slide    --    the  design    of      the 25 facility,          the licensing strategy for our submittal, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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17 1 the        impacted      key      plant      parameters,        facility 2 modifications performed to support the power uprate as 3 well as our remaining implementation actions.
4                  Moving      onto    slide      six,  as    mentioned 5 previously,      Hope Creek Generating Station is                    wholly 6 owned and operated by PSEG Nuclear,                    LLC which is            a 7 subsidiary of PSEG Power.              The station shares a common 8 site with Salem Generating Station which is                        located 9 adjacent to the Delaware River near Salem, New Jersey.
10 The station is        a General Electric BWR-4 design.                        We 11 operate on an 18-month fuel cycle.                      Our next refuel 12 outage commences in            the spring of 2009.            The station 13 also utilizes a natural draft hyperbolic cooling tower 14 for our normal condenser heat removal as well as the 15 Delaware River itself            as our ultimate heat sink.
16                  The    operating        license,      as    mentioned 17 previously, was issue in July of 1986 with commercial 18 operation commencing December of that same year.
19                  From    a    containment          perspective,        Hope 20 Creek's primary containment                  structure    is  a General 21 Electric      Mark    1 which      is  denoted by the          inverted 22 lightbulb shape containment as well as a suppression 23 pool      heat  sink which        is    a  torus.      The    original 24 licensed thermal power of LLTP was 3293 megawatts in 25 2001      through  the    Appendix K feedwater              uncertainty NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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18 1 uprate        we    implemented      and    took      the  unit  to      3339 2  megawatts          thermal      by  using      the      AMAG  or    advanced 3  measurement in analysis group cross-flow system.                              That 4  system uses externally mounted ultrasonic transducers 5 on the common feedwater header to measure feedwater 6 flow with greater certainty.
7                        The requested extended power uprate will 8  increase the licensed thermal power to 3840 megawatts 9  thermal.          This is 115% of our current licensed thermal 10  power or 16.6% of our original licensed thermal power.
11                        MEMBER BANERJEE:          The AMAG system, will it 12  be re-calibrated for this flow rate?
13                        MR. DAVISON:      We've done two things --              one 14  in response to some industry experience.                          We've done 15  a full calibration at 100% power now coming out of our 16  refuel outage by using other ultrasonic devices on our 17  individual three feedwater lines and also, we use our 18  secondary          systems.        We use the venturis              that were 19  installed during original construction, of course,                                as 20  well as balance-of-plant operating conditions,                                like 21  turbine        first      stage    pressure,        to    make  sure      we're 22  always balanced and ensuring that we're never in                                  an 23  over powered condition.
24                        There is no specific re-calibration that's 25  required of the system when we go to power uprate.
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19 1 However,        during our power ascension testing, the same 2 type of comparisons will be done to ensure that there 3 has been no change by the increase, approximately 16%
4 increase        in    feedwater      flow    and,    of  course,        the 5 temperature change that occurs with that.
6                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            So was it      calibrated 7 with a time-of-flight method originally or how was it 8 calibrated,        just against venturis?
9                    MR. DAVISON:          No.        The  ultrasonics 10  themselves          were    statistically          compared    to    three 11  individual sets of ultrasonics that were installed on 12  our      individual      feed      lines.          So  general      system 13  description is three feedpumps,                  three feedwater trains 14  that have individual              lines where we put ultrasonic
'5  devices on, that goes into a common header, and that's 16  where        the    actual      AMAG's      cross-flow      system          is 17  installed.          What we did was statistically compared the 18  data over long periods of time from the individual 19  flow        elements      which      have    greater      accuracy,        the 20  straight runs that are unobstructed to ensure that you 21  have      the    correct      flow    characteristics        where        the 22  ultrasonics were placed, and then did that comparison, 23  and we utilized the comparison to calibrate that.
24                      The comparison to the venturis and the 25  first-stage          term pressure          are    secondary    checks        in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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20 1 response to industry OE where folks have had problems 2 and have ended up over powering units.
3                      MEMBER      BANERJEE:          So    it's    basically        a 4 consistency check?
5                      MR. DAVISON:        Correct.
6                      MEMBER BANERJEE:          And at the higher power 7 you do that?
8                      MR. DAVISON:      Yes. The other thing that -
9 -  the Appendix K uncertainty is                    taken out of our re-10 rate power,          so we will not actually be utilizing                        the 11 cross-flow          system    for a    reduced margin and greater 12 certainty.            What    we  will    be  using        the  cross-flow 13 system for is          to maximize the efficiency or accuracy 14 of our flow venturis.                But that 2% --            1.4% margin is 15 back into our licensing basis.
16                      MEMBER BANERJEE:            So    the flow venturis, 17 they haven't had any sort of roughening at the throats 18 or anything like that?
19                      MR. DAVISON:      The operating experience of 20 fouling          and  defouling        events,        we      do  see      minor 21 indications of that.                In fact,    one of the reasons why 22 we went and did the full              power calibration coming out 23 of    our    last  refuel      outage    was    to    check    for    them, 24 periodically check for that,                  because you do see some 25 buildup        and sloughing off          of  the coating,          the      fine NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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21 1 coating that occurs on the venturi itself.                      As far as 2 damage or needing to replace due to erosion of our 3 venturis,        no, we have not seen that at the station.
4                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            Okay. Thanks.
5                    MEMBER MAYNARD:            Could you --      if  you're 6 going      to do this      later,    that's      fine,  too,    but the 7 reason you chose 3840 rather than going to the 3952?
8                    MR. DAVISON:        Yes.      Actually,  I'll    take 9 you through this next chart just for a comparison and 10 then      there    is  some    further      information,      but    the 11 business        decision that was made back                in  the early 12 2000's,        we initially      set out to do a 120% uprate.
13 That's what          the plant was designed for.                  In  fact, 14 you'll hear about the significant margin in,                    like, our 15 condensate and feedwater systems because of that.                            At 16 the time, with unknown uncertainty with respect to the 17 grid and moving forward and the cost associated with 18 that,      a business decision was made to go for a 15%
19 power uprate.
20                    So it  was strictly a business decision at 21 that      time,    because we needed to put in                motion the 22 changes,        primarily through General Electric and the 23 purchase        of  three    low-pressure          rotors  and a high-24 pressure rotor to basically replace our entire turbine 25 train.        So at that time,        we made the decision we're NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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22 1 going to buy the equipment that'll                    support a 15% power 2 uprate.
3                    MEMBER MAYNARD:          Okay.
4                    MEMBER ARMIJO:          So with this equipment on 5 the turbine,        you're going to be limited to 115?
6                    MR. DAVISON:      Well,      actually,      right now, 7 as you'll        hear,  we're actually going to be limited to 8 111.5% this cycle.              We will require even additional 9 modifications,          primarily focused on the high pressure 10 turbine        to  change      out    the    first      four    stages        of 11 diaphragms to be able to get to 115% power.
12                    MEMBER ARMIJO:          Okay.      But that'll      be the 13 limit once you make those modifications?
14                    MR. DAVISON:      Correct.
15                    MEMBER ARMIJO:          Okay.
16                    MR. DAVISON:      Okay.      ON the slide that you 17 have in        front of you, because of the discussion I just 18 had,      we    started    off    --    and    many      of  our    initial 19 analyses were based on 120% --                  when we focused in                at 20 115,      we    did  the  balance      or  the      remainder      of      the 21 analyses at 115%,          and we were comparing Appendix K and 22 pre-Appendix K power levels.                  We thought we'd just do 23 a quick run through of a comparison of our OLTP,                              CLTP 24 and      EPU    power    levels.        You    can    pull    it    out      and 25 reference it          to our discussions later              one.
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23 1                  Vince will just point out a couple of key 2 items here where we initially set out as I mentioned, 3 to do the standard 20% uprate.                      Therefore, a large 4 amount of our EPU analysis was completed at that 120%
5 or    3952.      So  that's, the        3952      equating    to    120%.
6 Appendix K uprate brought us                    to    the  100%  current 7 licensed thermal power of 3339.                      That's the center 8 bar.      Our requested EPU license change request for 15%
9 power        increases  that    or  equates        to  116.6    of    our 10 original licensed thermal power.                      So reading across 11 the 3840 megawatts thermal line, you see that's 116.6%
12 of our original license, a 15% increase on our current 13 license, and that will be the 100% value when we reach 14 EPU conditions.
15                  During the cycle, we'll be limited to that 16 111.5% based on our main turbine,                      specifically the 17 high-pressure turbine.            And that's really maintaining 18 our main turbine 3% control valve wide open transient 19 response margin.          That is why that turbine right now 20 will be limited to 111.5.              Mention the modifications 21 that we'll need to do to be able to rate that unit                            --
22 that piece of equipment to 115%.                And additionally, we 23 are focusing on cooling tower enhancements during our 24 peak        summer    atmosphere        condition,          mainly        high 25 temperature.
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24 1                    Our cooling tower will also start to limit 2 our megawatt electric output.                We'll actually, in some 3 cases, have to reduce power by a few percent to ensure 4 that we maintain the appropriate margin with respect 5 to      turbine    back    pressure.          So      again,  the      major 6 limiting component for year-round operation is the 7 high-pressure turbine.            Summer months will be focusing 8 on cooling tower efficiency improvements.
9                    Okay. Next slide      --  we have made numerous 10 changes, both physical and licensing wise to get to 11 where we are today with this proposal.                        The 10 CER 12 50.59        process,    of    course,      was      utilized.      Several 13 licensing actions in support of our EPU implementation 14 were also required.            The adopted amendments have been 15 previously NRC reviewed and approved,                      and we fully 16 implemented them at Hope Creek.                  Those changes include 17 the      full    scope  of    the  alternate        source  term        was 18 approved for implementation in October of 2001.                              All 19 EPU analysis was performed using the AST methodology.
20 The      reactor vessel        pressure and            temperature      limit 21 curves were revised in November of 2004, currently in 22 place, and they have been updated to include the EPU 23 neutron fluence levels.
24                    General Electric methods for core design 25 and transient analysis at the EPU conditions have been NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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25 1 utilized        since December          of 2004.        We're  currently 2 operating          on  our    third    cycle      with  fuel    from      two 3 different vendors, General Electric and Westinghouse.
4 The ARTS/MELLLA implementation was February of 2006.
5 This expanded the operating domain to reach rate of 6 power        at    lower    core      flow    and    also  provides        the 7 necessary reactor recirculation flow control range for 8 our ultimate EPU implementation.
9                      The    remaining        open      license    amendment 10 request        is    our  current        submittal      for  EPU.        The 11 application was submitted in                    September of 2006 and 12 accepted for review by the staff in                        October of the 13 same year.          It utilizes the constant pressure of power 14 uprate license topical report for the non-fuel-related 15 topics in the extended power uprate topical report for 16 the fuel-related topis due to our GE/Westinghouse fuel 17 load.
18                      Slide nine talks about the specific key 19 parameters that are changing with EPU.                      In addition to 20 the 501 megawatt thermal uprate required to change the 21 recirc flow operating range,                    there was no change in 22 the actual flow limit of 105 million pound mass per 23 hour.        The lower flow limit was increased from 76.6 to 24 94.8 million pound mass per hour since we did not 25 expand        the    MELLLA      operating      domain.        Steam      dome NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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26 1 pressure remains unchanged.                    The feed and steam flows 2  increase typically what you would see with a 15% power 3 increase.          There is    a minor delta between the feed and 4 steam flow and the numbers                  there,      and that's      due to 5 the constant CRD cooling water that's                      flowing into the 6 vessel,        water inventory about 60 galls a minute.
7                      MEMBER      BANERJEE:            Let    me  ask    you      a 8 question.
9                      MR. DAVISON:        Yes.
10                      MEMBER BANERJEE:          Since you're only going 11  up to,      let's    say, 116% or something,              do you still      have 12  some operating range which is                  going to be full        control 13  there in          MELLLA --
14                      MR. DAVISON:        Yes,    with MELLLA,        that's 15  correct.
16                      MEMBER BANERJEE:            So you'll      have,      what, 17  some region which is              still    you're able to control the 18  flow without control rods?
19                      MR. DAVISON:        Absolutely.            The    basic 20  operation of the unit will remain the same as we are 21  today.          We'll be doing flow manipulations                    to change 22  reactor          power    for    minor      and      then    control        rod 23  manipulations.
24                      MEMBER      BANERJEE:          So    perhaps    at      some 25  point, you could show us some typical operating domain NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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27 1 later one?
2                  MR. DAVISON:            Yes.        In    the      fuels 3  discussion,      we can show the power-to-flow map and we 4  can go through that.            Okay?
5                  All      right.            The      final    feedwater 6 temperature        increases        by      9    degrees      Fahrenheit 7  primarily due to the higher main turbine extraction 8  pressure of the feedwater heaters themselves.                          Other 9  than      the core  thermal      power      increase    of  15%,      the 10  impact of EPU to the power plant is                    primarily in        the 11  balance-of-plant steam delivery systems.
12                  MEMBER ARMIJO:            What will your core power 13  density be at EPU,        and how does that compare to other 14  BWR-4s --
15                  MR. DAVISON:        Don?
16                  MR. NOTIGAN:        --    kilowatts per liter.
17                  MR. DAVISON:        Mr. Notigan,    address that 18  question, please?
19                  MR. NOTIGAN:          Yes.      Don Notigan,          PSEG 20  Nuclear.      We compared Hope Creek's power density to 21  the experience base from the licensing topical report.
22  Hope Creek will be below some of the maximum kilowatts 23  per liter      density,      but it      is  within the experience 24  range and fits        right in      with the curves.            I'll      be 25  presenting some of that in my discussion.
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28 1                    MEMBER ARMIJO:          Do you have a number?
2                      MR. NOTIGAN:        I believe it's        less than 57 3  but I can look that up.
4                      MEMBER ARMIJO:          Okay.
5                      MR. DAVISON:        Okay.      On slide ten, Vince?
6  We talked about the licensing approach.                        This is      the 7  actual physical modifications that were required to be 8  implemented at          the station in          support    of EPU.          In 9  preparation          for  the    EPU,    we performed        a rigorous 10  assessment of reductions in both operating and design 11  margins.            Training,      procedure          changes,    program 12  changes,        testing      changes      were      all    implemented        to 13  account for reductions in margin as a result of the 14  15% increase in          addition to these modifications.
15                      Some    examples        of    the    components        and 16  systems that were impacted by this strategy of uprate 17  and assessment to manage the margin associated with 18  them, main steam line piping vibration and steam dryer 19  loading,      no changes to the main steam system or the 20  actual vessel steam dryer were required.                        We did do 21  analysis to show that the margin exists.                        Obviously, 22  we'll      be  talking    about    that    in    greater    detail        on 23  tomorrow's        session,      but we'll also be implementing 24  monitoring which will be part of our monitoring plan 25  to ensure that there are no issues associated with our NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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29 1 analytical assessment of the margin associated with 2 things like main steam line piping and steam dryer.
3                      High-pressure turbine            --  talked about in 4 addition to the actual physical change of the high 5 pressure turbine and the requirement to limit power to 6 111.5%.          We will      monitor      that      and    keep power          to 7 111.5%.        Again, that was to maintain a 3% valve wide 8 open margin for transient response.
9                      Condenser      back    pressure        and  condenser 10 demin.,        condensate demin.,            inlet temperatures will 11 also have some limitations really going back to the 12 cooling tower operations.                No specific change is made 13 to the operating facility for that.                        However, we will 14 be monitoring condenser back pressure as we do all the 15 time, but specific focus in the summer months because 16 of our cooling tower limitations and essentially being 17 at    the    mercy    of  the    environment.            But  there        are 18 specific guidelines set up with Operations that they 19 have      today    even    pre-EPU      that    in    the  event      of    a 20 challenge          to  condenser        back      pressure    before          a 21 transient would occur,                they have          the direction to 22 reduce reactor power.
23                      Steady state operations with the reactor 24 feed pump        --    we can essentially operate with one of 25 our reactor feed pumps.                Hope Creek is designed with NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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30 1 three        secondary    condensate        pumps,        three    primary 2 condensate pumps and three reactor feed pumps.                            Right 3 now we can operate with a feed pump out of service up 4 to 100% power.            Of course, with change of power to 5 115%, we will need to procedurally control the point 6 with which we can operate the unit with a flexiplace 7 or other primary or secondary condensate pump out of 8 service.
9                    And the steam bypass capability, we did 10 require a license change coming out of this outage in 11 light of our high-pressure turbine replacement, which 12 reduced        our  main    steam bypass,            our  bypass      valve 13 capability from 25 to 22%, again, controlled in our 14 setpoints          for    our    instrumentation            as    well        as 15 procedurally for how we operate the reactor.
16                    But in addition to those, there were many 17 changes that were actually physically done                            to the 18 plant.        And what I will do is I'll just walk through 19 and cover the modifications that were done to                                the 20 facility that we needed to do to either increase or 21 maintain        margin    so    that    we    can      implement    an      EPU 22 project.
23                    Starting in 2003, we did implement two 24 changes.          The 500 kV breaker was added due to our 25 independent system operations which is Pennsylvania, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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31 1 New Jersey, Maryland,              PJM,  interconnect analysis for 2 the additional output that Hope Creek would have.                              The 3 breaker        was    added      to  ensure        all    grid    stability 4 criteria were            met.      The new breaker was added                      to 5 provide backup            line fault clearing.                This prevents 6 tripping of Hope Creek and the interconnecting line 7 between Salem and Hope Creek switch yards to preserve 8 grid stability.            And this will be reviewed in detail 9 in    tomorrow's session on grid stability.
10                    Also,      the cooling        tower      internals      were 11 upgraded to install new flow distribution piping, fill 12 material and realignment of the water distribution.
13 We're        essentially      making      sure      that    the  tower        is 14 operating at its            maximum efficiency.
15                    Moving      to  2004    --    I  mentioned      that        we 16 replaced --        all    three of our low-pressure rotors were 17 upgraded.        This also eliminated the torsional stress 18 limitation        by    installing        the    GE    monoblock      design 19 rotors.          We    also      installed      the      digital    EHC,        or 20 electro-hydraulic              control      system,        and  a    turbine 21 supervisory instrumentation system upgrade to improve 22 control reliability as well as vibration monitoring 23 capability of our main turbine train.
24                    The main generator nameplate rating was 25 increased due to the power uprate.                      In addition to the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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32 1 nameplate rating which was analytical,                    we did have to 2 increase the standard water coolant system flows and 3 also the iso-phase bus cooling associated with that to 4 allow for the greater increase in power.
5                The two main turbine moister separators 6 and the piping between              the high-pressure              and low-7 pressure, we have two large moisture separators.                            The 8 internal chevrons or the moisture separator internals 9 themselves were replaced and that provided additional 10 efficiency      as  well    as    we    gained      approximately            6 11 megawatts electric by doing that.                  That's essentially 12 increasing      our  steam    quality        to    the    low pressure 13 rotors.
14                And then the alpha and bravo main power 15 transformers were replaced              to match the previously 16 replaced Charlie phase transformer,                  three individual 17 phases.        That  experienced        default        due    to    solar-18 magnetic disturbances back in 2001.
19                MEMBER BONACA:            Excuse      me.      I  have      a 20 question.
21                MR. DERRICK:        Yes.
22                MEMBER BONACA:          If you lose one feedwater 23 pump now, before the change,              you stay at 100% power?
24                MR. DAVISON:        No. The --      in  response to 25 a loss of a feed pump,          we will incur a intermediate NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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33 1  runback on our recirc pump,              so it  will actually reduce 2  power automatically in            response to the loss of a feed 3 pump.
4                    MEMBER BONACA:          With the low --      with the 5  power change after the occurrence?
6                    MR. DAVISON:        That occurs right now.                Is 7  that correct,      Bill?
8                    MEMBER BONACA:          Oh,    now.
9                    MR. KOPCHICK:        That's right.
10                    MR. DAVISON:      Yes.      The system's designed 11  with based on the rating of flow,                      loss of a pump --
12  it's    an anticipatory runback to prevent degradation to 13  level and a reactor transient scram.
14                    MEMBER BONACA:          What level?
15                    MR. DAVISON:        I'm sorry?
16                    MEMBER BONACA:          To what power level?
17                    MR. DAVISON:      The intermediate runback, a 18  recirc takes us back to approximately 80% power.
19                    MEMBER BONACA:          And now with the new --
20  after      the power uprate, you're just simply readjusting 21  the runback down to a lower value?
22                    MR. DAVISON:        The specific value for the 23  runback stays the same,            correct?
24                    MR. KOPCHICK:          Hi.        My  name  is    Bill 25  Kopchick.      I'm the District Operations Superintendent NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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34 1  in  the Operations Department.                  The runback on a trip 2  of a reactor feed pump is                  initiated with a reactor 3  feed pump concurrent with receipt of a Reactor Level 4  4 which is 30 inches.              The plant response is to reduce 5 reactor recirc pump speed to 45%.                      At current licensed 6  thermal power,          that will reduce me to approximately 7  80% current          licensed      thermal      power.      It    will      be 8 somewhat higher than that under EPU conditions.
9                      MEMBER BONACA:          Thank you.
10                      MR. KOPCHICK:        You're welcome.
11                      MR. DAVISON:          Okay.        And      the      last 12 modification          for    2004    were    the    addition      of    flow-13 induced          vibration          analysis        via    accelerometers 14 installation          on many of          our piping      systems.            The 15 accelerometers allowed us to collect the baseline data 16 to    verify      that    we    had    no    flow-induced        vibration 17 problems.          Critical piping is              instrumented,        and as 18 you'll        hear  in    our    discussion        of  power      ascension 19 testing,        we  have      Level    1  and    Level  2    acceptance 20 criteria that we will be closely monitoring the piping 21 for      vibration        for power        ascension.        In    addition, 22 numerous          other        balance-of-plant            piping          were 23 qualitatively walked down and will be walked down as 24 part of our power ascension testing program as well.
25                      MEMBER ARMIJO:          Has that equipment been NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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35 1 removed?        You say temporary.              Is  that --    was just in 2  for a short while or?
3                      MR. DAVISON:            No.        It    will    remain 4  installed through the --              it's    been installed and will 5 remain installed through the entire power ascension 6  testing program.            So it    remains installed today and we 7  periodically take readings just to verify that we have 8  not,      you know,      have    any failed        sensors or damaged 9  cables.
10                      In    2006,      so      in      that    column,          the 11  ARTS/MELLLA          I  mentioned previously was                introduced.
12  The alpha steam jet air ejector heat exchanger was 13  converted from a parallel flow to a cross flow design.
14  That was already previously implemented on the BRAVO 15  steam        jet  air    ejector,        and    that's      really    around 16  improving efficiency for summer operations of our off 17  gas air removal system.                The main generator iso-phase 18  bus cooling system was upgraded to increase the air 19  flow as well as the heat exchanger of cooling water 20  flow,        which    is  a    cooling      medium        for  that      heat 21  exchanger.
22                      The number 2 and 3 point feedwater heat 23  dump valves were replaced.                  That's to increase their 24  capacity        to    respond      to    transients,        and  numerous 25  setpoint changes have been made --                      six safety relief NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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36 1  valves on the two main turbine moisture separators and 2  three relief valves on the number 5 point feedwater 3ý feedwater heaters were all increased due to the normal 4  operating pressures increase expected as part of the 5  EPU implementation.
6                      We did modify six existing pipe supports 7  on the main steam lines in our turbine building.                                And 8  that was due to increased loading of the higher steam 9  flow when we have a turbine stopped off transient.                                So 10  we    just    --  the  actual      --  no  additional        lines were 11  installed.          We just modified them to strengthen them.
12  And then strain gauges --                  additional        accelerometers 13  and      thermal      couples      were    added      to  the  main      steam 14  lines,        RHR    piping,      recirc      piping      to  assess        the 15  acoustic          characteristics          of  the      associated      piping 16  systems.          And again,      that data is          necessary for the 17  steam        dryer    analysis      which    we'll      be  covering          on 18  Friday.
19                      Finally,        in      2007,        the    condensate 20  demineralizer            resin    traps      were      upgraded    with      new 21  strainer          elements,      and    that's    to    account    for      the 22  increased          differential        pressure        across    these traps 23  resulting in          the increased flow we will have during 24  EPU conditions.            The high-pressure rotor was finally 25  replaced,          as I mentioned,          in  our last outage.              The NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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37 1 nozzles,        diaphragms      and    packing        were  replaced          to 2  support      the    increased      steam      flow    of  the    rerate.
3 Again,      additional modifications will be necessary to 4 take us all the way up to the full 115%.
5                    Additional drywell main steam line strain 6 gauges were installed, really in response to industry 7 operating          experience      that    other      plants    incurred 8 failures        which limited or reduced                the  accuracy        of 9 their      data    on  the    strain    gauges,      so we    went        and 10 installed        eight  strain gauges          per    location.          That 11 allows redundancy            so that we do have some type of 12 strain gauge failure, we will still                    have adequate data 13 coming to us for analysis when we do the uprate.
14                    Small-bore piping changes associated with 15 the      main    steam    lines    really      between      the  pressure 16 averaging        manifold      and    the    turbine      stop    valves 17 themselves were upgraded by adding two-over-one taper 18 fillet      welds,    and that's        just to minimize          fatigue-19 induced cracking on EPRI guidelines and some OE that 20 was out there.          Numerous BOP instruments were rescaled 21 and setpoints were adjusted in                  support of the EPU.
22                    And then finally, the reactor recirc pump 23 runback logic was changed for the trip of a primary 24 condensate        pump.      We used to have a              full    runback 25 associated with the trip of that pump.                          WE changed NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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38 1 that to an intermediate run to take advantage of the 2  design capacity, extra capacity of our condensate and 3  feedwater systiem.            It  really is      focused on minimizing 4  the transient to operations during a trip of the pump.
5                    And the RCIC turbine exhaust high-pressure 6 trip setpoint was adjusted to 50 pounds to maintain 7  RCIC availability and that's associated with our 4-8  hour coping period following a station blackout event 9  in accordance with SIL-371.
10                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Is 50 psi the correct 11  number?
12                    MR. DAVISON:          Yes.      And then,      finally, 13  moving it      forward into 2008,          the online implementation 14  listed        setpoints    --    that's      the main      steam line hot 15  flow setpoints --          OPRM setpoints, APRM setpoints, and 16  hydrogen        water    chemistry        flow    adjustments        control 17  bands will be changed subsequent to issuance of our 18  license change.              So we're awaiting for              that to do 19  online once we move forward.
20                    In  summary,        all the changes required to 21  support EPU have been implemented with the exception 22  of the license change restraint setpoints.
23                    Moving        on      to    slide        12    for        the 24  implementation          itself.          So  with      all  the  physical 25  modifications actually completed,                      the remaining tech NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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39 1 spec-driven setpoints that I mentioned before will be 2 implemented online in this operating cycle, the power 3 ascension in accordance with our test plan from 100 to 4 111.5% will then commence.                    The goal is    to implement 5 prior      to our independent            system operation PJM grid 6 summer peak period which essentially begins June 1st 7 of this year.
8                  That      concludes        my presentation        pending 9 questions.
10                  MEMBER MAYNARD:              I'm still    just a little 11 bit      confused    on      your    feed    pump-condensate          pump 12 capabilities.        I thought earlier in the discussion you 13 said that you could operate with two of them?
14                  MR. DAVISON:        Correct.
15                  MEMBER MAYNARD:            Maybe I assumed that what 16 you were saying is you basically had three 50% pumps, 17 but you're talking about having runbacks any time you 18 lose        one.        Is      that      just    --    you    mentioned 19 precautionary.            Could you actually operate at 100%
20 power with just two pumps?
21                  MR. DAVISON:          Yes.      For clarification, 22 steady state operations,                if  we were to remove a pump 23 from      service,      coming      out      of    an    outage,    have        a 24 maintenance problem or have a pump that we need to 25 take        out  of    service        in      a    controlled    fashion, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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40 1 operations would reduce reactor power,                        take the pump 2 out of service, increase reactor power back up.                            So in 3 steady state operations,              no issues.          The runback is 4 required because you have a transient associated with 5 the instantaneous loss of a pump,                    condensate or feed 6 pump,      immediate level effects,          so you have the runback 7 to protect from the low level scram.
8                  MEMBER MAYNARD:          Okay.      That's fine.          That 9 answers my question.
10                  MR. DAVISON:        Thank you.
11                  CHAIR    ABDEL-KHALIK:              If    there    are        no 12 further questions,          we'll proceed with presentation.
13                  MR. DAVISON:      Thank you.        I would like to 14 now      Bill  Kopchick.          He's    our      Shift      Operations 15 Superintendent for the Operations portion.
16                  MR. KOPCHICK:        Good      morning.        As    Paul 17 Mentioned,        I'm    Bill      Kopchick.          I  am    the    Shift 18 Operations Superintendent at Hope Creek.                          That means 19 for      the  operating      shift    personnel,        senior      reactor 20 operator,      reactor operators and equipment operators, 21 they will ultimately report up through me.                        My boss is 22 the Operations Director who would be Paul's peer in 23 our management team.            I've been licensed at Hope Creek 24 for      10 years.      Prior to Hope Creek,                I    was a    shift 25 technical      advisor at the Oyster Creek Station.                          And NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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41 1 during power ascension,              I'll fill a role as a Test 2  Manager as we perform our power ascension testing upon 3  approval of our license submittal.
4                    My role in the development of the project 5  over time has been to make sure there has been either 6  a    senior    reactor    operator      or    a reactor      operator 7  engaged with the project.                  Any questions that were 8  operationally related would then come back to me for 9  approval or operations shift input, so we made sure 10  that      operations      personnel      were        aligned    with      the 11  project and were able to implement it on shift.
12                    To my right is Paul Lindsay.                I'd like to 13  afford Paul the opportunity to introduce himself.
14                    MR. LINDSAY:          Good morning.          Again, as 15  Bill      said,  my  name    is  Paul    Lindsay.        I work        for 16  Mainline        Engineering      Associates.            I am    a    former 17  licensed SRO at Hope Creek Station,                        also a former 18  mechanical design supervisor for Hope Creek and Salem 19  units.        My role in the project has been primarily 20  mechanical design support.              However, I was responsible 21  for the development of the test program as well as the 22  implementing test procedures.
23                    MR. KOPCHICK:          Thanks, Paul.          The intent 24  of this portion of the presentation is to cover three 25  operationally- focused topical areas associated with NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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42 1 the implementation of extended power uprate.                            These 2 will      be operator        training and the efforts we have 3 taken          to    ensure      operator        readiness      for      EPU 4 implementation          and subsequent          high-power operation.
5 Second is          the impact of EPU on operator response to 6 transients          and    postulated        events      including        the 7 operator actions, mitigating strategies and response 8 times.        And lastly, I will outline our power ascension 9 testing          program      which      has      been    designed          to 10 successfully          implement a safe and systematic plant 11 power ascension to extended power uprate power levels.
12                      First in the area of operator training, as 13 Mr. Davis had mentioned, we have incorporated numerous 14 station modifications to prepare us for power uprate.
15 Some of these included new main power transformers, 16 high pressure and low pressure turbine replacements, 17 enhanced monitoring systems,                  and multiple instrument 18 replacements to include scaling and setpoint changes.
19 The majority of these modifications,                      as Paul stated, 20 particularly          involving      those    that    involve physical 21 changes,        have been in place for one or more operating 22 cycles.          For each of these,          specific system training 23 was      included      in    both    non-licensed        operator        and 24 licensed operator requalification programs and thus, 25 the      operators,        including        myself,        are  currently NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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43 1 familiar        with      the    changes      made,      the    operating 2 limitations required,              and the characteristics of the 3 new equipment that has been installed.
4                    In  addition      to the        system    training        on 5 these previously            mentioned        modifications,        we    have 6 conducted EPU power ascension training,                      steady state 7 training, and transient training in both the classroom 8 and on the Hope Creek simulator                        for all    operating 9 shifts.          Regarding        procedure        changes,      while      EPU 10 implementation involves numerous procedure changes to 11 the station, the changes to the procedures associated 12 with the aforementioned system modifications represent 13 the majority.            These changes have been trained on.
14 They are in place.            Operators are currently familiar 15 with the precautions              and limitations and operating 16 requirements associated with this equipment.
17                    The    balance        of      outstanding        changes 18 associated        with    EPU    implementation          will    involve 19 changes to tech-spec instrumentation setpoints which 20 obviously        cannot      proceed      until      a  license      change 21 request is      approved.
22                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            Now the 11.5% change 23 is    going to be a mid-cycle change for this current 24 cycle.        Has  the simulator model              in  existence      been 25 uprated to 11.5% and that's what the operators have NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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44 1 been training on?
2                    MR. KOPCHICK:        Yes.      What we did for the 3 simulator modeling is                we've obviously done a pretty 4 extensive amount of analysis on plant performance at 5 EPU conditions up to 115% and in                        some cases,    as Paul 6 mentioned,        120%.        In    an effort        to ensure simulator 7 response        would      be    as    we  would        expect  under      EPU 8 conditions, we did run a battery of transients on the 9 simulator to include balance-of-plant system response 10 to ensure that the ANSI standard required margins for 11 performance          of  the    simulator      were      met. That was 12 performed prior to the training being initiated.
13                    A    second        facet    associated        with        the 14 simulator        that    is    probably pretty            important    is    we 15 implemented a new balance-of-plant thermal hydraulic 16 model called THOR which is                  an advanced model that we 17 use to back up the analytical calculations that were 18 performed        for    balance-of-plant              response.      So      the 19 simulator has been validated to respond as we expect 20 the plant to respond in EPU.
21                      I would add that the documentation that 22 our station requires --                it's  a corporate procedure to 23 formally document that testing per the ANSI standard -
24 -  is    still    in    progress with an expected completion 25 date of April            13th and final reviews                completed by NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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45 1 April 27th.
2                      MR. DAVISON:        Paul Davison.            For clarity, 3  the      simulator      has    two  modes    of      operation,        one      for 4  training        at  the  current      licensed        thermal      power      and 5 when they're doing EPU testing at                          the EPU rated            so 6 they can actually run the plant as it                          would look and 7  appear to them at the uprated power.                        Is  that correct, 8  Bill?
9                      MR. KOPCHICK:        That      is    correct.          It    is 10  really a function of setting up the initial                            power.
11                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Thank you.
12                      MR. KOPCHICK:        Getting back to procedure 13  changes,        the balance of our outstanding                      changes are 14  associated        with    tech    spec    instrumentation            changes.
15  Those procedures are complete and awaiting approval of 16  the license change request.                  Some changes --
17                      MEMBER      BONACA:        Just      to  understand            it 18  better,        you're    going    to    go to      111% power          and then 19  later      on another step up to 115% power?
20                    MR. KOPCHICK:        Correct.
21                    MEMBER BONACA:            What does          it  do to your 22  tech specs and to your protection system?                            I mean are 23  you setting it          up for 111% power now and then later                        on 24  adjust it        115%,    or do you have a different strategy?
25                    MR. KOPCHICK:      The tech spec setpoints are NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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46 1 based on 115% power uprate.                  The limitation of 111.5%
2 current licensed thermal power is                      turbine related, so 3 from an operator perspective, that presents some small 4 challenge,        because we will be operating at 97% power.
5 We will        set up our procedure network.                      Obviously, 6 being        an  operator,      we  operate        in    accordance      with 7 procedures to set limitations procedurally to keep us 8 at 111.5.
9                    MEMBER BONACA:          Which is        97%?
10                    MR. KOPCHICK:        Ninety-seven percent.              That 11 is    correct.
12                    MEMBER BONACA:          Okay.        So could you just 13 elaborate a little            bit?    How do you train the operator 14 to see that?            I mean your setpoints are set at 115%
15 power.
16                    MR. KOPCHICK:        Right.        Okay. The way, as 17 an operator,        I would control reactor power output is 18 I would use a heat balance that's updated every second 19 off of a plant process computer.                        The plant process 20 computer will give me a number in megawatts thermal.
21 Right now the way my license is set up, I'm limited to 22 3339 megawatts thermal.                We use a 5-minute average to 23 control        that power      level.      If    I    see  the  5-minute 24 average approach or exceed that number,                        I will reduce 25 reactor recirc flow to maintain the 5-minute average NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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47 1 below the limit.              That's how we intend to set that up 2 for    the    operator      control,        to minimize        a  number        of 3 other parameters            that have to monitor.
4                    MEMBER BONACA:            Okay.      My concern was how 5 much do you have to change later                      on,  but what you're 6 telling        me,  it's    pretty much you're implementing 115%
7 power really          --
8                    MR. KOPCHICK:        Right.
9                    MEMBER BONACA:          --    from your setpoints          and 10 then you're controlling at another power level?
11                    MR.      KOPCHICK:            That's      correct.          Our 12 procedure          network        sets    the      control    band      for      the 13 operator as it            would with any other system including 14 the reactor.
15                    MEMBER      ARMIJO:          I  just    want    to    get    a 16 clarification.              You're currently in            Cycle 14,      is  that 17 correct or?
18                    MR. KOPCHICK:        I  think that's      --    Don?
19                    MR. NOTIGAN:        This is        Don Notigan,        PSEG 20 Nuclear.        Currently, we are in Cycle 15 at Hope Creek.
21                    MEMBER ARMIJO:          You're currently in              15 and 22 you're going to go to 111% during this cycle?
23                    MR. NOTIGAN:        That is        correct,    in    Cycle 24 15.
25                    MEMBER      ARMIJO:        And    then    in  Cycle        16, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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48 1 you'll go to the remaining up to 115?
2                    MR. NOTIGAN:          We    have    information          in 3 another presentation that describes an implementation 4 plans for going up to the next power level.                          I don't 5 believe we're making a commitment for the next cycle.
6                    MR. KOPCHICK:        Okay?      Okay,  so regarding 7 procedures,        some    changes      have      been    made    to      our 8 emergency operating procedures which I will cover in 9 our next slide.            However,      there are no new abnormal 10 operating procedures required for EPU implementation.
11 We    did    not  require      any    new    emergency      operating 12 procedures as a result of EPU,                    but I will cover the 13 changes        to  the existing procedure                network    that we 14 accomplished.
15                    Regarding operating experience,                industry 16 operating experience associated with power uprates was 17 incorporated into our operator training.                        Hope Creek 18 reactor operators and senior reactor operators that 19 were involved with the test program development with 20 Paul        Lindsay    visited        several        sites    that      have 21 implemented extended power uprates and have utilized 22 this        experience      and    additional          OE  in    training 23 development.          This experience has been incorporated 24 under both the power ascension test program and the 25 implementing          procedure        to    accomplish        the      power NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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49 1 ascension test which I will discuss in                        more detail 2 later.        In  addition,        specific Hope Creek operating 3 experience        and    industry      EPU      experience    has      been 4 incorporated into individual system monitoring plans 5 on a system-by-system basis that will be used by both 6 operators        and    engineers        implementing        the      power 7 ascension procedure.
8                    In    summary,        operations        personnel      have 9 trained        on and    in    many    cases      have  been  operating 10 equipment necessary to implement EPU at our station.
11 Such training has included power ascension testing, 12 steady state operation and transient response training 13 in the simulator to include lessons learned from other 14 facilities.        In conjunction with planned just-in-time 15 training which we will perform prior                        to EPU power 16 ascension,        these activities will ensure an informed 17 but cautious and questioning approach to the new EPU 18 power level.
19                    The purpose of this slide is                to discuss 20 the impact on operations with regards to response to 21 transients          or      assumed        or      postulated      accident 22 conditions under EPU operating conditions.                      Hope Creek 23 has      123    post    initiating          event      operator    actions 24 credited in its          plant risk program.              There are no new 25 operator actions or tasks associated with implementing NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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50 1 EPU at our station.            Due to higher decay heat load, 2 there        is a small    impact on the            time available          to 3 detect, diagnose, and perform actions associated with 4 transients        or  accident      conditions.          However,        the 5 impact does not adversely affect plant operators.
6                  MR. WALLIS:      This is because the times are 7 already quite low, isn't it?
8                  MR. KOPCHICK:            That      is  true.          The 9 increased        decay  heat    load    is    the  basis    for      the 10 reduction in response times.                I have several examples 11 I'll cover now to go over really what the changes look 12 like to me as the operator.                Some examples of these 13 impacts are time to achieve cold shutdown following a 14 design basis ascent.            This changes from 9 hours to 13 15 hours.
16                  MR. WALLIS:        There's oodles of time to 17 figure it out, though?
18                  MR. KOPCHICK:        There is.        Tech specs in 19 the case of achieving cold shutdown would require 24 20 hours to achieve cold shutdown, so we'll change from                            -
21 -  it'll take me 13 hours instead of 9 due to higher 22 decay heat load.            The time for RPV water level to 23 reach the top of active fuel during a loss of coolant 24 event is expected or predicted to occur about 20%
25 faster due to higher decay heat load and a greater NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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51 1 impact of wood collapse.                    And time to boil during 2  shutdown conditions, which is managed by our shutdown 3 outage risk management program, will shorten by less 4 than or equal to 15% under all conditions.
5                    MR. WALLIS:        What happens during ATWS?                  Is 6 there a shorter time to figure things out during ATWS?
7                    MR. KOPCHICK:        During ATWS conditions --
8  that      is  a  good question          --  we were      audited by        the 9  staff under the most extreme ATWS conditions.                            We ran 10  four      scenarios      under    the    audit    conditions        --    EPU 11  condition, MSIV closure ATWS,                  current license thermal 12  power condition with an MSIV closure in ATWS,                        and then 13  an ATWS following a turbine trip under both EPU and 14  current licensed thermal power conditions.                        What we're 15  looking at as far as changes to the operator,                            from my 16  perspective,        is  the actions or the way that we combat 17  an ATWS will not change.
18                    We may be slightly different than other 19  facilities in          that our process is              if I have an ATWS 20  condition and reactor power remains over 4%,                              I will 21  immediate initiate standby liquid control.                          It    was my 22  proceduralized process before and it will be post-EPU.
23  We    also    have    an  automatic        standby      liquid      control 24  initiation        function        redundant        reactivity        control 25  system where          if  the    operator      doesn't      take    action, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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52 1 standby liquid control is              initiated        3.9 minutes after 2 the      event.      And we      also    have        automatic        feedwater 3 runbacks on a high-pressure condition that will reduce 4 RPV water level which is            another stability              mitigation 5 strategy that's          used throughout the industry.
6                    So the difference              for me as an operator 7 under        ATWS  will    not    change.              Obviously,        it      is 8 dependent upon what power level the ATWS --                          post-ATWS 9 what power level I'm at, but my strategy is                            not going 10 to change.
11                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              No manual actions are 12 required by the operators to reduce water level during 13 an ATWS?
14                    MR. KOPCHICK:        Procedurally, we do,              in our 15 EOP network,        purposely reduce RPV water level.
16                    CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:                  Right.            And 17 therefore,        the time required for the operator to take 18 that manual action would likely be reduced under EPU 19 conditions?            That    was    really        the      heart    of      the 20 question.
21                    MR. KOPCHICK:        I would have to take that 22 question        for    lookup    to    see      if    the    time    actually 23 changed,        but as    far    as how        I    implement      the    actual 24 operator actions to combat an ATWS,                          I'm well within 25 any      time    that  would    change.          And    it's    all    really NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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53 1 dependent upon post-ATWS power level.
2                    CHAIR    ABDEL-KHALIK:              So  procedurally, 3 there is      no time specified for the operator to reduce 4 level      manually --
5                    MR. KOPCHICK:        That's correct.
6                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              --  during an ATWS.
7                    MR. WALLIS:        But it      is  pretty quick.              I 8 mean he has to do it            pretty quickly now.
9                    MR. KOPCHICK:        We do.        The first    thing we 10  would do is      inhibit ADS.        We'd initiate          standby liquid 11  control        would prevent        injection        from other        systems 12  that may inject on lowering level,                      and then we would 13  purposely reduce RPV water level below the feedwater 14  sparger input level to provide additional heating of 15  the water going in          to further suppress power.                  I would 16  say that occurs within the first                  5 minutes of an ATWS 17  event routinely during our training scenarios.                            But as 18  far as the time goes,            I would have to go and take an 19  additional look at our case runs.
20                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              If  you can find that 21  information,        that would be helpful.
22                    MR. KOPCHICK:        Yes.        Paul,  if  you could 23  make sure we have that written down?
24                    MR. DUKE:    Yes.      This is      Paul Duke,        PSEG 25  Licensing.        We have simulator scenarios                    that we ran NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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54 1 with no operator actions, and we can share those with 2 you later today.
3                    MR. KOPCHICK:        Thanks.        So I did cover the 4 impacts        on some time durations associated with the 5 higher decay heat load under EPU conditions.                      Overall, 6 from a        licensed    operator      perspective,        the    changes 7 don't represent a significant impact to our ability to 8 operate        the  facility.          Specific        changes    to      the 9 probablistic safety assessment and the top 20 post-10 initiating operator actions will be addressed in more 11 detail later in the presentation.                    Although there are 12 minor        changes    to    operator      response      times    in      the 13 aforementioned          events,    there are no changes              to the 14 mitigation strategies associated with these or other 15 design basis events that are required due to EPU.
16                    As I mentioned, there are some changes to 17 our emergency operating procedures due to the effects 18 of EPU post-accident or post-event decay heat loads.
19 These changes are limited to changes in                        some of the 20 curves we use in our emergency operating procedures.
21 And these would include the heat capacity temperature 22 limit,        pressure      suppression          pressure      and      boron 23 injection        initiation      temperature          curves which        I'll 24 present in        the following slides.
25                    The first      slide shows the heat capacity NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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55 1 temperature limit.          This is used when implementing the 2 emergency operator procedures.                    During challenges to 3 the      primary    containment,        it's      required    for    plant 4 operators      to maintain plant parameters                beneath the 5 heat capacity temperature limit curve.                      This ensures 6 that suppression pull            temperature          is low enough to 7 completely        absorb      the    energy      required    to    safely 8 depressurize the RPV.            As can be seen from the slide, 9 the high pressure endpoint of the temperature of the 10 curve        is  decreased      by    approximately        10    degrees 11 Fahrenheit.        The lower heat capacity temperature limit 12 curve is due to the effects of higher decay heat load 13 associated with the operation at higher EPU thermal 14 power.
15                  As far as impact on the operator would go, 16 the requirements in the emergency operating procedures 17 under any challenge to the containment is                    to monitor 18 plan parameters associated with this curve and reduce 19 reactor pressure as required to maintain beneath the 20 curve.
21                  CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Now why the slight 22 shift        to the  right    at    low pressure?          What's      the 23 rationale for --
24                  MR. KOPCHICK:        At low pressure?          We did 25 two changes really.            When we modified our EOPs which NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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56 1 are currently            in  place,    we included both the impact 2  from EPU,        and these are the curves                  at low pressure.
3 On the left,          you see the shift              to the right.        We also 4 implemented          the    new    BWR      owner's        group    emergency 5 protection          guideline        revision which            is  Revision        2.
6 The      calculational          methodology          changed      which is        the 7 reason        for  the    slight      shift        to  the    right    at      low 8 pressure.
9                      CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              Now    what    is      the 10 normal water inventory in                  the suppression pool gallon 11 wise?
12                      MR. KOPCHICK:        Usually about --          from the 13 operator's perspective,                we measure it            by inches -
14                      CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:            --    four pounds          or 15 something          that    we    can  check        the    adequacy      of      this 16 calculation?          If    you can get it            to us later      on today.
17 Thank you.
18                      MR. KOPCHICK:          I understand --          a volume of 19 the suppression chamber.
20                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                The volume of water 21 in    the suppression chamber.
22                      MR. KOPCHICK:            Volume      of    water    in      the 23 suppression          chamber.        Okay?        Any other questions on 24 heat capacity temperature limit?                        Next slide, please?
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57 1 suppression pressure limit curve.                          During operation 2 controlled by emergency operating procedures,                                plant 3 parameters must be kept within pressure suppression 4 curve          or    emergency          reactor          pressure        vessel 5 depressurization is              required.        As shown by the slide, 6 the curve generally                decreases        by approximately            two 7 pounds,        again, due to the affect of the higher decay 8 heat associated with operating at elevated EPU.
9                    CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              The  units      on the 10 horizontal access can't be feet.
11                    MR. WALLIS:      Yes,    they don't make sense.
12 It    must be inches.            Can't be feet.
13                    MR. KOPCHICK:        Yes,    sir. That is      --
14                    MR. WALLIS:        It's    a very strange design if 15 it's      feet. It's    a very strange design if              it's      feet.
16                    MR. KOPCHICK:        You're correct.            It    is  in 17 inches and the span would be highest on the right, the 18 highest level indicated in the suppression pool level 19 that we can see by installed instrumentation and to 20 the left would be the commencement of uncover of the 21 vent pipe downcomers.
22                    MR. WALLIS:        This is water level above the 23 bottom of the floors?
24                    MR.      KOPCHICK:          It's      actually    from the 25 instrument        zero    which    is    approximately        three        feet NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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58 1 above the bottom of the --
2                  MR. WALLIS:        Three feet above the bottom.
3 Okay.
4                  CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Now what actions is 5  the      operator    required        to    take    if  this      limit      is 6 exceeded.
7                  MR. KOPCHICK:        If  I exceed,        it    would be 8  emergency      reactor pressure            vessel    depressurization 9  opening up 5 safety relief valves                      to depressurize.
10  The limitation imposed is              ensuring that in emergency 11  depressurization          would      --    the      energy      from      the 12  depressurization would be able to be absorbed by the 13  suppression chamber.
14                  As    shown      in    this    curve    of    the    boron 15  injection initiation temperature, the calculated boron 16  injection initiation temperature decreased by between 17  12 degrees and 20 degrees Fahrenheit due to higher EPU 18  core thermal power.          At Hope Creek, during an ATWS in 19  which reactor power remains above 4%,                    standby liquid 20  control is conservatively injected before suppression 21  pool temperature reaches 110 degrees.                    This operating 22  strategy, as I mentioned earlier, will remain the same 23  after EPU.
24                  However,        if    the    reactor      is      an    ATWS 25  situation with a reactor power less than 4%,                          standby NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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59 1 liquid        control      must      now      be  injected      before        the 2 suppression pool temperature                        reaches a conservative 3 140 degrees,            previously 150 degrees was a result of 4 the curve.            And again,          this result is      due to higher 5 EPU power.
6                      So in summary, regarding the impact of EPU 7 on plant operators,              the changes in operator responses 8 to transients            or accidents under EPU conditions is 9 small.          Procedure        changes        are  limited      to    slight 10 changes        in    curves      associated          with  limits      already 11 contained          in    our    emergency          operating    procedures.
12 Thus, by maintaining similar strategies and mitigation 13 approaches,          the    impact on operator proficiency                      and 14 training needs is minimized.
15                      MEMBER MAYNARD:              I'm just a little            bit 16 confused on this curve and what you said.                            You talked 17 about a 4% power.                  If    it's    above 4% power,        they're 18 required to initiate.                    Trying to relate that to this 19 curve.
20                      MR. KOPCHICK:            Okay. Looking      at      the 21 curve, 4% power is              a highly observable indication for 22 operators.          It's  my APRM downscale limit, so when I do 23 achieve APRMs downscale,                    I will get 8 lights showing 24 where      reactor power            is.      If  I  don't have the APRM 25 downscale,          I don't have the 8 lights.                It's    under an NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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60 1 ATWS      condition      which      is  obviously      a  rather      busy 2  response for the operators.                      These are very highly 3  observable from a human performance perspective.                                So 4  procedurally, what we have keyed at the 4% observable 5  limit on APRM power,              if  I do not have the downscales, 6 the operators are trained and my procedures are set up 7  to immediately inject standby liquid control.
8                      If  I    am    below    4%    power,    I  have        the 9  downscales, then I watch suppression pool temperature.
10  So really, the curve doesn't line it                      up for operator 11  execution or implementation,                  but that is      what we're 12  watching.
13                      So what changed is currently, at 4% power 14  or below,        I watch for and must inject standby liquid 15  control before suppression pool temperature reaches 16  150 degrees.          Post-EPU, my 4% power will be a higher 17  power        and  the    calculation          we    use  for    EOP    curve 18  development will require us to inject at 140 degrees 19  by 750.
20                    MR. LINDSAY:        Just one item to add.              This 21  curve does not actually show up in                      the EOPs whereas 22  the two previous curves actually show up.                        This shows 23  the change --
24                    MEMBER MAYNARD:            It  sounds to me like the 25  operators don't really use this curve.                      They've got --
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61 1                  MR. LINDSAY:        That's correct.
2                  MEMBER MAYNARD:            --    pretty        straightforward 3 power      --
4                  MR. LINDSAY:          The guidance is                for above        --
5                  MEMBER MAYNARD:                --    temperature.              That's 6 what you do,      so --
7                  MR. LINDSAY:        Correct.
8                  MEMBER MAYNARD:                So this curve just show 9  that those actions ensure that you stay below --                                      stay 10  within your curve there?
11                    MR. KOPCHICK:      Yes,        sir.      That is      correct.
12                    MEMBER MAYNARD:                Okay.
13                    MR. WALLIS:        Now the number on the curve 14, looks      like 160  --
15                    MR. KOPCHICK:        Correct.
16                    MR. WALLIS:        --      it's      just      your      number 17  doesn't sound quite --              it's    not important really, but 18  the number you spoke about                  is      not quite the same as 19  the number on the curve.                  That's --
20                    MEMBER MAYNARD:              That's what I understand 21 22                    MR. WALLIS:        That may kind of confusing.
23                    MEMBER      MAYNARD:            --    is    say      if  they're 24  using numbers        that are below,                they're not going off 25  this graph.
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62 1                      MR. WALLIS:        That's correct.
2                      MR. KOPCHICK:          So for the new curve,              you 3  could say,        I guess,        144 degrees --
4                      MR. WALLIS:        Yes,    something like that.
5                      MR. KOPCHICK:        --  we inject    standby liquid 6 control at 140.            And currently, we inject at 150.                      The 7 curve would show 160.                  So in both cases,        the selection 8 criteria        is  conservative.
9                      MR. DAVISON:          This is      Paul Davison.            I 10  have      the    answer      to the      follow-up question          if    you'd 11  like that now?
12                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                Yes.
13                      MR.      DAVISON:          The    tech  spec      minimum 14  suppression pool is                level or volume is          118,000 cubic 15  feet.        Tech spec maximum is              122,000 cubic feet.
16                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                Thank you.
17                      MR. DAVISON:        You're welcome.
18                      MR. WALLIS:        That    is    independent      of its 19  temperature?              This      cubic      feet      always    bothers        me 20  because        it's  not a measure of mass.                  It's    a volume 21  which        changes      if      the    temperature        changes.          You 22  actually do control volume,                    do you?
23                      MR. DUKE:        This is      Paul  Duke.      We also 24  have      controls on          suppression pool            temperature.            We 25  have limits for continued operational and suppression NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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63 1 pool temperature.
2                  MR. KOPCHICK:          Tech spec limitations              on 3  suppression pool temperature,                  I think, is    what you're 4 referring to,        Paul.
5                  MR. WALLIS:        It    just    seems  strange.          I 6 guess it's      because cubic feet is              what you measure by 7 means of the height.
8                  MR. KOPCHICK:          Is    that what you --
9                  MR. LINDSAY:        Correct.
10                    CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:                are    there        any 11  additional questions for Mr.                  Kopchick?
12                    MR. KOPCHICK:          Next slide,      please?      Next 13  I'll      present    an    overview          of  Hope    Creek's      power 14  ascension test        program to include a discussion of our 15  preparation        efforts,      an        overview      of    our      test 16  organization and test            conduct and a discussion of how 17  an incremental approach method will be used to achieve 18  final power levels and a brief discussion of the tests 19  themselves.
20                    Preparation of EPU testing program began 21  approximately        one    year    ago.        The    plan    was    built 22  utilizing      the Vermont      Yankee        EPU approach      to power 23  ascension        and  similar      methodology          and  acceptance 24  criteria      from the      original        Hope Creek      startup      test 25  program.
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64 1                  The  test    plan    aims      to accomplish          the 2 following      three    objectives        --    perform    sufficient 3 testing        to    demonstrate          satisfactory        equipment, 4 performance at the EPU power level, define a careful 5 monitored        approach      to    EPU      power    and    meet        all 6 established        commitments        and      regulatory      criteria 7 associated with testing.                Preparation efforts also 8 include a formation of a test team which I'll present 9 in the next slide, development of key personnel roles 10 and responsibilities such as the test director and 11 test manager, and benchinarking including several trips 12 to Vermont Yankee and Browns Ferry.
13                  Based on these ef forts, a test plan and an 14 implementing        test      procedure          was    developed          to 15 accomplish these objectives.                The procedure has been 16 reviewed by        the  station's        plant operations          review 17 committee      on  two    occasions,        subjected    to    several 18 collegial      reviews      and    two    external      reviews        from 19 individuals        experience        with      other    EPU      testing 20 programs.        Based on the results of              these reviews, 21 we've concluded that our test program is in line with 22 industry expectations for an EPU power ascension test 23 program.
24                  Regarding training, as discussed earlier, 25 operators have been trained in both the classroom and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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65 1 on      the    simulator      on    the    power    ascension        test 2 procedure, are familiar with its contents, acceptance 3 criteria        and  expectations.              In  addition,        alla 4 activities associated with this testing are considered 5 infrequently performed activities which require the 6 highest level of management involvement in accordance 7 with our station procedures governing such activities.
8                    Thus,    based      on    the    familiarity          of 9 operations        with    modifications          already  made,        the 10 training performed and other preparation activities 11 including the conduct of periodic testing meetings, 12 benchrnarking efforts and department readiness reviews 13 which will be implemented prior to                    implementation, 14 Operations believes Hope Creek is well-prepared to 15 execute a successful test program.
16                    Next slide.      As shown from this slide, the 17 test organization will report directly to the Hope 18 Creek Generating Station Plant Manager.                        The Test 19 Director will work closely with the Plant Manger to 20 allocate          resources        and      establish      both          the 21 administrative and technical procedures to support the 22 plan.        The test team is led by the Test Manager, a 23 senior member of the Operations Department of which I 24 will be one, whose function is management oversight.
25 Similar to the On-Duty Shift Manager, this individual NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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66 1 also has the authority to stop the test                          at any time.
2 So either myself or the individuals who work directly 3 for      me,    the  shift    managers,        have    the    command        and 4 control authority to stop testing.
5                    The    balance        of    the      organization            is 6 selected        from individual            plant    departments        such        as 7 Plant Engineering,            Radiation Protection or Chemistry 8 based on their area of expertise.                          These individual 9 work closely on the development of the test                            plan and 10 implementing procedure,              and they've been involved in 11 numerous        testing      preparation          meetings      are      well-12 prepared to support EPU power ascension testing.
13                    MR. WALLIS:        It    looks a long way down from 14 the top to the bottom here.
15                    MR. KOPCHICK:        We can    --
16                    MR. WALLIS:        I guess it's        necessary but --
17                    MR. KOPCHICK:          It  is.
18                    MR. WALLIS:      --    that why you don't have a 19 leaner organization.
20                    MR. KOPCHICK:          I  don't know that            I  can 21 comment on that, but really,                    there's reasons for the 22 different layers of challenges that we would expect to 23 have in        executing our plan.
24                    MR. WALLIS:        Long as      the  test    director 25 knows what's going on.
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67 1                    MR. KOPCHICK:        Mr. Davison will be one of 2 our      test  directors          and    he,    as    well    as    I,      are 3 accountable        to know --
4                    MR. DAVISON:        We will      have our --
5                    MR. KOPCHICK:        --    what's going on.
6                    MR.      DAVISON:        --    outage      control    center 7 staffed for the entire power ascension so that Ops can 8 focus      on uprate.          Paul Davison.            We will have          our 9 outage control center staffed through the entire power 10 evolution,        increase        evolution,          and    the  Operations 11 folks can then focus on operating the plant,                              and the 12 rest      of  the  test      team will be          focused      on the        data 13 collection and analysis and verification that --
14                    MR.      WALLIS:            So    if    the  GE    startup 15 consultant notices something, he can get to you pretty 16 quickly?
17                    MR. DAVISON:          Absolutely.          We'll all    be in 18 the same room.
19                    MR. WALLIS:          All be      in    the  same    room.
20 Okay.
21                    MR. DAVISON:        That's correct.
22                    MEMBER ARMIJO:              You mentioned that            --    at 23 least      I  heard    --    that there would be more than one 24 test      director?        Is    that correct?
25                    MR. KOPCHICK:        Paul?
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68 1                        MR. DAVISON:          Yes.      We'll    have people 2 responsible both on night and day shifts.                              So myself 3 will be the primary test director help organizing what 4 Bill        said      as    far      as    making        sure    we    have        an 5 organization established.                      However,        to man it    around 6 the clock, we will have somebody else performing that 7 function.
8                        MEMBER MAYNARD:            Could you talk just a 9 little        bit      about        the    communications          interaction 10 between the control room staff and the test team?                                  You 11 know,      who      will      the    shift      manager      talk  to    or      be 12 communicating with?
13                        MR. KOPCHICK:        If  you take a look at the 14 slide --        I'm looking at my slide in                  front of me here -
15 -    the    shift      manager        will    report        to  the  IPA      test 16 manager.          It's    required by our station procedures for 17 infrequently performed activity that the test manager 18 is    organizationally senior to the shift manager.                                  In 19 this      case,        they work        for me.          They    are my direct 20 reports.        The night shift test manager will be another 21 operations          superintendent            who was a previous              shift 22 manager.        At all times, for any testing we do, the on-23 duty shift has the command and control function.                                They 24 control the unit.                If  there are any upsets outside of 25 the testing, they will stop testing and respond to the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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69 1 transient.          So    the    command      and      control    structure 2 really lies between the IPA test manager and the EPU 3 implementation and test team leader.
4                  So I would expect the test team leader to 5 brief the control room crew on this is                      the test that 6 we are doing at this.            Training will have already been 7 conducted.        The operators are already familiar with 8 the      tests we're      going to do.            And then the shift 9 manager will oversee the conduct of the test from a 10 higher level with management oversight by the IPA test 11 manager.      If  there are any problems,              if  there are any 12 delays or we need to proceed on to the next test, my 13 job as a test manager would then be to talk to Paul 14 who would be a test director.                  He will have technical 15 resources available to him, and Paul will be informing 16 the plant manager on status.
17                  I'll    go over      some more        detail    in    some 18 other slides as far as how the specifics of our power 19 plateaus and power ascension will occur and where we 20 intend to hold if          that will be acceptable.
21                  MEMBER MAYNARD:            The shift      manager still 22 has        responsibility        for    the      plant.        If      he's 23 uncomfortable with something,                he can stop it?
24                  MR. KOPCHICK:        Yes,    sir, at all times.
25                  MR. WALLIS:      This is      who?
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70 1                    MR.      KOPCHICK:        The shift      manager.      He is, 2 in    fact,    the senior license --
3                    MR.      WALLIS:      Responsible        --
4                    MR.      KOPCHICK:        Correct.
5                    CHAIR        ABDEL-KHALIK:              Will    there      be      a 6 stand-alone computer on which this data are going to 7 be collected?
8                    MR.      KOPCHICK:        Will be a stand-alone?
9                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                As far as this.
10                      MR.      KOPCHICK:        Operationally,        we have a 11  system called a control room integrated display system 12 13                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                Okay.
14                      MR. KOPCHICK:        -- which then feeds data to 15  a  land network on a                system we call          Plant Historian 16  accessible by multiple engineers.                          We have automated 17  the data acquisition function of our specific                              system 18  performance          plans        to    automatic        data    capture        that 19  information.            It's      also available in          trend format.
20                      MR.      DAVISON:        This is      Paul Davison.          One 21  thing to add --              as I mentioned in            the modifications, 22  when      we  did      the      temporary        modifications          to      add 23  accelerometers and strain gauges,                        that is    stand-alone 24  equipment        that's        inside      the  facility,      in  the plant 25  that        we    will        collect        data      on    and    bring          it NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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71 1 electronically to the outage control center where the 2  analysis will be done to it.                  So that's a stand-alone 3 system because it's              temporarily installed to collect 4 the accelerometer and strain gauge data.
5                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            Right. My concern is 6 that      --  I'm  glad    to hear      that      --    I'm not    sure      if 7  you're aware of the recent trip at Hatch which was 8  caused        by a problem        where    you're        collecting        data 9  presumably from a stand-alone computer that caused the 10  plant        trip because        there was no adequate              firewall 11  between        that    stand-alone        computer        and  the    plant 12  computer.          And I just want to make sure that this is 13  not a problem that you have not thought of.
14                      MR. LINDSAY:          The      primary    means        of 15  gathering data for the test, for the actual test where 16  we're perturbating the plant, we're going to be using 17  what we call our GTARS system which was the original 18  GE transient acquisition system.                    That has no feedback 19  or ability to cause any kind of control functions in 20  the      plant.        And    again,      as  Bill        said,  we'll        be 21  gathering        data    primarily        off    of    our  CRID    systems 22  which,        again, have no ability to provide any kind of 23  control feedback to the facility.
24                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Okay. So there are 25  adequate        firewalls      between      whatever        system    you're NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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72 1 using to collect your data and the plant computers --
2                    MR. LINDSAY:        Yes.
3                    MR. KOPCHICK:        As our plan      is    written, 4  yes.
5                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Thank you.
6                    MR. WALLIS:      What do you expect the role 7  of the NRC inspector to be in                this?      What is    the staff 8  expect the role of the NRC inspector to be during this 9  process?
10                    MR. DAVISON:      This is      Paul Davison.        From 11  the perspective, you know, Bill mentioned that we have 12  a normal everyday monitoring system that we use for 13  troubleshooting          monitoring        the    plant  no    different 14  there.        That's our normal monitoring system.                  We have 15  stand-alone        equipment that          I mentioned which is              not 16  integrated        into the station.            That's why we keep it 17  separate in        the plant.      We essentially bring the data 18  to the control room for analyses.                      We have specific 19  power      plateaus    and in    our    power ascension          program.
20  Specifically,        at 105,      110 and 111.5,        we will actually 21  be    submitting      our data      for NRC      review,    so we will 22  actually have plateaus there.                    That will be the off-23  site      interaction.      Of course,      our senior and resident 24  inspectors will be,            I'm sure,      involved with --
25                    MR. WALLIS:        But    just    the    inspectors NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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73 1 involved.          Is  someone here involved as well?
2                      MR. DAVISON:        That is    correct.
3                      MR. KOPCHICK:        And I will cover that in              a 4 follow on slide.              At our power plateaus,            we actually 5 have      a    96-hour    hold built        in    for  concurrent      staff 6 review of our results.
7                      MR. WALLIS:      Is  this done by some sort of 8 computer display of what's going on or telephone or 9 how      does    this    happen,      this      interaction    with      NRC 10 Headquarters?
11                      MR. KOPCHICK:        Well,    we will --    as Paul 12 Davison          mentioned,        we'll        be    gathering        data 13 incrementally            upon    receipt      of    the  license    change 14 request.          Obviously,        we'll      be  gathering    data      and 15 performing testing until                  we reach a plateau of 105%
16 power.          That  information will            then be gathered          and 17 presented to our plant operations review committee and 18 then transmitted.              And Paul,      do we have some --
19                      MR. WALLIS:        So it's      not online?    It's      not 20 a sort of online thing?
21                      MR. KOPCHICK:        Paul Duke?
22                      MR. DUKE:    This is      Paul Duke. Our current 23 plan is        that we are going to set up a provision                        for 24 data transfer to NRR and to its                    contractor similar to 25 what VY did,          that is    that the data files          will be at an NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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74 1 online backup location accessible to NRC staff and to 2 its contractors.
3                  MR. KOPCHICK:          Okay.        Regarding        the 4 conduct of testing, the testing includes both Level 1 5 which is termination criteria, and Level 2, which is 6 hold acceptance criteria as well as steps to be taken 7 should either of these thresholds be reached.                              The 8 criteria used are            similar to that used during the 9 original        Hope    Creek      startup        testing,    other        EPU 10 experience          and    the    standard          GE  EPU      testing 11 specifications.
12                  Non-test equipment or plant performance 13 issues will be handled via the plant corrective action 14 process.        The plant operations review committee is 15 responsible for reviewing the test procedure, changes, 16 deficiencies, plant terminations or holds and power 17 ascension to subsequent test plateaus.
18                  As    we    previously        discussed,    we'll        be 19 establishing a power ascension control center which 20 will      be  in  our outage        control      center  immediately 21 adjacent to the control room, and this will support 22 the test program.            We have observed this also to be 23 successfully        used    at  another        facility,    which        is 24 Vermont Yankee.
25                    So as Paul Davison previously mentioned, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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75 1 the shift will be focusing on operation of the plant.
2 The      power    ascension      control      center    involving        the 3 individuals in the previous slide that you saw will 4 support and gather the data for the testing.
5                    Testing will utilize a similar approach to 6 that we had previously discussed at Vermont Yankee.
7 Baseline data will be taken at approximately 90% and 8 100% of current licensed thermal power and evaluated 9 to project results at higher power                      levels.        Power 10 escalation will proceed along the constant rod line 11 using recirc flow at 2.5% increments.                      During power 12 ascension, hourly collection of dryer strain gauge and 13 vibration data is taken and moisture carry-over will 14 be determined.
15                    The power plateaus we previously discussed 16 will occur at each 5% power level and the final power 17 level, i.e., 105, 110 and 111.5% of current licensed 18 thermal        power. At    each plateau,          we will    perform 19 detailed evaluations, walkdowns, and the majority of 20 our power ascension tests.                  Steam dryer performance 21 data will be transmitted, as we discussed, to the NRC 22 at    each plateau      followed by        a 96-hour hold,            as    I 23 previously mentioned.              Management approval will be 24 required prior to exceeding or proceeding to the next 25 power plateau.
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76 1                    In    addition        to    the      specific      tests 2 performed,          the    test    team      will        be  continuously 3 monitoring          critical      plant      parameters        under        EPU 4 conditions        on    affected        systems        throughout      power 5 ascension using EPU system monitoring plans.                              These 6 system        monitoring      plans      have    been      developed        and 7 include        system    baseline        information          at    current 8 licensed thermal power level, OE from a database, and 9 determined        expected      EPU    parameters          and  acceptance 10  criteria.
11                    MR. ZABIELSKI:        We seem to have lost the -
12 13                    MEMBER MAYNARD:          Yes.      We'll get somebody 14  in here to take care of it.                We have a handout to look 15  out.
16                    MR. KOPCHICK:        Okay.        The next slide is 17  slide 24 labeled power ascension                        testing and major 18  test      evolutions.        The  power      ascension        tests      were 19  chosen based on a comparison of original Hope Creek 20  startup tests and EPU changes considering the GE EPU 21  test      specifications        and testing-related              regulatory 22  commitments.          Overall,      the plan includes            12    power 23  ascension tests focusing on core performance,                            plant 24  chemistry,            radiation            protection,              nuclear 25  instrumentation and pressure and feedwater controls.
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77 1 Testing        is    consistent      with    those      tests    performed 2 during the initial            Hope Creek startup testing and that 3 performed at other stations implementing EPUs.
4                    , Testing also focuses on steam dryer and 5 nuclear        steam    supply      system      piping      integrity        and 6 moisture        carryover.          Piping strain          gauge data,          as 7 previously mentioned,                will be collected and trended 8 hourly          during      power      ascension          activities          and 9 evaluated.            Moisture      carryover        will    be  determined 10 every 2.5% increase in core thermal power.
11                      As I mentioned previously,                  the specific 12 tests        themselves        will      be    supplanted        by    system 13 monitoring          plans      performed        throughout        the      power 14 ascension          process    as  well    as    plant      and  equipment 15 walkdowns in the field.                These plans will ensure that 16 the major EPU effected systems remain within analyzed 17 limits as power ascension proceeds.
18                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              So,  typically,        how 19 long does it          take to go through a 2.5% step?
20                      MR. KOPCHICK:        We have        set up,    in    our 21 submittal,          for a 1% per hour ramp rate.
22                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              One percent.
23                      MR. KOPCHICK:        So our schedule for power 24 ascension is based on that rate.                      It  also includes the 25 holds that I previously mentioned at the plateaus at NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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78 1 5%,    96-hour holds.          So the ramp rate is            1% per hour, 2 so 2.5 hours to answer your question.
3                    CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:                And    the      data 4 collection will commence once you reach steady state, 5 or are you going to also collect data during the power 6 ramp?
7                    MR. KOPCHICK:        The test procedure is                set 8 up    for    discreet    data    collection          at each      1%.      The 9 systems,        the computer systems that we have have trend 10 capabilities, and we will be able to capture data live 11 time as we raise power.                  However,        the test program, 12 which is          modeled against what we have                from Vermont 13 Yankee,        is  discreet at 1% power.              Paul?
14                    MR. LINDSAY:        I  can offer at the              2.5%
15 increments,        there is a 4-hour hold period for all the 16 systems        to  allow achievement            of    steady    state,      and 17 that's when the data is essentially taken.                        So at 2.5%
18 increments, we have a 4-hour hold.                        But of course,          as 19 Bill said, at the 5% power plateaus,                      we'll be holding 20 for a 96-hour duration.
21                    MEMBER ARMIJO:            You    mentioned      a plant 22 water chemistry test during power ascension.                          Is there 23 anything special you're doing there or is                          it  pretty 24 much routine monitoring the various --
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79 1 chemistry?
2                      MEMBER ARMIJO:          Yes.
3                      MR. KOPCHICK:          There are a battery                  of 4 tests      that we will            accomplish.          Most  of    them are 5 routine.        They do have Level 1 and Level 2 acceptance 6 criteria.        Level 2 would be to make sure that we are 7 where we predict to be as far as conductivity in                                our 8 condensate            system        as    well      as      reactor        water 9 conductivity.              Level 1 criteria would be associated 10 with        our      technical        specifications            and      UFSAR 11 requirements.              Anything else to add?
12                      MR. LINDSAY:        Essentially,        what I      could 13 add is        all the tests are            the normal        tests via the 14 existing chemistry procedures.                      The key difference is 15 the frequencies will be much higher.                          We have a shift 16 lead      daily,      three      times    weekly      readings.            And 17 certainly in the area of moisture carryover, where we 18 take that,        I believe,        weekly at this time,              we'll be 19 taking that every 2.5%.
20                      MEMBER ARMIJO:            Yes.      Where I was going 21 with      this    is    --  and you may have            it  later    --    but 22 you're going to be modifying your hydrogen input and 23 how --      are you just going to just do it,                      or are you 24 going to get feedback from electrochemical potential 25 measurements in            the startup?
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80 1                    MR. KOPCHICK:        Operationally,        our intent 2  is    to    maintain    our    current      injection        rate    of      9 3  standard cubic feet per minute.                      And Paul has some 4  details on the testing we intend to do once we would 5  achieve 111.5.
6                    MR. LINDSAY:        Well,    essentially,      as Bill 7  said, our hydrogen injection system will be placed in 8  manual for the duration of the testing so that we do 9  not artificially influence like the rad surveys and 10  things of that nature.              When we achieve 111.5% power, 11  we have an existing procedure which will alter the 12  injection rate and determine the optimum level.
13                    MEMBER ARMIJO:          What's required based on 14  what      kind  of    a monitor,        an    EPR,    electrochemical 15  potential measurement or some other --
16                    MR. LINDSAY:        I believe that's correct.
17                    MR. DAVISON:          Paul Davison.          For the part 18  of the noble metal chemical application which allowed 19  us to reduce our hydrogen injection rates, our reactor 20  water cleanup system has two types of monitors.                            One, 21  we have the durability monitors where we're able to 22  take coupons out and do samples.                        We also have the 23  ability to do the ECP measurement directly.
24                    MR. WALLIS:        I'm still        curious about with 25  the NRC is        doing all this time.                  Is  there somebody NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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81 1 here all the time paying attention to this, or do you 2 all      disappear      for    the  weekend        so  that    that's        why 3  there's a 4-day hold period.                  No, seriously, I mean, 4 what      is    the  NRC    doing    through      this  process?            Is 5 somebody here sort of monitoring things all the time, 6 or    is    this    person    available      in    several    hours,        if 7 needed, or what?
8                    MR. LAMB:      This is John Lamb with the NRC.
9 The mechanical engineering branch will look at this 10 and, obviously, when they send that in, it's a 96-hour 11 hold, because that gives us time to actually analyze 12 it.      So yes, regardless of when it gets sent in, we 13 will be available during that time.                        I think during 14 Vermont Yankee          --
15                    MR. WALLIS:      So someone will        --  should be 16 available all the time?
17                    MR. LAMB:      Yes. Like I said, they get the 18 information.          Then they start analyzing it and if they 19 have a problem, then obviously, we'll be on the                              --
20                    MR. WALLIS:        So there isn't a here, this 21 person        will  work    on  the    weekend      if  it's      over      a 22 weekend?
23                    MR. LAMB:      Yes.
24                    MEMBER    MAYNARD:        That's      also      been      my 25 experience at the resident inspector state                        --
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82 1                      MR. WALLIS:      Yes.      I can understand that -
2 3                      MEMBER MAYNARD:              --    very involved        with 4 these.
5                      MR. WALLIS:      I just wondered about the NRC 6 and when I          come here on the weekend,                there's nobody 7 here so I        --
8                      MR. LAMB:    Well,      this would be a special 9 case,      obviously,      during this --
10                      MEMBER MAYNARD:            There is    always a number 11 24      hours    a    day,    7  days    a    week    to  get  a  hold        of 12 someone.
13                      MR. KOPCHICK:        I would certainly add that 14 the      resident      inspector      is    highly      engaged    in      our 15 activities        in    the control room,            and when we proceed 16 with this test,          I would expect that he would have many 17 questions        for us and has asked questions along                          the 18 way.        Our rapport with the resident has been sound and 19 it's      also my expectation from my shift                  managers that 20 if      there  is    any upset      or      any    transient    that would 21 require        notification          or      activation        of    station 22 personnel to investigate an event,                        that the resident 23 is    informed,      and it's      actually part of our procedures 24 that we do inform them.
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83 1 presenting details tomorrow regarding the procedures 2 and      instrumentation,        etcetera        for    the  steam dryer 3 verification        work?        Does      this      require    a    closed 4 session, because this is sort of a generic big picture 5 of what you're going to do,                but people want to know 6 the details of how are you going to do it.
7                  MR. KOPCHICK:        Yes,      sir. We --    for the 8 additional      hour,    I  believe      for    the    second    session 9 yesterday (sic),        we will have a presentation --
10                  CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Tomorrow?
11                  MR. KOPCHICK:          --    tomorrow,      correct        --
12 that will detail the testing work we need to do on the 13 steam dryer and what the acceptance criteria will be 14 in detail.      Paul Davison, do you have anything else to 15 add on the hour portion tomorrow?
16                  MR. DAVISON:        Paul      Davison.        That        is 17 correct.      We will be providing additional details with 18 respect to not only the complete testing matrix of 19 what we do at each particular power level but what we 20 do with the data,          what the analysis is              and how does 21 that factor back in,            specifically on the steam dryer 22 with      the  limit    curves      and      flow-induced        vibration 23 monitoring acceptance criteria that we have.
24                  CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Thank you.
25                  MR. DAVISON:        Welcome.
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84 1                  MEMBER        BONACA:          I    have  a    question 2 regarding --      in your application,              there is    a statement 3 or a discussion that                flow-induced vibration during 4 power escalation may increase SRV leakage.                            Are you 5 monitoring for that?
6                  MR. KOPCHICK:        We do have strain gauges 7 installed        on      main      steam      piping,      accelerometers 8 installed on main steam piping to include SRVs.                              As a 9 test      manager,      there    is  an attachment          in  our      test 10 procedure that will be executed as we raise power, and 11 there are some more details on that that I will ask 12 Mr. Davison to add.
13                  MR. DAVISON:        Yes.      As mentioned,        in    the 14 modifications, we did install numerous accelerometers.
15 For      example,      our    critical      systems      that    will        be 16 monitored with Level 1 and Level 2 acceptance criteria 17 --    extraction steam,          the SRVs,    both the actuators and 18 the tailpipes on a few of the SRVs,                    the recirc system, 19 feedwater,      and main steam.              So for example, baseline 20 data      right now on main            steam,      we're at      .035      g's.
21 That's RMS value.              We anticipate that it              will go to 22 approximately          .048 g's which is,            you know, obviously 23 well-below the .1 g standard for low vibration.
24                  MEMBER        BONACA:            Because      from        the 25 application,        it    sounded like you had a program to NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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85 1 monitor,          in    fact,      leakage      when      you    wrote        the 2  application, and evidently, must that be successful in 3  controlling --
4                      MR. KOPCHICK:        SRV leakage at Hope Creek 5 has      not been        probably      as  pervasive        as  some    other 6 stations have had.              Nonetheless,          in  the development, 7  at least in my discussions with engineering personnel 8  who have been involved,                I know that the attentiveness 9  to    that      has    been    high,    thus      the    reason    for      the 10  installation of the accelerometers.
11                      MEMBER BONACA:            So      I  guess    you    don't 12  expect          the    uprate      to    result        in    unacceptable 13  performance from a leakage standpoint?
14                      MR. KOPCHICK:        I do not.      Obviously, we'll 15  be monitoring that.                Anything else to add, Paul?
16                      MR. DAVISON:        Yes.      Paul Davison.          We've 17  done a few things.                One,    we specifically have done 18  some upgrades to our pilot valves.                        We have two-stage 19  target        rock    relief      valves.          We've    had    excellent 20  performance with respect to tailpipe or through-seat 21  leakage        as  well    as    repeatability          when    we    do    our 22  testing out of refuel outages.                        The specific reason 23  for monitoring both the actuator valve body and the 24  tailpipes          was    due      to    the      industry      operating 25  experience,          like at Quad Cities where they electro-NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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86 1 matic        r-el'ief  valves      experienced 'a          high  amount        of 2 resonance and were actually getting damaged.                        Based on 3 our baseline readings,              don't anticipate that.              Based 4 on our steam-line flow characteristics,                        we would not 5 anticipate that occurring as well.                      But that's why it 6 will be carefully monitored.
7                    MEMBER BONACA:          Okay.      Thank you.
8                      CHAIR    ABDEL-KHALIK:              So  what  is    your 9 history on SRV testing as far as setpoint drift?
10                    MR. KOPCHICK:        Setpoint drift testing --
11 well,      I know there is a population of SRVs that we're 12 required to test each refuel outage.                        Operationally, 13 as far as setpoint drift,                  I  don't know        that I      can 14 specifically speak to that as far as the results go.
15 From      the    operator      perspective        on    SRV  setpoint        or 16 leakage or lifting, we have specific procedures that 17 the reactor operator will monitor tailpipe temperature 18 twice each shift with specific guidance.
19                    MR. DAVISON:      Yes,    this is      Paul Davison.
20 We have tech spec required 3% band allowable value for 21 the setpoints.          We have not experienced large numbers 22 of failures with respect to those --                      to that setpoint 23 band itself.
24                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            Have you experienced 25 any failures?
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87 1                      MR. DAVISON:      Yes, we have.            I can get the 2 specific data on the failure rate of those.
3                        MEMBER      BONACA:        And      the    reason    why      I 4  raised        that    issue      was    that    in    the      statement,        the 5 application speaks specifically about a program that 6 you      had      to    resolve      problems        resulting        in      SRV 7  surveillance          testing exceeding a              3% tolerance.            You 8  must have experienced that?                      I mean that's          what you 9  have in        your application?
10                      MR. DAVISON:          Yes.            We'll    get        the 11  specifics on that.
12                      MEMBER BONACA:          That's why I was wondering 13  if,      in    fact,      the  power      uprate      would      make  it    more 14  challenging just because of that.
15                        CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              We're interested in 16  that.      We're also interested in any incidents in which 17  the SRVs failed to open.
18                      MR. DAVISON:        I  understand.            Failure to 19  opens as well as setpoints history.
20                        CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Okay.        Thank you.
21                      MR. KOPCHICK:        Okay.        I'll    proceed on.
22  Similar          to    the      initial      startup          testing,      power 23  ascension          data,      evaluations          and      results      will        be 24  summarized          in  an EPU power ascension                  report.      Post-25  EPU,      ongoing monitoring and inspection                        efforts will NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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88 1 continue throughout the cycle and in RF-15.
2                    In  summary,      Operations,        myself included, 3 is    ready to lead and support and the station's power 4 ascension test program and considers the station well-5 prepared to execute a careful monitored approach to 6 the      target    EPU  power      level.        This  concludes        the 7 operations and testing portions of the presentation 8 pending any additional questions.
9                    CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              Are  there        any 10 questions      for Mr.      Kopchick?        Okay.      Thanks.      We're 11 well ahead of schedule,              but at this time,        I'd like to 12 take a break for 15 minutes and we will reconvene at 13 10:30.
14                    (Whereupon, off the record at 10:16 a.m.,
15 and back on the record at 10:34 a.m.)
16                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            We're back in      session.
17 Before we get started with the staff's                    presentation on 18 human performance,            Mr. Davison has some information 19 regarding        the power ascension              test matrix      that        he 20 would like to present,              and I guess more details will 21 be presented tomorrow.
22                    MR. DAVISON:        Yes.        Thank you.          Paul 23 Davison.          As    a  follow-up        to    the    questions      asked 24 earlier        when    Bill    was    speaking        with  respect          to 25 Operations,        this was a chart or tabular form of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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89 1 testing that we'll be performing.                        We'll modify this 2 and I'll        talk specifically to what will occur up to 3 and including          115% power.          This just reflects              our 4 current test plan, if you will, for this cycle to 111.
5                    What this shows,          in  a broad view,        is    on 6 the y axis is        the power level.            You see 90 and 100 are 7 really baseline            testing,      and then we go 101,              102.
8 Those are those 1% steps Bill talked about.                        The 102.5 9 is    a stop-point for us to take additional data.                            And 10 then what you see in              --  and it    just goes all      the way 11 up to 111.5 --          some clarification            on that --    the rows 12 in    red,    105,  110 and 111.5 CF are the NRC-required 13 data transmissions.              Those are the actual data packets 14 that      will    be    sent      of    all    the    tests    at    those 15 requirements of our licensing condition.
16                    Two    other    clarifications          --  the    111.5 17 verus 111.5 CF --            the CF stands for cross-flow --                    so 18 we'll bring          the plant        to  111.5%.        We have a        data 19 collection making sure we don't have any issues with 20 our cross-flow            system,      and  then we'll        put    in    the 21 correction factor of our venturis and maneuver to the 22 true most accurately defined 111%.                      That's why you see 23 111.5 twice on the chart.
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90 1 to 115%.        This only, right now, captures our current 2 test plan for this cycle.
3                    MR. WALLIS:      So when you send this data to 4 the NRC, do you just send the whole other curves with 5 wiggles, or do you send some comparison with criteria 6 which have been established ahead of time or something 7 like that?        What is it you send to them?
8                    MR. DAVISON:        We will send them all the 9 data.        We will also send the comparisons which have 10 specifically defined acceptance limits in that.
11                    MR. WALLIS:        Okay.      That's helpful.
12                    MR. DAVISON:        Correct.        And it'll be the 13 same information we'll be sharing with Operations to 14 ensure that they're ready and concur with moving to 15 the next power level as well.
16                    Across the top of the chart, percent power 17 being the leftmost column, the rest of the columns are 18 all the different tests that Bill went through.                            You 19 know, we talked about chem data.                    We talked about the 20 flow-induced vibration.              I spoke to that.
21                    The three grayed columns              are the      tests 22 that most translate to dryer performance                  --  main steam 23 on strain gauge which will be used to base off the 24 strain gauges, the loads that are going and inputting 25 on the dryer, running it through the finite element NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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91 1 analysis and coming up with the loads.
2                The      moisture        carryover        Bill      talked 3 specifically      --  another secondary indication of some 4 type of dryer failure              that would allow additional 5 moisture to carry over.
6                And        then      the        main      steam        line 7 accelerometers          will    be  used    as      a comparison        and 8 validation of the strain gauge data to make sure that 9 there is no anomaly in the data where we're extracting 10 the dryer loading from the strain gauge data itself.
11 So      those  three        columns      grayed        out  are    really 12 specifically related to the dryer.                      The rest of them 13 are just all of the bulk testing that we'll be doing 14 to make sure there's no other undetected anomalies in 15 the plant.
16                Tomorrow        we'll    go    through    the    actual 17 specifics with Dr. Alan Bilanin here to actually go 18 through how we're going to do the analysis, what the 19 results will look, the graphs, the information that 20 we'll have to determine that we're below Level 1 and 21 Level 2 criteria and what happens when we go above the 22 Level 1 or Level 2 criteria.
23                CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                The test matrix at 24 115% will be identical to that at 111.5%,                        the very 25 last column    --
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92 1                        MR. DAVISON:          That's      correct.          The 2 repetitiveness              of    that    chart      will    continue        down 3 through 115% ending in 115% with cross-flow applied 4 the whole data string across.                        So that'll just be a 5 continuation            of    that    chart    and      we'll  have      that 6 tomorrow.
7                        MEMBER      ARMIJO:        And      that'll    all      be 8 completed in the following cycle, Cycle 16?
9                        MR. DAVISON:        No. We have no commitment 10 for actually uprating to the full 115% in our next 11 cycle.          Primarily, what we wanted to do is get the 12 plant to 111.5%.                That allows us to do all of our 13 testing, ensure that there are no anomalies.                            We will 14 monitor the plant's performance in the summer which is 15 the most taxing time of the year for the plant with 16 respect          to    performance.          That      data  can  then        be 17 utilized            to  work    with    General        Electric    on      what 18 modifications we may be doing on the high-pressure 19 turbine.
20                        of course, the modification process that 21 I'm responsible for at the station has a lead time.
22 of    course,        the  manufacturing          process    for  General 23 Electric        --    so we would not be putting that into the 24 next cycle just because we physically couldn't get it 25 done.          Of course, we'd have to do all the business NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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93 1 analyses, because along with this, we'll be looking at 2 our cooling tower performance                  for summer months.
3                  There is      a whole environmental            licensing 4 and      modification        process      that      would    have      to      be 5 followed with respect to an addition of the cooling 6 tower      to the  site,    a helper      tower,    if  you will,          if 7 that's      what we need to do with our cooling tower.
8                  So we do not have specific plans for the 9 next cycle,        Cycle 16,      only because        of when we'll be 10  implementing        this and the shortness until                when that 11  next refuel outage is,            which is    in    the spring of 2009.
12                    MEMBER      ARMIJO:        Okay.        But  the      115%
13  testing will be done when you finally get --
14                    MR. DAVISON:      Correct,      whether it      was a 15  week later      or five cycles later,              our commitment will 16  be as      soon as we go 111.5%,            the next plateau,            this 17  test    matrix is      back in    place.      Our testing center is 18  back and all        the exact      same    testing methodology is 19  reapplied including transmittal of data to the NRC.
2.0                  CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:            Thank you      for      the 21  clarification.
22                    MR. DAVISON:        You're welcome.
23                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              At this time,        we'll 24  proceed with the staff            presentation.
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94 1 Martin and I            did the review          for the human factors 2 portion of this EPU submittal.                        As you can see,          we 3 reviewed the EOPs,              AOPs,    any human system interface 4 changes,        SPDS, and training and simulator issues that 5 may have come up,              and we wanted to ensure that this 6 did not affect the operator's performance adversely.
7                    It's    pretty straightforward.              We didn't 8 have      any    new      manual    actions        or    changes    to      the 9 mitigation philosophies for the EOPs or AOPs.                            There 10 were some modifications to the parameters and some of 11 the levels because of decay heat because of the EPU, 12 and there were some setpoint changes as well.
13                    In    the realm of operator actions, we had 14 no new operator actions                  and    the response      times        in 15 their        safety      evaluation        that      they  credit        are 16 unchanged,        and    the available          times    for  the manual 17 actions and the action times for the manual actions 18 remain unchanged.
19                    CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              Now  there    was      a 20 question        raised    earlier      about      operator    and manual 21 actions following an ATWS.                  And the question is do the 22 available times for manual actions change as a result 23 of EPU conditions?
24                    MS. MARTIN:      Okay.      As part of my review, 25 I was informed that the manual action times --                                you NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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95 1 mean the actual time it            takes the operator to perform 2 the action --      does not change --            is  that what you were 3 asking me?
4                    MR. WALLIS:    Well,    usually,      it  does in        an 5 EPU.
6                  MS. MARTIN:    The actual time it          takes them 7  to do the action?
8                  MR. WALLIS:      No. The available time.
9                  MS. MARTIN:      Available time?
10                    MR. WALLIS:      Right.
11                    MS. MARTIN:    I asked specifically, as part 12  of my review,      do any of the actual --              available times 13  for the operator change,            and I was told there weren't 14  change      --
15                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              So this statement is 16  based on response provided by                    the applicant        rather 17  than an assessment            as  to whether or not            there is          a 18  potential      for    a  change      in    the      available    times        in 19  events such as ATWS required operator action to reduce 20  water level in        the vessel?
21                    MS. MARTIN:    I'm sorry, could you restate 22  that?
23                    CHAIR    ABDEL-KHALIK:            This  statement          or 24  this conclusion          that the available            times for manual 25  actions credited remain unchanged is                      simply based on NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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96 1 input        provided        by    the    applicant        rather    than        an 2 assessment,          an independent assessment on your part as 3 to whether or not the available times would change?
4                      MS. MARTIN:      Yes.
5                      CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              Okay. Would        the 6 applicant care to provide any input into this as                                  to 7 whether or not the available times would change?
8                      MR. DUKE:      This is    Paul Duke.        The number 9 of operator actions that are credited in                        design basis 10 analysis are relatively few.                    However,      their times are 11 not changed.          For example,        in  the containment response 12 analysis,        it  is  assumed that containment              cooling is 13 put into service after 10 minutes.                          That remains the 14 same.      We understand the specific question with regard 15 to ATWS        and water        level,    and we'll        get  additional 16 details        on  that    specific      question        today.      But      in 17 general,        the number of operator accidents credited are 18 relatively few in              any design basis analysis and they 19 have not changed.
20                      CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              I  understand        the 21 specified times in              the procedures may not change,                  but 22 the analysis may indicate that the available times may 23 have changed,          and that's      the purpose of the question.
24 What is        the change in          the available times?
25                      MR. DUKE:      Well,    for the example of the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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97 1 containment response,            the actions to put containment 2  cooling in        service are no different                for EPU versus 3  current licensed thermal power.
4                    MR. WALLIS:        I    think    it's    the      level 5  control that has to be done a little                    quicker.
6                    MR. BOLGER:        This is Frank Bolger from GE.
7  I wanted to point out that the Hope Creek does have a 8  system by which when there's a high pressure                            trip, 9  that will initiate a feedwater runback approximately 10  25    seconds    after    the    pump    trip. It    also    has      an 11  automatic initiation of the SLC system.
12                    MR. WALLIS:        Yes.,      I think we've heard 13  that earlier, but usually, the level control shows up 14  when      they  do  their      probablistic        safety    analysis 15  because it      turns out that the operator has less time 16  and then this, by some magic,                  is  transferred into a 17  CDF.      And this is    usually how the CDF changes or one 18  of the dials that changes the CDF when you have an 19  EPU.        I was a bit surprised that Hope Creek wasn't a 20  bit more specific saying its                10 minutes changes to 7 21  minutes or something specific like that.
22                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            Is your implication -
23 24                    MR. WALLIS:        we're going to hear about 25  that later, right?
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98 1                    CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              --  that      these 2  automatic actions          --  as a result of these automatic 3  actions, the available time for operator action from 4  lower to moderate levels do not track.
5                    MR. BOLGER:          This is Fran Bolger again.
6 There may be          some      other    scenarios      at which        those 7  automatic actions would not occur.                        For example, if 8  the high-pressure trips do not occur, in those cases, 9  I think        I would have          to  defer      to  PSEG    for their 10  training of their operators.
11                    MEMBER MAYNARD:          I think we may be talking 12  about      --  I don't know      --    but I think it's important 13  that we get the distinction.                    I mean there's three 14  times that we're talking about                    --    the time that it 15  takes the operator to do an action, and apparently 16  that hasn't changed;            the time credited for operator 17  action, and certainly that hasn't changed; but time 18  available before you would run into exceeding some 19  limit, I think, surely has to have changed for some of 20  these.        It may not have changed any operator actions 21  or the time credited but I think that some of the time 22  before you would exceed a limit probably has changed.
23                    MR. WALLIS:        The available time must have 24  changed.
25                    MR. DAVISON:          Correct.        This    is    Paul NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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99 1 Davison.          PSEG understands the question and we will 2 provide a formal response to that so we can get you an 3 accurate answer to your question on available time.
4                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Thank you.        Please 5 proceed.
6                    MS. MARTIN:        I also looked at the human 7 system interfaces and they didn't indicate any changes 8 that would occur due to the EPU that would affect the 9 operator's          ability      to  interpret          or  visually        see 10 anything they needed to.                  All of the changes will be 11 used with the design change process of PSEG.
12                    The SPDS has a re-scaling in input-output 13 changes        to feedwater        control parameters          due to the 14 EPU, and these are the curves that will be impacted by 15 the EPU.        The training for operators to cover all the 16 changes        due    to    the    EPU    will        occur  prior          to 17 implementation, and these adverse event the simulator 18 updates that will occur due to the                      --
19                    MR. WALLIS:      Excuse me.          Did anybody check 20 that these changes were appropriate?                        I mean we saw 21 all these changes to these curves.                      Did anybody check 22 that they're appropriate or you just accept the curves 23 as submitted?
24                    MS. MARTIN:      I don't actually look at the 25 curves.        That's another group.            Reactor Systems looks NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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100 1 at the acceptability of the changes to the curves.
2                      MR. WALLIS:        Reactor        Systems    looked        at 3  those?
4                      MS. MARTIN:      Yes.
5                      MR. WALLIS:      Okay.      So there was someone 6 who did review whether these were appropriate --
7                      MS. MARTIN:        Yes.          That's    later        on.
8 Because        of  the    few    changes      to    credited    operation 9 actions        --
10                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Could you please go 11 back to the previous slide?                  Now you had gone through 12 this.        Now my understanding is              that operator training 13 has already been conducted.                    Is    that correct?
14                      MR. KOPCHICK:          The      question    was      has 15 operator          training      already      been      conducted      prior        to 16 plant operation at EPU conditions.                          That is    correct.
17 Operator          training      on    transient,          steady-state,          and 18 power ascension testing was completed.                          We also will 19 perform just-in-time training with each operating crew 20 prior        to    implementing        the    power      ascension        test 21 procedure.
22                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            And the, I guess,          the 23 simulator          validation      verification          has  already      been 24 completed at 11.5% or at the 15%?                        You have two modes 25 of operation for the simulator?
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101 1                    MR. KOPCHICK:          Yes,      sir,        we  do.          We 2  operated the simulator at 111, 115% power to validate 3  that the simulator's response, as required by ANSI 3.5 4  and balance-of-plant testing, was acceptable.                                What is 5 outstanding by PSEG process is                  to document the results 6 of the that          testing by our station procedures which 7  would then        formally document              the completion              of      the 8 ANSI standard test              by April 13th.
9                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              But nevertheless, you 10  went ahead and conducted the training --
11                      MR. KOPCHICK:        That's correct.
12                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              --  with the simulator 13  as is?
14                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                Yes,      sir.
15                    MR. DAVISON:        Paul Davison.            And the final 16  piece      of that      --    well,      once  we    operate          the    plant 17  physically        at    that      new power      level,        there      will        be 18  other comparisons and validation back to the simulator 19  with real plant data.
20                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                Thank you.
21                    MS. MARTIN:        In  conclusion,            with respect 22  to human factors and the changes that will be made due 23  to the EPU,        we found the things that were identified 24  by PSEG to be acceptable and that's                          it.
25                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Any questions for Ms.
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102 1 Martin?
2                      (No audible response.)
3                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Thank you.
4                      MEMBER BONACA:          You will have an answer to 5 the      question      that      you    raised        before    regarding 6 available time,            right?
7                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                Correct.      Yes,      the 8 applicant will provide a response.
9                      MR. DAVISON:        That's correct.
10                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        This is      Muhammad Razzaque 11  and I need to make an announcement.                          We agreed that 12  we'll be presenting early,                  but one of our reviewers 13  got an emergency call, and he is                    out now.      He may not 14  be here in        this period,        so if    there is      any questions 15  me or Tony cannot answer,                we have to get back to you 16  it    looks like.
17                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Now we can probably 18  proceed with your part of the presentation and then 19  take a        lunch break.        And then at          that point,      we'll 20  make sure that everybody on your team who can directly 21  answer any questions that might come up can actually 22  be here.
23                      MR. WALLIS:        Excuse me.          We're hearing the 24  staff's        view    of    these    things      before    we  hear        the 25  applicant's?
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103 1                        MS. ABDULLAHI:          It's    an open and closed 2  session.
3                        MR. WALLIS:      Oh,    it's    an open and closed.
4                        MS. ABDULLAHI:        Right.        This would be an 5  open session --
6                      MR. WALLIS:        Then we're going to have a 7  closed session from the applicant.                            That's why we're 8  doing it        in    this order?
9                        MR. RAZZAQUE:          Myself      again,        Muhummad 10  Razzaque and here, Nakanishi.                        Two of us will present 11  most      of  the material.              Tony will        discuss        the    fuel 12  methods,          and      I    will      provide        the      rest      of      the 13  information.            I was mentioning about the reviewer, Dr.
14  Tai    Huang      --    he    got    the  emergency        call      out,    so    he 15  should be back whenever he is.
16                        MS. ABDULLAHI:        This is      Zena.      If  there's 17  a    section,        he's    covering,      we'll      just postpone            and 18  reschedule within some other slot.
19                        MR. RAZZAQUE:        Okay.      He is    --  he was not 20  planning        to    present      unless    --    as  a  support        he was 21  here.      Review scope --          the assistance branch looked at 22  the fuel system and nuclear design,                        thermal-hydraulic 23  design, overpressure protection, SLC system, transient 24  analysis,          LOCA,      ATWS    and GE methods              which Tony          is 25  going to talk about after me.
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104 1                      Fuel    method        was    based    on  the    generic 2  accepted        --  NRC-accepted            guidelines which basically 3 are ELTR-l and ELTR-2.                    Although this is        a    constant 4  pressure uprate since there is                      some legacy fuel still 5  in    there, although they should not be limiting --                          they 6 will be non-limiting,                still,      technically,    ELTR-l and 7  ELTR-2      is  the main guidance that were followed.                        And 8  all    of them are NRC-approved methodologies.
9                      The ACR was written on the format RS-001.
10  Review of system and nuclear engineering design, Cycle 11  15,    the    current cycle which would be the                    first    EPU 12  cycle,        predominantly          GE      fuel    and  some    remaining 13  average        of  thrice      burnt      Westinghouse      fuel,    SVEA-96 14  fuel.        SVEA-96 is      expected to operate at less than --
15  well-below          GE power      and also        at  pre-EPU      level    and 16  expected that it            will not be limiting.            It  will be the 17  GE fuel which should be the limiting.
18                      MEMBER ARMIJO:            Now I'm a little      confused.
19  I heard or I          saw in      one document        that there was some 20  twice burnt SVEA fuel in                    the core right now --
21                      MR. RAZZAQUE:          Yes.
22                      MEMBER ARMIJO:            --  and it's  to just thrice 23  burnt?
24                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        That's right, eight of them 25  to be exact.          Out of 764,          216 is    the SVEA fuel.          And NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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105 1 out of 216,            8 are twice burnt and the rest                are thrice 2 or more.        So on the average,              their    burn up is    thrice.
3 Average burn up in                the core is          thrice.
4                        MEMBER ARMIJO:            Okay.
5                        MR. RAZZAQUE:        We can get --
6                        MEMBER ARMIJO:          You'll show us on the core 7 map where those things are?
8                        MR. RAZZAQUE:        Do you have that,          Tony?
9                        MR. NAKANISHI:          We can provide that.            This 10 is  Tony Nakanishi with Reactor System.                        We can provide 11 that or the licensee may even --
12                        MEMBER ARMIJO:            Yes,    if  PSEG is  going to 13 show that,          I  can wait.
14                        MR. RAZZAQUE:        Right.        And we requested 15 for    the power          level    that    is    expected    in  SVEA      fuel 16 compared to GE fuel,                and we have verified that it                    is 17 well-below GE power level.                      The way they placed them 18 in    the core,          particularly        those      eight bundles,          the 19 power is      still      well-below GE bundle power level.                    That 20 we have verified.
21                        Each bundle power will increase by about 22 4.4% which is            the exact number being --              6.8 megawatts 23 thermal to 7.2 megawatts thermal,                        which is    about 4.4%V 24 and which is            within the experience base that EPU has.
25 Normally,        it    ranges from 3 to 5-6%.
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106 1                      MR. WALLIS:        Why do you put thermal                    in 2 here?
3                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        Pardon me?
4                      MR. WALLIS:      I just wonder why you had to 5 put thermal in here?                I mean would it            be anything else 6 but thermal power you worry about?
7                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        Just to show how the big 8 bundle          increases,        what    percent          the    big    bundle 9 increased.            That's just to give you an idea.                          It    is 10  not a thermal limit.                Just to give a sense.                We know 11  that the average bundle increases 15%.
12                      MR. WALLIS:      Yes.
13                      MR. RAZZAQUE:          And big bundle doesn't stay 14  the same.          It  increases a little            bit.      That's all          we 15  are trying to say.                And it    varies        sometimes 5%,          6%.
16  This plant happened to have 4.4%.                          It's  just a piece 17  of information.              There is      no regulatory connection to 18  that.
19                      The thermal limits are the fourth bullet, 20  SLMCPR,        OLMCPR, MAPLHGR,        and LHGR,        those are the legal 21  limits that have to be met.                    And they are determined 22  for      each      reload        cycle      including          any    mid-cycle 23  modifications which,                in  this case,          will be the EPU.
24  And the hot            excess      reactivity        and shutdown          follows 25  GESTR-II which is              the approved GE method.
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107 1                    Thermal hydraulic design stability                      relies 2 on Option-III,            and reload analysis              will    follow        the 3 staff-approved              methods        and        hence        acceptable.
4 Equipment and startup reveal no changes required.                                    So 5 this is        information which was verified by the staff 6 that the equipment --            there was no change required for 7 the      EPU    as    far    as    the    equipment        is      concerned.
8 Setpoints        for detection and suppression                    established 9 using      the    approved      methods.        And      there    will      be    a 10 generic penalty on the bypass void penalty as required 11 by the generic report,              NEDC-33173P-A.
12                    MEMBER BONACA:          Now in      addition to --            I'm 13 sorry.
14                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Go ahead,        please.
15                    MEMBER BONACA:        In addition to the Option-16 III      long-term      solution,      there    is    a  backup      system, 17 right?
18                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        There is      a back up system?
19                    MEMBER BONACA:          I'm sorry?
20                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        Yes,      there      is  a    backup 21 system.
22                    CHAIR    ABDEL-KHALIK:              Now    this    change, 23 11.5% power increase,              will have a mid-cycle,                  so the 24 core that's        in  there is      the core that's            going to be 25 operated at 111.5%?
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108 1                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        Right.
2                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              The reload analysis 3 that was presented prior to the beginning of Cycle 15, 4 were these analysis performed at the current licensed 5 thermal power?
6                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        It  was at EPU.        There has 7 been a server provided to the staff                      for EPU and that 8 is    what we looked at for EPU.                There may have been one 9 done for the current power level,                    too,  but we didn't 10 look at that.            We look at the EPU server to verify 11 some of the conclusions that we made.
12                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Okay. Thank you.
13                    MEMBER      BONACA:            So    I'm    trying        to 14 understand --        the protection system is              already set at 15 115% power, and then you're operating all                      the way down 16 from      100% which      is    now    going      to  be  maybe    90% or 17 whatever        to  97% and then          later    on to    100% of        115%
18 power?        That's what you've done?
19                    MR. RAZZAQUE:          We are approving 15% and 20 we're expecting that will bound everything below.                              So 21 we reviewed one analysis which is                    115%. There is        the 22 ultimate        objective.        So    based      on  that    115%,      the 23 analysis --        the results that I will present will be, 24 again,      based on the 115%.            The first      one here is        the 25 overpressure        protection results which was                  typically NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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109 1 done at 102% of 115%.
2                        CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              Now      in      your 3 assessment          of the overpressure protection,                      have you 4  looked        at      the    history        of    the    Hope    Creek        SRV 5 performance?
6                        MR. RAZZAQUE:        We did not        specifically 7 look at the history.
8                        CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              So what assumptions 9 are made        in      your    assessment        of  the  peak pressures 10 calculated          --
11                        MR. RAZZAQUE:      One of the key --
12                        CHAIR        ABDEL-KHALIK:              --      pressure 13 transients?
14                        MR. RAZZAQUE:      One of the --      there are few 15 key assumptions.                One is    that the SRV drift            setpoint 16 will be within 3% plus or minus.                      That is    the approved 17 limit.        Another key assumption is                that out of 5 SRVs -
18 -    I  believe        I  remember    the    number correctly          --    one 19 will not open at all.
20                        CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Okay. Now --
21                        MR. RAZZAQUE:            Those    are      the      like 22 assumptions that              we look at      --
23                        CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              The question          still 24 remains.              Does    the    history        of  Hope    Creek        SRV 25 performance            comply      with    the    3%  tech  spec    limit        on NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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110 1 setpoint?
2                    MR. RAZZAQUE:            My understanding is                that it 3 should be --          it's    required to be,              because tech specs 4 require that they have to be within plus or minus 3%.
5 And also,      the --    it    may be --      the licensee may correct 6 me,    but for each cycle,            each outage,            they have to take 7  certain number of those SRVs and test                            and see whether 8 it    stayed within that band.
9                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                      I  fully understand 10  that.          But      the      question        is      have      you    done        an 11  independent          examination          as  to      whether        or  not      this 12  assumption is          indeed valid?
13                    MR.      RAZZAQUE:            We      have    not      done      that 14  independent            verification.                    There        are      certain 15  guidelines and regulations that the licensee will have 16  to follow.          And as I        said,    that's        what it      is.      Each 17  outage they have to be tested,                        and if      it  is    exceeded 18  3%,    it  should be reported to NRC as a routine basis.
19  And when it      is    put back,      it    should be refurbished back 20  to 0% --      or within 1%,          I think.
21                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                    So you do have access 22  to    that    information          because        if    the    setpoints        had 23  indeed exceeded the 3% limit, they would have notified 24  the NRC.
25                    MR.        RAZZAQUE:                It      is    reported          by NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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ill 1 regulations,        I think.      That's my understanding --                  it 2  is    reported as the LAR.              And there is          a whole data 3 available for each plant,                so if    we wish to, we could 4 go back and review it.
5                  MR. DAVISON:            That    is  correct.            In 6 addition to the --          Paul Davison --          in  addition to the 7 history that I'll          be providing to you --            we're pulling 8 that for you now --          in  the event that we have a number 9 of      SRVs    that      would        fail      their      3%    accuracy 10 requirements, we would have submitted that for the LER 11 process.        That would have been a violation of our tech 12 specs that would have been clearly transmitted to the 13 NRC.      But I will have the full listing of our failure 14 rates to the subcommittee.
15                  CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              So if    indeed there is 16 sort of a trend or a history of failure to meet the 17 tech spec limits or failure to even open,                        would the 18 staff        go  back    and    re-evaluate            the  overpressure 19 analyses in        light of that data?
20                  MR. RAZZAQUE:          I'll    tell    you what we did.
21 Many years ago actually,                I was directly involved in 22 that.        It was a tech spec limit was 1%,                plus or minus 23 1%,    and the industry found that this is                      too tight.
24 They couldn't maintain that.                    So they came to NRC for 25 approval to 3% hoping that that will cover the real NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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112 1 world.        And we did an extensive review on that, looked 2 at the data set and everything based on industry. And 3 we also agreed to that,              that 3 would be a reasonable 4 number.          And we haven't done anything after                        that --
5 that is        true --    except that if          there is        a noticeable 6 trend        we  observe,      we  will      get      to    that    specific 7 licensee.          But generally,        it  is  approved for 3%.
8                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            So without sort of --
9                    MR. RAZZAQUE:      And it    was based on a study 10 done and found to be industry-wide                          --    to us,      found 11 acceptable          to  extend      the    range    up      to    3%    without 12 affecting          these    results        significantly            --    I    mean 13 staying within the limits and sort of like a tradeoff.
14 Like you're          to be realistic.              At the      same    time,      we 15 have to meet our regulation.                  And 3% was decided that 16 was the one.
17                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              So we will await the 18 data to be provided before we may possibly revisit 19 this issue.
20                    MR. DAVISON:        Correct.
21                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Thank you.
22                    MR. RAZZAQUE:            And    based        on    those 23 assumptions that I mentioned,                  the results came out to 24 be within the limits.              Obviously,        they have to be to -
25 - 1285 psig, and they have a tech specs limit which is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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113 1 1325      psig,  and    they met        that.        And  SRV      setpoint 2  changes were not necessary because it                        was a constant 3  pressure power uprate.                Again, this would be analyzed 4  each reload.          Each reload,        it  will be re-analyzed.
5                    Standby        liquid      control      system,      as      the 6  licensee indicated,              they have both features normally 7  as well        as  --  the normal        is    manual,    but    it    can be 8  automatic.        The 86 gpm boron equivalency is satisfied.
9  We    verified      that.        Sufficient      margin      in    the pump 10  discharge relieve vales.                Since the pressure increased 11  a little      bit, the discharge pressure also increased a 12  little      but. But still,      there is      plenty of margin at 13  the setpoint.
14                    CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              I'm  sorry,      which 15  pressure has increased?
16                    MR. RAZZAQUE:          The discharge.            The peak 17  pressure in        the vessel will increase because of the 18  EPU.
19                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Okay.
20                    MR. RAZZAQUE:          And therefore,          the pump 21  discharge pressure will increase,                    and we have to make 22  sure      that  the    --    it's    not    too    close    to    the    SRV 23  setpoint.        Otherwise,        there will be an opening.                  And 24  that was verified and found to be a sufficient margin.
25                    MR. WALLIS:        So you're saying that they do NEAIL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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114 1 not open during --
2                      MR. RAZZAQUE:          They do not --        they're not 3 expected to open, but in                  the analysis,            one is    allowed 4 to open.          In  the analysis --
5                      MR. WALLIS:        It's      allowed to open.
6                      MR. RAZZAQUE:          --  one is      allowed to open.
7 Concentration            --    660    production          manager      does      not 8 change        from    before      EPU      or    after      EPU,    and    it      is 9 confirmed for every reload cycle,                          before every reload 10 cycle.
11                      CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:                So  with    the      core 12 design,        it    turns    out    that      it    takes    the  same boron 13 concentration to provide adequate shutdown margins if 14 all    the rods are not inserted?                        It    turns out to be 15 exactly the same?                Is  this fortuitous?
16                      MR. NOTIGAN:        This is      Don Notigan,          PSEG.
17 We've confirmed              no change          in  the    amount    of    standby 18 liquid control system for cold shutdown at EPU.
19                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                Okay.
20                      MR. RAZZAQUE:          If  you like,      I can add to 21 that.          The    just    plain      --      higher      power    does      not 22 necessarily            change        the      concentration.              It    is      a 23 combination            of    things      like        fuel    batch    fraction, 24 enrichment          or new fuel        design.          Those we may change 25 but this part alone will not do it.
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115 1                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                I understand.
2                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        And it    doesn't change here.
3 AO0 transient analysis,                    there are three categories of 4  transient analysis broadly can be divided. One type is 5  to set the operating limit MCPR,                        and it      turns out to 6 be turbine trip              which is      the one that set that.
7                        MEMBER BANERJEE:            With or without bypass -
8 9                        MR. RAZZAQUE:        No bypass.
10                        MEMBER BANERJEE:                We    thought      that    with 11  bypass,        sometimes it's          more limited.
12                        MR. RAZZAQUE:        It    could be,        but in      this 13  case,      the    --  as    I'll    show,    either        load    reject      nor 14  bypass      --  turbine        trip    --
15                        MEMBER BANERJEE:            Are we going to discuss 16  this in        more detail later              one,    these matters?
17                        MR. RAZZAQUE:        No,    not    --  we    don't    plan 18  to.        We    look at        the    limiting      events      and      for    each 19  category.            There      are    several      analyses        required        by 20  ELTR-l        to  be    performed        and  find      out    which      is    the 21  limiting        one.      It  turns out --
22                        MEMBER BANERJEE:            Well,    let  me understand 23  this.          Do you      do      the  uncertainties?            In    the  void 24  correlation,          there's a penalty put on the OLMCPR?                        How 25  much is        that.      Point?
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116 1                    MR. NAKANISHI:          This is        Tony Nakanishi.
2 Point o one        --  .01.
3                    MR. WALLIS:        I'm sorry.          I'm confused.
4 I'm looking back at my notes.                  The peak ATWS pressure 5 is    1400-and    something?          We're      trying to        figure        out 6 these        pressure    limits      you've      got    here.        Is    ATWS 7  something different            from what you          --
8                    MR. RAZZAQUE:          Like the previous slide?
9                    MR. WALLIS:        --  different from what you're 10  talking about with overpressure                      protection?          You're 11  going to talk about the ATWS pressure in                          some place?
12  Because if        the ATWS pressure            is    higher than the SLC 13  pressure,        that gives rise          to recirculation --
14                    MR. RAZZAQUE:          Are you talking about the 15  MSIV closure?
16                    MR. WALLIS:        No.      I'm talking about              the 17  ATWS situation where the peak pressure is                          higher than 18  the SLC pressure so that you get recirc                          --  SLC valve 19  opens,        overpressure      valve      opens        during      an    ATWS, 20  recirculates for a period of time.                        The pressures are 21  higher than the pressures you talk about here.                            That's 22  a different topic,          is  it?    You're going to talk about 23  that sometime or is            someone going to talk about that?
24                    MR. RAZZAQUE:          This is      all    that you are 25  seeing is        for the MSIV closure with --
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117 1                    MR. WALLIS:            Right,      but    the    ATWS      has 2  higher pressures            than that.
3                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        ATWS pressure, we are going 4  to talk about ATWS.
5                    MR. WALLIS:        At some other time,              okay.
6                    MR. RAZZAQUE:            Yes.      Actually      --
7                      MR. WALLIS:            I  was    just      wondering        --
8  trying to put this in              context.        You're going to get to 9  that    at  some --    okay --      that's      all    right.
10                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        Yes. We were talking about 11    the    AQOs,    anticipated          operational            occurrences,          and 12  they're        -- that's      --
13                      MEMBER        BANERJEE:                They      have        some 14  Westinghouse fuel in              there.        That GE method is          sort of 15  approved for this?
16                      MR. NAKANISHI:            This is        Tony Nakanishi.
17  We'll        discuss      more      in    terms        of    the  GE    methods 18  capability to model SVEA fuel,                      but we --
19                      MEMBER BANERJEE:              So will you go into the 20  OLMCPR at that point a little                      bit?
21                      MR. NAKANISHI:            Sure.      I guess we need to 22  be careful not to get into proprietary information.
23                      MEMBER BANERJEE:              Right.        Well,    when are 24  we going to close the session?
25                      CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:                Immediately        after NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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118 1 lunch.
2                    MR. RAZZAQUE:            Tony will        discuss      about 3 that matter at that time.                      The second category --
4                    MEMBER BONACA:              What about SLMCPR,          are you 5 going to discuss that as well?
6                    MR. NAKANISHI:            We certainly can and the 7 planned presentation wasn't covering that, but we can 8 certainly discuss that further as a                          --
9                    MEMBER      BONACA:            So    --    but    somebody's 10 planning to talk about ATWS?
11                    MR. RAZZAQUE:            Yes.
12                    MEMBER      BONACA:          I  didn't      hear    --    yes.
13 Okay.        So there will be a discussion.                        I agree with 14 you      that    it    is      not      part      of    the      anticipated 15 occurrences,          but we'll talk about ATWS.
16                    MR.      DelGAIZO:              Excuse        me.        I'm        a 17 mechanical        engineer        on    the    EPU      project.        On      the 18 question of the SLC relief                  valve,      the analysis --          when 19 SLC is      credited in      the analysis,            those peaks have all 20 passed.          The    timer      which        has    the    time    delay,        it 21 ensures that SLC is                initiated          so that the peaks are 22 gone and the relief              valve does not lift.                  However,        if 23 the system is          initiated          earlier      and the relief          valve 24 does      lift,    there's      a    large      margin      required        on the 25 reset      to be    sure    that      that    relief      valve    is    closed NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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119 1 before SLC is          required in        the system.          So the relief 2 valve could lift.            It  will recede.          And if    it  goes on 3 the      timer,    it    will    not    lift.        And  that's    how      the 4 analysis deals with it.
5                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                But we will discuss 6 ATWS      at  a  later    time    if      necessary    in    the    closed 7 session.
8                    MR. RAZZAQUE:          I was going to present the 9 result here in          the open session.
10                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                We'll do that after 11 lunch.        But    specific      questions        regarding      operating 12 limit MCPR and safety limit MCPR,                    if necessary, we can 13 discuss them in          a closed session.              Please continue.
14                    MR. RAZZAQUE:            Okay. The    overpressure 15 event is        the MSIV closure with flux scram,                      and the 16 minimum water level transient is                    the loss of feedwater 17 flow.
18                    LOCA wasa based on SAFER/GESTR codes using 19 equilibrium core.              The licensing basis PCT for GE-14 20 was 1380 degrees Fahrenheit;                    and for SVEA-96,        it    was 21 1540 degrees Fahrenheit.
22                    CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              Now      this    is      an 23 interesting result.              I mean we've been told that this 24 legacy fuel has a lot lower power than the GE-14 fuel, 25 and yet your LOCA analysis calculates a higher peak p-NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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120 1 clad temperature in              the legacy fuel than in              the GE-14 2 fuel.        Could you explain physically what's going on?
3                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        Yes.        I'll    try to explain.
4 And basically to give some understanding how --                                    and 5 I'll      explain    my understanding              of how GE        calculates 6 these numbers.            And the way these numbers are --
7                    MR. NAKANISHI:          It's      not proprietary,            is 8 it?
9                    MR. RAZZAQUE:          Pardon me?
10                    MR. NAKANISHI:          Is    it    proprietary?
11                    MR. RAZZAQUE:          I don't think so.              It's      a 12 methodology --          should know.          Yes,      SAFER/GESTR method.
13 Yes,    that is    proprietary.          I'm not talking about that, 14 but the process --            I'm talking about the process.                      The 15 process        is  that      you    assume        equilibrium        core,      and 16 equilibrium core assumes one kind of fuel,                            either GE-17 14 or SVEA-96.            It    doesn't assume at the same time.
18 It    does assume one at a time.                  Okay?      So you calculate 19 use,      for    example,        with    GE-14        fuel,    but  the      key 20 parameter which affects                  the PCT is          the value of the 21 MAPLHGR,      maximum average planar heat generation rate.
22                    Actually,        the code asks more of that.                        A 23 code really needs the input of average planar linear 24 heat generation in              the exhale direction,              and the peak 25 one is      the MAPLHGR and that affects the PCT directly.
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121 1  Okay,      so when    they do      the    calculation          for    a    given 2  core,        given    cycle,      given        fuel,        assuming          other 3 variables are --            should be correctly,              they assume the 4 maximum possible MAPLHGR for that cycle and generate 5  the PCT for that fuel and did the same thing assuming 6  the maximum possible MAPLHGR for Westinghouse                                  fuel, 7 and that gave a higher PCT.
8                    But in      the real        core,    it    won't be        like 9  that.        It will be combined --            both fuel together and 10    there,      the data showed that the MAPLHGR value would ii  always        be  less    than    GE    fuel.        And      therefore,        the 12  assumption that --            when they calculated 1540 degrees 13  Fahrenheit,        the MAPLHGR never is              going to reach there, 14  in    reality.        It    will    be    below,      always      below        GE 15  MAPLHGR.        And therefore,        MAPLHGR value is            the limited 16  value which we should look for.
17                      And another information                  is  that they do 18  not calculate,          they do not run a              LOCA analysis            for 19  each reload.        All they do is          go and verify it          that the 20  MAPLHGR is        within the limit.              If  the MAPLHGR is,              the 21  PCT is      validated.      Well,    that's      the process involved.
22                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                So a      LOCA analysis 23  was really not done for the Cycle 15 core as is?
24                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        It  has been validated.                  It 25  has been --        by MAPLHGR.
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122 1                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                I understand --
2                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        Yes.
3                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              --    the way you --        but 4
5                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        Right.          And --
6                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                --  as  is,  would the 7  distribution        of a    fuel    as is      --
8                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        Right,        unless there is          --
9                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                --  was not actually 10  done because it's          part of a reload analysis for Cycle 11  15?      Is  that correct?
12                    MR. RAZZAQUE:          --    unless      there    is    some 13  change in        other parameters which they will then have 14  to    redo it.      But    I  don't know          exactly when it            was 15  done.        Maybe you can --
16                    MR. BOLGER:      This is        Fran Bolger from GE.
17  The way staff        explained it        is    correct.      You know,        the 18  analyses are done with full                cores of the two different 19  type,      and those analyses are designed to be bounding 20  with respect to what would occur in                        a next core.
21                    MR. WALLIS:          And      that's      done    for      an 22  equilibrium core?
23                    MR. BOLGER:      That's correct.
24                    MR. WALLIS:      Now if      it's    done for a non-25  equilibrium core,          now much does            the PCT change?              If NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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123 1 it's      done for the core evolves                --    how much does the 2 PCT change as the core evolves during a cycle?                                  Have 3 any idea?
4                    MR. BOLGER:      Just sort of weighing whether 5 this is        a closed session discussion or not.
6                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            If  it  is,  we can wait 7 until      after lunch.
8                    MR. BOLGER:      Okay.      Why don't we wait.
9                    MR. WALLIS:        Postpone it.            Okay,      that's 10 fine.
11                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            Okay.      I have another 12 question.        Are these two-bundle designs hydraulically 13 matched?
14                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        The effect on LOCA is                  not 15 that significant.
16                    CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              Regardless,            the 17 question is        are they hydraulically matched?
18                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        When      originally          a    mixed 19 water analysis was done --                  that was done many years 20 ago --      there have to be some pressure drop tests                              to 21 make sure that the assemblies have compatible pressure 22 drop.          I  think    that    probably          would      be    the      key 23 parameter which will effect,                  but the LOCA,            it    really 24 doesn't        matter    that    much.        But      it    does      in    the 25 transient.
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124 1                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                  Okay. Thank you.
2                        MR.      RAZZAQUE:            Yes.      And    mixed    water 3  analysis was approved many years ago.                                I don't know 4  when they first                started using GE,              but this one is          --
5  we    didn't'        go    reviewing            the  mixed    core    approval.
6 Basically,          looked at the EPU.
7                        MEMBER          BANERJEE:            So    the    hydraulic 8  characteristics are very similar,                            the fuel?      I didn't 9  get the sense of the answer.
10                        MR. NOTIGAN:            This is    Don Notigan,        PSEG.
11  To support          the EPU licensing,                PSEG submitted on our 12  docket        a  thermal-hydraulic                compatibility        assessment 13  and      report        that      has        the  details      of    how    the      GE 14  methodology            was      utilized          to  analyze      the  thermal-15  hydraulic          performance              of  the  SVEA    fuel.      In    that 16  report, we concluded that introduction of the GE fuel 17  at that time into the Hope Creek core,                              which had had 18  SVEA-96 plus fuel in                    it,    did not cause any change in 19  thermal-hydraulic                imbalance.
20                        MEMBER        BANERJEE:          Will    the    fuel    there, 21  fossil      or whatever it                is,  and the GE fuel,        did they 22  have      similar        thermal-hydraulic                characteristics?              I 23  mean it's          a  straight          question --        yes or no.
24                        MR.      NOTIGAN:            They    have    similar,      yes.
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125 1 different.              I    have      slides        to      illustrate            the 2 difference.            And  because      of    that        difference,            the 3 active        flow  through      the    two    designs          are    slightly 4 different.
5                    MEMBER      BANERJEE:          I    think        we      should 6 discuss this in          closed session.
7                      MEMBER MAYNARD:            Well,      don't you take a 8 penalty        in  the  analysis      anytime        you      have      a  non-9  homogeneous core?              I mean doesn't the analysis                        that 10  you      do have      some    penalty      into    it      when you've            got 11  different types of fuel assemblies --                            penalty?
12                      MR. NAKANISHI:          This      is    Tony Nakanishi 13  with Reactor Systems.                I could add that sometime ago, 14  the licensee submitted a                critical        power      correlation 15  supporting the SVEA fuel, and staff                        reviewed that and 16  approved that.
17                      MEMBER      BANERJEE:          What      about      the      void 18  correlation?
19                      MR. NAKANISHI:            Again,        I  guess we could 20  probably defer that to closed session.
21                      MEMBER BANERJEE:          Maybe,      you know, we need 22  to know a little          more details,          Said,      on this.
23                      MR. NAKANISHI:          Basically --
24                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            When we're in              closed 25  session,        you  can ask      these detailed              questions        and, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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126 1 hopefully,      both the staff        and the applicant --
2                  MEMBER      BANERJEE:            Hopefully,    we      will 3 understand the uncertainty                in  the void fraction for 4 the SVEA fuel?          Do we have data?
5                  MR. NAKANISHI:          The approach that GE or 6 the licensee is        taking is      they're applying their NRR 7 methods        topical    which    includes        some  of  these          --
8 accounts for these additional margins.                    We can discuss 9 that more in      the closed session.
10                  MR. WALLIS:      How does MAPLHGR validate a 11 PCT?
12                  MR. RAZZAQUE:        How does it      validate PCT?
13                  MR. WALLIS:        MAPLHGR has nothing              to do 14 with LOCA,      does it?
15                  MR. RAZZAQUE:        Yes.
16                  MR. WALLIS:      MAPLHGR is        just for the heat 17 generation rate?
18                  MR. RAZZAQUE:        That's right and it          affects 19 the stored energy,          and therefore,          ultimately the PCT.
20                  MR. WALLIS:          It'S    an  input  to      a    PCT 21 calculation.
22                  MR. RAZZAQUE:        Exactly.      That's --
23                  MR. WALLIS:        It    doesn't validate.            It's 24 just an input to it            --
25                  MEMBER BANERJEE:              It  doesn't.      It's        an NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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127 1 input.
2                MR. WALLIS:      --    if  it's      low enough --
3                MR. RAZZAQUE:          The validate              means      that 4 when they design the core,            they calculate the MAPLHGR 5 for that core and see whether it                    is  less than the one 6 which was      sued  to calculate            the      PCT.      That    is      the 7 validation.
8                MR. WALLIS:        But      it's      not    --  but more 9 things than just MAPLHGR influence PCT                        --
10                MR. RAZZAQUE:        Yes,      there are many things, 11 but the marketplace is          the one --
12                MR. WALLIS:        It's      a    sort    of  DPTC,        D-13 MAPLHGR that you've --          someone's established so that 14 you know how one influences the other?
15                MR. RAZZAQUE:              Assuming            the      other 16 variables --
17                MR. WALLIS:      Maybe this can be explained 18 in    a closed session or something?                    I'm confused.
19                MR. NAKANISHI:            Or I        guess    I  could say 20 that the baseline analysis,              it    will basically provide 21 sufficient leeway for cycle-specific differences.                                And 22 really, the key change from cycle to cycle is                            covered 23 by MAPLHGR.
24                MR. WALLIS:        This is          part of what I was 25 told would be answered in            a closed session,                is    it?
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128 1                        MEMBER ARMIJO:          Or it    would be      --
2                        MR. WALLIS:        I think it        is.
3                        MEMBER ARMIJO:            --  or you could get it.
4                        MR. WALLIS:      I'm going to get the answer 5 in    the closed session.
6                        CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              I  think we'll have 7 more      leeway        to    ask    questions        and    receive      answers 8 during that time.
9                        MEMBER ARMIJO:          I have maybe a very simple 10 question.            Is  SAFER/GESTR approved for use on SVEA-96, 11 or was        it    just    an analysis          that    was    done      sort      of 12 interesting but not really an approved analysis.
13                        MR. RAZZAQUE:        The process that works is                  -
14 -  the way that was approved is                      that the --      when the GE 15 --    you have a GE core using GE methods.                            Now another 16 fuel is        introduced.          The --    first    of all,      there has to 17 be    thermal-hydraulic                compatibility          with    those      two 18 bundles,          and they have to be verified                      and checked.
19 And the other is                that the licensee or the vendor or 20 both has            to  get    enough      information          from    the    other 21 vendor about the fuel to perform the analysis.                                  After 22 you get all            the information that you need,                      which is 23 basically the information like fuel itself,                                  like the 24 density, material properties,                      flow dimension and those 25 kind      of      things,      then    you    use    your    code,    GE    code, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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129 1 assuming it's        like a GE bundle although the dimensions 2 are different for every --
3                    MEMBER BANERJEE:              But here is    the issue, 4 I think which --
5                    MEMBER ARMIJO:          It's    more legal.
6                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            Yes,    but what Sam and I 7 are both getting at is              do we have the same database 8 with      the  SVEA-96    plus    fuel,      and maybe      you need to 9 answer        this  in  closed    session,        as    we have    with GE 10 fuel?        We understand GE fuel              because we have dealt 11 with this previously in              approving        things and so on.
12 So we know a lot about GE fuel.                      Do we know the same 13 about        this  Westinghouse        fuel?        I  guess  that's        the 14 issue and the uncertainties                  in    the various      critical 15 power issues and the void fraction correlation.
16                    MR. WALLIS:        Do you        use  the  same    void 17 fraction correlation for the two?
18                    MR. NAKANISHI:        I believe the --        and GE or 19 licensee can correct me,              but I believe that is              true.
20                    MR. WALLIS:        Someone's        checked    that the 21 test      is  valid,  equally valid --
22                    MR. NAKANISHI:        I guess --
23                    MR. WALLIS:        --  or bias in      one way with 24 one fuel versus the other?
25                    MR. NAKANISHI:        A point that provides the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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130 1 staff      additional    conflict      is  the SVEA fuel has been 2 exposed a few times.
3                    MR. WALLIS:      Oh,  yes,    that's    right.
4                    MR. NAKANISHI:        And if      SVEA fuel were as 5 reactive as GE-14 fuel,              for example,        then we would be 6 a lot more concerned,              and we would be providing a lot 7 more review associated with that.
8                    MEMBER BANERJEE:              If  they go reload it, 9 will there be --
10                    MEMBER ARMIJO:            Well,    I don't know if            the 11 issue will come up.
12                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            Will that issue come up 13 at that point,          or how will it          be handled?
14                    MR. NAKANISHI:        They did the transition, 15 I believe,      obviously,        at a pre-EPU condition.
16                    MEMBER      BANERJEE:          Will      you    feel      more 17 comfortable to answer these questions when we were in 18 closed session?
19                    MR. NAKANISHI:        Absolutely.
20                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            Okay.
21                    MR. WALLIS:      Let's do that.
22                    MR. RAZZAQUE:            Actually,        the      way      I 23 understand        --    licensee      may    correct      me  --  they      are 24 going to phase Westinghouse fuel out after                            Cycle 15, 25 or at most 16 maybe.              Is  that --      Cycle 16 will still NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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131 1 have some fuel left              and then after          that,  no fuel?
2                    MR. NOTIGAN:        This is      Don Notigan,        PSEG.
3 We are looking at              the core      design      requirements          for 4 Cycle 16.        We're starting that right now.                    And right 5 now it        looks like preliminary,              we will not have the 6 SVEA fuel in        the next core in            Cycle 16.
7                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        Basically,        you're talking 8 about half a cycle,              maybe less than that.
9                    MEMBER      BONACA:        And when you          did    LOCA 10 analysis,        what fuel did you use?                Did you assume that 11 GE fuel would be limiting and then you assumed full 12 characteristics            of the GE fuel          to determine        PCT?        I 13 mean this is      a mixed core and I'm trying to understand 14 how        you    do      the      thermal-hydraulic              analysis, 15 SAFER/GESTR.        What kind of fuel-related parameters are 16 you using?
17                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        Why the two separate PCT 18 was    generated      --    one    for GE      fuel,      another    for      the 19 Westinghouse        fuel --
20                    MEMBER BANERJEE:              Yes.
21                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        --  deeper.
22                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            But assuming separately, 23 then first        of all      you have full          GE fuel or full          SVEA 24 fuel?
25                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        SVEA fuel,        yes. And they NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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132 1 have the information for SVEA fuel to use that in                                  the 2 code      to calculate        the  PCT,    and it      turns        out to be 3 different,          higher      actually,      if    you      use      the  same 4 MAPLHGR.
5                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            Why is      that?
6                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        That --
7                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            Well,    it's      --
8                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        It  may be the fuel design 9 itself          basically,      because      the    fuel      itself,        the 10 thickness and the diameter and the material properties 11 will affect.          And I can see that probably would be the 12 reason        if  we assumed,      say,    MAPLHGR and if              all  other 13 inputs are the same for the vessel and the core,                                  the 14 geometry of the fuel probably would be the responsible 15 for change.
16                    MEMBER      BANERJEE:          But      this        fuel      is 17 supposed          to      have        similar          thermal-hydraulic 18 characteristics,          right?
19                    MR. RAZZAQUE:            But      not      necessarily 20 material properties.
21                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            Well,      is  the cladding 22 different or --
23                    MEMBER      BONACA:          Well,        for      one,      the 24 cladding is        twice-burnt or three-times burnt.
25                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            But I assume that this NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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133 1 number 1540 is          coming when you've loaded the core with 2
3                    MR. WALLIS:        It's    an equilibrium core full 4 of SVEA fuel.            IT's an artificial.
5                    MEMBER BANERJEE:              So it's      two artificial 6 cases      because      that's      not    the    core    in    --  but      they 7 should        be  two    comparable        cases,      right?          And      two 8 comparable cases, you're getting some difference which 9 may not be important but it                      should be reconciled                in 10 some way?
11                    MEMBER BONACA:              Yes. For example,            you 12 know --
13                    MEMBER BANERJEE:              Why is    different.
14                    MEMBER BONACA:            --  I look at this loading 15 and the four assemblies in                  the center of the core SVEA 16 fuels,        so now,    you know,        my question          that    comes        to 17 mind is        will the flow preferentially goes in                      the SVEA 18 fuel versus the GE fuel?                I don't know.            I mean that's 19 the kind of questions we're raising,                        I believe, here.
20 And --
21                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        We reviewed --
22                    MEMBER BONACA:            --  then you have to take 23 into account          the cladding is            different cladding,                in 24 this particular case,              at least twice-burnt,                I think.
25 You know,        here it      says thrice-burnt but maybe twice-NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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134 1 burnt as you said.
2                  MR. WALLIS:      The hot channel            is  GE fuel, 3 isn't      it?
4                  MR. RAZZAQUE:        Yes,    correct.
5                  MR. WALLIS:        So why do a            PCT with SVEA 6 fuel?
7                  MR. RAZZAQUE:        Again,      if    you assume          the 8 same      MAPLHGR  which you        are assuming            is  this    whole 9 bundle SVEA fuel.
10                  CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Artificial        --
11                  MR. RAZZAQUE:        Artificial          --
12                  CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            -- cores essentially.
13                  MR. RAZZAQUE:        Basically,            this    is      the 14 maximum possible the SVEA can go.
15                  MR. WALLIS:      Oh,  this is        the maximum --
16                  MEMBER    BANERJEE:          Now      having    done        the 17 calculation,      you've raised a question                    that you need 18 not have raised probably.              Why is      it  different.
19                  MR. RAZZAQUE:      I don't know.            GE can anser 20 that,      but my judgment tells        me it      will be --        because 21 when they use equilibrium core,                    the only difference 22 would be the information regarding the specific fuel, 23 so my judgment will tell              that that would be causing 24 the difference.
25                  MR. WALLIS:      But it      cause a difference'of NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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135 1 600 degrees?
2                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        It  should not.
3                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            It's      not 600 degrees.
4                    MR. WALLIS:      Well,    he said 20 to 100.
5                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        Yes.        It's    about    150 or 6 160,      something like that.
7                    CHAIR    ABDEL-KHALIK:              Now    with  both        of 8  these        analyses,    you    have    to    provide        input      which 9  describes the performance of the --                    characteristics of 10  the ECCS system, pump characteristics,                        etcetera.        Now 11  is    that input based on tech specs limits?                      Is it    based 12  on actual historical            measured performance?                What did 13  you use?
14                    MR. RAZZAQUE:      Yes.      There are tech specs 15  limits on the ECCS injection,                flow rate, time,            and the 16  analysis assumes          that and the limiting condition                        to 17  calculate the worse scenario.
18                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              So the same question 19  that I        asked with regard to SRV performance applies 20  here.      What is    the historical performance of your ECCS 21  system vis-a-vis the limits in                  tech specs?
22                    MR. WALLIS:      Historical performance?
23                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Right,      testing.
24                    MR. WALLIS:      Has it      ever had to work?
25                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              No,    no,  no. I mean, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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I *% f-1 you know,        testing 2                      MR. WALLIS:      Oh,    testing.
3                      MEMBER        BANERJEE:          Is    there      a  way      to 4 measure it?            That's the first            thing.
5                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                  Do you have data to 6 indicate that you are always in                        compliance with tech 7  specs limits that are used in                      these analyses.
8                      MEMBER BANERJEE:            Difficult      --  would have 9  to be.
10                      MR. DAVISON:        Paul Davison.            If  I    could 11  just clarification                on what specific requirements for 12  ECCS are you referring to?
13                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Pump characteristics.
14                      MR. DAVISON:      Okay.      Yes, we performed all 15  IST testing on our RHR core spray,                          RCIC,    HPIC pumps, 16  all    our ACCS pumps.            So I do quarterly IST performance 17  testing        to verify that          they're        acceptable.          I    also 18  trend that data.              I also keep unavailability data and 19  MSPI data on all            of the safety pumps as well,                    safety 20  systems        as    well    all    below    --    all    in  top    quartile 21  performance          ranges      for all    of    our ECCS pumps.                So 22  generically,          the answer is        we do testing programs and 23  we monitor per MSPI and SSPI unavailability to say our 24  ECCS system is            robust and readily available.
25                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                So in,  you know, all NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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137 1 the previous operating history of Hope Creek,                            in    all 2 the      surveillance        testing,      none of        these pumps        have 3 ever fallen blow the tech specs limits?
4                    MR. DAVISON:      Not that I'm aware of but I 5 will go verify that fact.                I'm not --        that --  I do not 6 have any data that says we've ever had a failed pump, 7 but I will go back and verify.
8                    CHAIR    ABDEL-KHALIK:            Yes,    if  you would 9 verify that for us --
10                    MR. DAVISON:      Yes.
11                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            --  I think that would 12 be --      thank you.
13                    MEMBER MAYNARD:          I'm not sure I understand 14 the applicability of that to EPU.                      That sounds like if 15 there's any issues, that's                a current operating issue.
16 The      licensees      are    required      to    operate within          their 17 tech      specs.      You    have  tech    spec      limits    on    these 18 things.          I'm struggling with tying it                to EPU.
19                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            Well,    I mean if    there 20 is    historical      information --        there may not be, okay --
21 but if        there is    historical      indication that the pump 22 performance        is  consistently below tech spec                  limits, 23 then these analyses are essentially meaningless.
24                    MEMBER MAYNARD:          But that would also meant 25 that their current operating would be issues --
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138 1                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Right.
2                    MEMBER MAYNARD:          --  and when that occurs, 3 there's        other regulatory          mechanisms      that    come      into 4 play for dealing with those issues, because your tech 5 specs,        you  have    to    comply.          And    being    out        of 6 compliance          of    finding      that      you've      been    out        of 7  compliance          for    some      time,      there    are    regulatory 8 processes        that deal with that --
9                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Granted.
10                      MEMBER MAYNARD:            --  because your current 11  analyses are based on that,                  too,    so.
12                      CHAIR    ABDEL-KHALIK:            Granted,    but      that 13  would      be    a piece      of  information          that  would    allow 14  people to sort of put some perspective on the validity 15  of whatever analyses have been performed.
16                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        Basically,        reemphasizing 17  our analyses,          scope of the review is              focused on the 18  EPU because they already approved a license to operate 19  at the current power              level.        We are not going back 20  unless we find something --                    error.      We look at          the 21  extended area where they are coming into.
22                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Your know,    again,        I 23  fully understand this, but as an engineer, you look at 24  a number, you ask what is              the error bar on this number 25  and what are the sources of possible uncertainties in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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139 1  this number,        and that's        what I'm trying to get at.
2                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        I understand.              If  anymore 3  question --
4                    MEMBER BANERJEE:          Just I hope when we come 5  to the closed session, you explain --                      it's    not mission 6 critical      --  but why there is          a difference in              the PCTs 7  between the GE-14 and the SVEA-96.                        I'm assuming that 8  all      the  conditions        are more      or    less      the    same,      and 9  these bundles are supposed to be thermal-hydraulically 10  similar,        so  I'm    still    puzzled      by this        160    degrees 11  difference.
12                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        We did not            specifically 13  investigate          --    spend      time    investigating              why      the 14  difference is          for several reasons.              One is      the result 15  --    there is    plenty of margin.            Second is        the SVEA will 16  be a limiting fuel and we know that.                        The MAPLHGR will 17  be way below that which are assumed.                          And --
18                    CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              Nonetheless,            it's 19  confidence or not confidence in                    the methods.
20                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        For interest            of knowing, 21  yes.      But the*--
22                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              I think in        the closed 23  session,      perhaps GE,        who did the analysis,                will have 24  more information or --
25                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            Well,      I'd    be interested NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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140 1 to know also whether the staff                has investigated this 2 or not.
3                  MR. RAZZAQUE:          As I mentioned, we have not 4 specifically on this issue.
5                  MR. WALLIS:        Staff only did calculations 6 with the GE fuel --
7                  MR. RAZZAQUE:        No,  we made sure that the 8 calculated values are well within the limits --
9                  MEMBER        BANERJEE:            But    did    you        do 10 confirmatory calculations?
11                  MR. RAZZAQUE:        Yes,    we did.
12                  MEMBER BANERJEE:            Just with GE --
13                  MR. RAZZAQUE:        And it      was bounded.          The 14 next slide is        that.
15                  MEMBER BANERJEE:            Okay.
16                  MR. RAZZAQUE:        All right.        If  you have no 17 more questions        on this,      I  can move      to the next one 18 which        says that    RELAP5      code    was    used  for    GE-14.
19 Again,      we did not use SVEA because of the fact that 20 SVEA would be operating at a much less MAPLHGR than 21 GE,    and therefore,      it  will be way below 1540.                So we 22 picked one,      and GE was the one we picked.
23                  MEMBER        BONACA:            Because      1540        was 24 calculated assuming the same MAPLHGR --
25                  MR. RAZZAQUE:        That is      correct.
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141 1                    MEMBER BONACA:            --  while,      in    reality        --
2                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        It    will    be --
3                    MEMBER BONACA:            --  much lower?
4                    MR. RAZZAQUE:          Exactly, because of the low 5 power on those bundles.                  And Dr.        Huang there,            he --
6 you calculated          using RELAP5,            the GE-14,          and if      you 7 have more --        you want a more --
8                    MR. WALLIS:          The value        was      300      or  400 9 degrees higher because of radiation --
10                    MR. RAZZAQUE:              Yes.          Our        --    his 11 calculation        gave 1640 degrees.                Okay?      But that has 12 some built        in  conservatism.
13                    MR. WALLIS:      And you expect it                about 300 14 degrees higher because you've ignored radiation --
15                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        Correct.
16                    MR. WALLIS:      --    which is      historically              --
17                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        We have done that before, 18 yes.
19                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                Now tell        me again, 20 what      is  the sort of the logic of doing confirmatory 21 analyses if        you do them at conditions different than 22 or using assumptions different than what the applicant 23 is    using?
24                    MR. RAZZAQUE:              Let    me    tell        you      my 25 understanding of this.              We try to --        our review, staff NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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142 1 review, in most areas, at least what I did here was to 2 get a reasonable          assurance,        not    to exactly    try to 3 duplicate      the    licensee.        First of      all,  it    is    not 4 possible, because the cores are different, models are 5 different, nodings are different.                    But we need to get 6 some idea whether the licensee's calculations are way 7 off or something.            That is    the reasonable assurance, 8 I think, what we are trying to achieve.                      And one way 9 to get the reasonable assurance would be run a code 10 which we are comfortable with, and use some bounding 11 type calculation.          In other words,          ignore radiation is 12 one way we did, because it's              more difficult to review 13 factors        and    those      things,        hard    to  calculate.
14 Sometimes      we    don't    want    to    spend    too  much      time, 15 because we're trying to get reasonable assurance and 16 the code is      different.        That is      the bottom line.
17                  MEMBER BANERJEE:          You ran RELAP5 in a mode 18 which was similar, however,              with assumptions similar 19 to the GE calculation?
20                  MR. RAZZAQUE:        Yes,    except those few --
21 one like radiation we didn't include, because we know 22 that will make things worse.                It won't make things the 23 other way around.            Otherwise, we would have included 24 it.      And so things like that which will always make 25 the PCT higher.          That's the assumption we will make, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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143 1 not the other way around.                      And we don't want to add 2 anything          but    that    was    the      key      assumption,          that 3 radiation was ignored.
4                      MEMBER ARMIJO:          If you had run RELAP5 with 5 a SVEA fuel and you added several hundred degrees on 6 top of,        let's    say,    what the GE analysis came up with 7 of 1540,        you might have been on the border of 2200.
8                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        Well,      if    you straight take 9 --    just    as taking 1640        --
10                      MEMBER ARMIJO:            For the equilibrium.
11                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        Three hundred.              Yes, at 300 12  degree,        it    will still      be 18-something.                Besides,          we 13  are taking 1540 for SVEA fuel which won't be happening 14 15                      MEMBER ARMIJO:            Yes.      It's    a hypothetical 16 17                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        Hypothetical.
18                      MEMBER ARMIJO:            --  doesn't      exist.
19                      MR. WALLIS:          It    would        be    very      good, 20  though, to run RELAP5 with radiation.                            Does this TRACE 21  model,      this phenomenon,            okay?      Does this scenario --
22                      MEMBER BANERJEE:            TRACE certainly runs BWR 23  with no problem now.                We just had it              done.
24                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        I am not sure about TRACE 25  will      have the capability            now --      do other --
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144 1                  MEMBER BANERJEE:              We have    --
2                  MR. RAZZAQUE:        We don't      know --
3                  MEMBER BANERJEE:              --  runs with TRACE and 4 FOX coupled.
5                  MR. WALLIS:        Yes. That's what should be 6 done.
7                  MR. WANG:    This is Weldon Wang.            Actually, 8 I  performed      the RELAP5        calculations        for    this power 9 uprate.        And the flow trace --            okay,    so the reason we 10 chose RELAP5 at the time is                really there is          a RELAP5 11 deck      available    for    the    Browns    Ferry,    and    we    have 12 verified the geometry and the dimensions of the vessel 13 in    both BWR-4    --
14                  UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER:                For Hope Creek you 15 mean.
16                  MR. WANG:      --    for    Hope  Creek,    right        --
17 compared with Browns Ferry.                  However, we also noticed 18 that there are differences.                For example,        I believe it 19 was a letter      c injection of the front.                  So,  we,    at a 20 certain point,          we pick up a rule of five because we 21 think that job will be minimal so we can start                          to run 22 the code right away.
23                  MR. WALLIS:        I thought TRACE was supposed 24 to accept these other decks?
25                  MEMBER BANERJEE:            But there's a TRACE deck NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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145 1  for Browns Ferry.
2                    MR. WALLIS:        There is        a    TRACE deck?            I 3  thought it      was supposed to take a RELAP5 and translate 4
5                    MEMBER BANERJEE:                I hope you        don't use 6  RELAP5 for Browns Ferry?
7                    MR. WALLIS:      That's what he did.
8                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            It's    time to move on,              I 9  think,      to a better validated code.
10                    MR. RAZZAQUE:          So far, in EPUs, we've used 11  RELAP5 before          --  Vermont Yankee,            Browns Ferry and --
12                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            I know --      we have.        This 13  doesn't        meant you have to --
14                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        No.
15                    MEMBER BANERJEE:              --  harden    --
16                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        We don't        --
17                    MR. WALLIS:      It  will be very interesting 18  to see if        TRACE and RELAP5 and SAFER/GESTR,                    with the 19  same assumptions all              the way through,            how different 20  their answers          are. It  would be very interesting                      to 21  see    rather    than this        conservatively-bounds                sort      of 22  idea.      And if  they differ significantly,                then we might 23  begin to wonder why.
24                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            Well,    the thing is          LOCA 25  is    not really a concern in              these matters.
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146 1                    MR. WALLIS:      It  doesn't seem to be.
2                    MEMBER BANERJEE:                There are other things 3 like the anticipated transients and things which are 4 very different where there are concerns,                                so --
5                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        The --      right,      actually,        the 6 PCT with EPU only increased 10 degrees F for GE fuel 7 and didn't increase at all                  for SVEA fuel.                Again, we, 8 sometime ago          --
9                    MR. WALLIS:        What      is    limiting          the    EPU?
10  It's    not LOCA --
11                      MR. RAZZAQUE:          It    looks        like not LOCA.
12  Sometimes it          is  maybe by a few degrees,                    but this time 13  here,      it is    a    few degrees.            We have          seen PCT even 14  going down.          Remember in        one case,          we even discussed 15  that here.
16                      MR. WALLIS:      When the fluence goes down, 17  all    kinds of things go down.                  I don't know why but it 18  does because          they use it        --
19                      MR.      RAZZAQUE:          I    thought          we    tried      to 20  understand          that      phenomena          --      why      it    goes      down, 21  flattening        affect      --
22                      MR. WALLIS:      Right.
23                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        --    and redistribution                  of 24  the flow and those kind of things,                              so.      PCTs never 25  comes out to be a very big change.                              I never saw more NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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147 1  than    --
2                    MR. WALLIS:      What I it          that limits these 3 EPUs?
4                    MR. RAZZAQUE:        Pardon me?
5                    MR. WALLIS:        Why don't          they go      to      40%
6  instead of 15?          What is    it    that limits EPU.
7                    MR. RAZZAQUE:          MCPR will          definitely          --
8 minimum critical          power issue,            LGR --
9                    MR. WALLIS:        MAPLHGR        or something          like 10  that?
11                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        --    MAPLHGR,      those kind of 12  things.
13                      MEMBER BANERJEE:            It's    the fuel for the --
14                      MR. WALLIS:      No.        It  is  the CPR.
15                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        Right.
16                      MR. WALLIS:          It's      not    the    accident, 17  though.        It's  the regular --
18                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                Please continue.
19                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        Okay.        So staff    calculation 20  verified not only the PCTs boundings,                          we bounded the 21  PCT basically.            We didn't do exact calculations,                        but 22  I  here what        you are saying.                The other      is  we also 23  confirmed the break size,                the large-break LOCA --                    we 24  confirmed that,          and the break-spectrum,                  things like 25  that.
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148 1                      Next    slide is      on ATWS.          We present        the 2 results.          The top bullet represents the results,                          and 3 the first        two basically talk about requirements.                        They 4 match        the    requirements,          like      they      have  to      have 5 alternate          rod injection        which      they have      installed.
6 Boron capability is              86 gpm which they have --
7                      MEMBER BANERJEE:            Is  this enriched boron?
8                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        Yes.      And then they have 9 recirc pump trip            installed.        So those are required by 10 regulation,          in  10 CRF 50.62.            They have those.            And 11 the they rely on te EOP,                of course.
12                      MR. WALLIS:        So this is          to reduce water 13 level or what?
14                      MR. RAZZAQUE:        Yes, water level basically, 15 because the pump trip              will be automatic.              They can do 16 it    manually,        too.
17                      MR. WALLIS:        So    this    is    when  the      SLC 18 system is        incapable of meeting the peak pressure,                          so 19 the relief          valve opens.
20                      MR. NAKANISHI:        This is        Tony Nakanishi.
21 The      initial        peak    pressure,        ATWS    pressure      is    not 22 mitigated by --
23                      MR. WALLIS:          Before      you    use  the      SLC 24 system?
25                      MR. NAKANISHI:          It's    you basically only NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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149 1 have the pump trip.
2                  MR. WALLIS:        Oh,      okay.        And then this pool 3  temperature,        that    must      depend          on      how    the      pool 4  temperature starts        out which is            a function of the time 5 of year and things like that.                  So is      this based on the 6 highest pool temperature,              or what is              it  based on?
7                  MR. RAZZAQUE:          It    should be.
8                  MR. WALLIS:      Is    it?        If  it's      the average, 9 then      it's not  so good,      because            sometimes          the      pool 10  temperature is        a few degrees above average.
11                  MR. RAZZAQUE:        The initial              temperature --
12  maybe the --
13                  MR. DENNY:    This is          Skip Denny of General 14  Electric-Hitachi.            The    accident            analysis          -    -ATWS 15  accident          analysis      assumes            a    95        degree        pool 16  temperature --
17                  MR. WALLIS:      It    assumes the worse --                    yes.
18                  MR. DENNY:          The    worse          case      tech      spec 19  allowed.
20                  MR. WALLIS:        I    thought it              probably did.
21  Thank you.
22                  MR. DENNY:      Also,        minimum tech specs --
23                  MR. WALLIS:      Yes,      so it's        t he worse.          It's 24  the really conservative.
25                  MR. DENNY:      Yes,      sir.
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150 1                      MEMBER BANERJEE:            It's      pretty    close to the 2 limit?
3                      MEMBER ARMIJO:            Yes,      but at      3    degrees, 4 that's      a sharp pencil.
5                      MR. WALLIS:      Yes,    but it's        very unlikely 6 that it's          going to get anywhere near that.                          Ninety-7 five degrees is            a very high temperature.
8                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                What is      the basis of 9 the 201 degree limit?
10                      MR. DENNY:        Skip      Denny      again,      General 11 Electric-Hitachi.                There are two concerns with ATWS.
12 One      is    NSPH which        is  a  lot higher            than  this,      218 13 degrees.            The 201      is  based on ensuring                that    steam 14 discharge          from the NSRVs is            fully quenched and does 15 not potentially              ingest into the ECCS suction or the 16 suppression pool cooling lines.                        So it's      SRV discharge 17 temperature          limiting.          This    is    a    bulk    temperature 18 limit.            It    maintains        at    218        degrees        --    local 19 temperature at the discharge.
20                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                Thank you.
21                      MR. DENNY:      Yes,  sir.
22                      MEMBER BANERJEE:            Do you have any idea how 23 much water there is              to suppress this compared to, say, 24 Vermont Yankee or Browns Ferry or per megawatt let's 25 put it.        Is  it  --
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151 1                    MR. WALLIS:        About one        cubic meter per 2 megawatt.
3                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            Well,      is  it  about      the 4  same or is      it  very different?
5                    MR. DENNY:        The ATWS analysis              for Hope 6 Creek assumes the tech specs limit --
7                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            No,      no,  no.      I'm just 8 asking a general question.                How much water is            there in 9 the suppression pool?
10                    CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              We      asked        that 11 question earlier.
12                    MEMBER      BANERJEE:        Oh,    you    did?      Okay.
13 What did --
14                    CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              A    hundred          and 15 eighteen thousand cubic feet minimum.
16                    MR. DUKE:      This is      Paul Duke,        PSEG.        The 17 volumes        in  plants      of  similar      rating        such as        Peach 18 Bottom and Browns Ferry is                similar.
19                    MR. DEVINE:        Similar to Vermont Yankee, 20 too?
21                    MR. DUKE:    No,    similar to Hope Creek.                    I 22 can't tell        you the volume of VY but for Browns Ferry, 23 it's    a similar volume with a similar rating.
24                    MEMBER BANERJEE:          But the rating is            lower?
25                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            But      rating    is    lower, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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152 1  right.
2                    MEMBER BONACA:          That's why you see some 3  plants that have a problem with the backpressure and 4  others don't.
5                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Please continue.
6                    MR. RAZZAQUE:          The      last    slide      is    my 7  conclusion which is          basically repeating again that the 8  guidelines        were  followed,      generic        evaluations        were 9  used which were previously approved.                      And our review 10  basically focused on the effect of EPU on the current 11  licensing basis,          not necessarily            to  go back beyond 12  unless we come up with some problem.
13                    MR. NAKANISHI:        Should I keep going?
14                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                No. What    I  would 15  like to do is        break for lunch for one hour.                  We'll be 16  back here at        1:00 o'clock.          AT that      time,  both the 17  staff's        presentation and the applicant's presentation 18  on fuel methods will be done in                    a closed session.
19                    MEMBER BANERJEE:          So you get ride of this 20  open session matter?
21                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            Right. Item 8 on the 22  agenda will now be moved into a closed session so that 23  you can ask whatever question you would like of the 24  staff,      and we will reconvene at 1:00 o'clock.
25                      (Whereupon,      open session of the foregoing NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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153 1 matter adjourned at 11:52 a.m.                  for a luncheon break 2  and holding of closed session.)
3                    (Whereupon,      at 2:24 p.m.,        open session in 4  the foregoing matter is            resumed.)
5                  CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              We're  back          in 6 session.      Before we start on item 12 on the agenda, 7  there's a question regarding the standby liquid system 8  operation --      liquid control system operation that Mr.
9  Maynard has.
10                  MEMBER MAYNARD:            I    hate to take a step 11  back, but we discussed this in a couple of different 12  sessions, and I'd like to pull it                together. Under the 13  ATWS      scenario,    the peak pressure              occurs before        the 14  automatic implementation of the SLC system.                      However, 15  that peak pressure            is  higher    than what      the relief 16  valves for the SLC system.                The operators talk about 17  that      they're  trained to go          ahead an initiate that 18  before the automatic,            so it's    very possible that they 19  would be initiating that at a time when the pressure 20  is    higher than the relief valve standpoint.
21                  You've mentioned something about that's 22  okay because there's plenty of margin.                      I guess I'd 23  like to explore that margin and why it's                  okay to do it 24  at that time and lift            the relief valves?
25                  MR. DelGAIZO:        Okay.        I'm Ted DelGaizo.
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154 1 Because there's actually a regulatory requirement.                                      I 2 think it's        100 pounds.            It  could even be 150.                  But 3 there's a requirement on the pressure that you'll                                    be 4 when you credit            SLC    for injecting and the                  reset        of 5 that relief        valve.        You're right,            it  is    1400 and it 6 resets somewhat below that.                      Not much.          But we meet 7 that regulatory requirement which,                        again,    I  think is 8 100 psid, so that we're at least 100 pounds down below 9 that reset point at the time that the analysis shows 10 like it's      going to inject.              And the reason for that 11 big margin        or that        requirement          for    the    delta      P    is 12 specifically so that if                it    does lift,      it's    assured to 13 recede and not be close to the reset point.
14                  MEMBER MAYNARD:              And during that time that 15 it    has lifted,        you're not losing more born than what 16 you need to be able to              --
17                  MR. DelGAIZO:          Oh,    no,    we're not losing 18 any boron.        It's    recirculating.
19                  MEMBER MAYNARD:              It's    recirculating.
20                  MR. DelGAIZO:          Right.        So    the boron          is 21 just fine.        What you have to be sure of is                        when the 22 time comes that the boron needs to go in,                            the relief 23 valve is      reset.
24                  MEMBER MAYNARD:              Okay,    fine.      That answers 25 my questions.
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155 1                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Okay. Let's proceed 2 with the presentation then.
3                    MR. DAVISON:      Okay.      Good afternoon.            I'm 4 Paul Davison,          again.      And next to me to discuss the 5 containment analysis methodology and response is                              Mr.
6 Ted DelGaizo frm Mainline Engineering as well as Mr.
7 Skip Denny from General Electric-Hitachi.
8                    For    background,        this      is  a  simplified 9 depiction        of    the  Hope    Creek    reactor      building        and 10 containment        structure.          Again,      Hope Creek has that 11 Mark      I    containment      as    evidenced        by  the  inverted 12 lightbulb shape and the attached torus which we also 13 refer to as the suppression pool.                        The drywell is          a 14 steel pressure vessel which is                    encased in      concrete, 15 and the torus is connected to the drywell airspace via 16 8 vent        pipes.      The vent pipes are              connected      to a 17 header        that distributes          the flow to the downcomers 18 which terminate approximately 3 feet under the tech 19 specs minimum required water level.
20                    On the next slide --            get into the actual 21 containment response analysis being performed using 22 the NRC-approved General Electric methodology.                                The 23 results indicate that adequate margin do exist for 24 design basis accident              conditions.          Specifically,          on 25 the codes,        LAMB,    M3CPT and SuperHEX were the primary NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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156 1 codes utilized            for EPU.
2                        CHAIR        ABDEL-KHALIK:              Now    M3CPT        was 3  developed          for Mark        III      containment      analysis.          The 4  question is          were there any modifications to either the 5  code or to the input required to apply to the Mark I 6  containment of Hope Creek?
7                        MR. DENNY:        This is    Skip Denny of General 8  Electric-Hitachi.                No,    sir,    there's no need to modify 9  the code itself.              The code allows for three levels of 10  relief        vent    pipes        basically        and    whether    they        go 11  horizontal          or vertical.              And so the inputs would be 12  set up for a Mark I containment to utilize                          just one of 13  those vent pipes allowed in                      the code itself.          So the 14  code is,        although designed particularly                  for the Mark 15  III      containment,          it    handles      all    three  containment 16  types,      Mark I,      II  and III.
17                        CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              Okay. The    other 18  question          is    that      SuperHEX        has  never    really      been 19  reviewed by the staff,                  and I understand this is            one of 20  the codes that's              been used for many,              many years,        and 21  it's    --    the question then is              what type of confirmatory 22  analyses have been done by the staff                            to confirm the 23  results of these analyses?
24                        MR. LAMB:      This is    John Lamb with the NRC.
25  Because we're running a little                      early, our containment NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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157 1 expert should be coming shortly,                        so he'll    be able to 2 answer those questions.
3                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              All right.
4                      MEMBER    BONACA:        I    have also      a  question 5 regarding are these codes also the same used for the 6 analysis        until      now,    or  did you        have    some  changes 7 either in        the codes or inputs?                I  know you made the 8 change,        for example,          to the decay heat that you use 9 for the long-term.                Could you identify what changes 10 you had in        the methodologies used to address the power 11 uprate?
12                      MR. DENNY:      Yes,    sir.      Skip Denny again.
13 M3CPT is        the code of record for Hope Creek.                    M3CPT has 14 a vessel model internal to it,                    and the current short-15 term analysis            for Hope Creek uses              the vessel model 16 internal        to M3CPT.        However,      we now typically use a 17 LAMB code because its                vessel model is          more elaborate 18 than what's internal to M3CPT.                        And so with this, we 19 are using          a  LAMB blowdown          particularly.            And that 20 M3CPT will read LAMB blowdown directly.
21                      MEMBER BONACA:          So I      guess LAMB kind of 22 sharpens        the pencil somewhat?
23                      MR. DENNY:        A  little      bit.      LAMB        is 24 particularly          useful because          it    can handle      off-rated 25 conditions          whereas M3CPT can't.                LAMB has a      highly NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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158 1 nodalized vessel model whereas M3CPT is                          basically a 2  tin    can vessel model.
3                    MEMBER BONACA:          No.        I guess by reading 4  the    results,      etcetera,      clearly,        I    see  acceptable 5 results.        I was wondering of what the affect of the 6 power uprate really was analytically in                        values,      and I 7 couldn't really see that because,                    I mean, you may have 8 more changes to the assumptions,                    for example,        again, 9 the decay heat that you used to perform the long-term 10  containment analysis?
11                    MR. DENNY:      One of the slides that we're 12  going to be showing you is                going to be exactly that.
13                    MR. DAVISON:        In two slides, we'll get the 14  actual table where we compare our current methodology 15  with      the  new  methodology        at    our      current    licensed 16  thermal power and then taking that to the EPU as well.
17                    MEMBER      BONACA:          Okay.          So    we      can 18  understand what the effect really will be so far as a 19  delta,      although I understand that if                  you sharpen your 20  pencil, you get within the limits.                      Okay. Very good.
21                    MEMBER      BANERJEE:            So      has  LAMB      been 22  approved for use now by the staff?
23                    MR. DENNY:    This is      not the first        time we 24  brought LAMB.
25                    MEMBER BANERJEE:          No,    that's    not --    has it NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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159 1 been approved?
2                    MR. DENNY:      LAMB has been approved                  for 3  LOCA for many,        many years.
4                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            Has been approved?
5                    MR. DENNY:      Approved.
6                  MEMBER BANERJEE:          Not just brought forward 7  and accepted?        Is  that correct,        LAMB has been approved 8  for use?
9                    MR. LAMB:      I'm not sure.          This is        John 10  Lamb.
11                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            So it    has been used for 12  LOCA before?
13                    MR. LAMB:      My understanding,            yes,      it's 14  been used before,          but I'm not an expert in            this area, 15  so Rich Lobel should be here shortly.
16                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            I guess Fran's going to 17  tell      us.
18                    MR. BOLGER:        This is        Fran Bolger.          The 19  LAMB      is  an  integral        part    of    the    SAFER/GESTR        LOCA 20  methodology,        and it      is  approved.
21                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            So it    is approved.
22                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              But is  it  a correct 23  statement that I made earlier                that SuperHEX has never 24  been evaluated by the staff?
25                    MR. BOLGER:      Well,    I think staff      may have NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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160 1 some      comments        on their benchmarking                  that  they have 2 done with the SuperHEX when they get here.
3                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Okay.        Thank you.
4                      MEMBER      BANERJEE:          So      LAMB    has      been 5 approved        in    the    SAFER/GESTR        context.          Has    it    been 6 approved          --  Fran,      don't    run    away      --    has    it    been 7 approved in          the containment context?
8                      MR. BOLGER:        This is      Fran Bolger again.
9 As far as being separately reviewed and approved,                                      I 10 don't      really know.            It    has  been presented            in    many 11 power uprates as part of the power uprate methodology.
12 And I believe it            also is      included in        the ELTR and LTRs 13 that support power uprate.
14                      MEMBER BANERJEE:            Okay.
15                      MR. WALLIS:      This is      a critical        flow?
16                      CHAIR    ABDEL-KHALIK:            Initial      period        of 17 LOCA --        blowdown period.
18                      MR. DUKE:      This    is    Paul Duke.          We used 19 LAMB      for      ARTS/MELLLA        implementation            to  calculate 20 blowdown flows for anulus pressurization and that was 21 part of the application.                    And I believe 22                      MR. JOYCE:        he  staff      reviewed        that      in 23 particular          for anulus pressurization                  as part of the 24 ARTS/MELLLA amendment                  that was approved a              few years 25 ago.
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161 1                    MR. WALLIS:        What do the letters              stand for 2 in    LAMB?      It  might tell        us something about what's in 3 it.
4                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Please proceed.
5                    MR. DAVISON:      Going back to the slide, the 6 short-term          analysis        is    dominated        by    the    initial 7 blowdown      flow      rate    and    that  results        in    a  minimal 8 change      due    to    the    constant      pressure        nature      of    our 9 power uprate condition.                    The long-term response was 10 impacted        due      to  the      increase      in      the    decay      heat 11 associated with the EPU and it                  results in          11.3 degree 12 Fahrenheit          increase      in    peak  bulk        suppression          pool 13 temperature.
14                    MR. WALLIS:        There was some flow rate that 15 changed.        I was surprised.            What is      --  where is      --    the 16 sump pipe is          bigger or something?              I've lost it          then.
17 I've seen no change in              any of the blowdown flow rates?
18 I    thought there was a 15% change in                      something,        but I 19 lost      --
20                    MR. DENNY:      There is      a small increase in 21 the blowdown from current licensed power to EPU power 22 using LAMB,          and you'll see that in                the table that we 23 show you, a slight increase in containment pressure as 24 a result.
25                      MR. WALLIS:        Maybe I'll          be able to find NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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162 1 it.        I was surprised to read it              somewhere in        the SER.
2 But anyway,          don't worry about it.
3                      CHAIR    ABDEL-KHALIK:              And    that      slight 4 increase in          blowdown flow is            a result of what,              even 5 though you're essentially at constant pressure?
6                      MR. DAVISON:        It's    driving it,      yes.
7                      MEMBER      BANERJEE:          Well,    you    have        more 8 stored energy in            the core.
9                      MR. DENNY:      Yes.      I believe it        has to do 10 with more          stored    energy      in    the vessel      liquid.            It 11 happens around 10 seconds where the blowdown diverges 12 a    little      bit  from      current      power    to EPU power,              and 13 that's      what's giving us a slight increase in                        drywell 14 pressure.          But it's      basically that the flow rate is 15 decreasing as reactor pressure is                    decreasing, but with 16 LAMB,      at EPU conditions,          it    doesn't drop off as fast.
17                      CHAIR    ABDEL-KHALIK:            Okay.      I    think        I 18 understand.            More    stored energy          essentially        in      the 19 inventory        within      the vessel        because    your    feedwater 20 temperature is            slightly higher,          the core temperature 21 is    slightly higher,            all  that stuff.          Okay.
22                      MEMBER      BANERJEE:            The    average          void 23 fraction is          higher.
24                      MR. DelGAIZO:          We  also    have    a    little 25 higher        DP. In    other    words,      the    dome  pressure          is NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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163 1 constant.          The DP in the vessel increases slightly due 2  to    the    increased          feed    flow      and      the    recirc        and 3 everything          and    the    big break        is    the    suction        line 4 break,        so  it  could be        a slightly          higher    pressure 5 there,        too,    even      though    the      dome      pressure        is      a 6 constant.
7                        CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Okay.
8                      MR. DAVISON:        All right.          On slide 45, the 9 DBA LOCA containment analysis was performed at 102% of 10  the 3840 megawatt thermal rating.                          For the analysis, 11  the ANSI/ANS          5.1 methodology was              --    uncertainty was 12  utilized          for    the    extended      power      uprate      licensed 13  topical        report.          This    approach        provides      a    more 14  realistic containment temperature response and differs 15  from the current Hope Creek UFSAR analysis based on 16  the previous made with decay heat methodology.                                We'll 17  actually look at those in                    tabular form in            the next 18  page.
19                        The analysis did credit passive heat sinks 20  including          the      drywell      metal      inner      shell.          The 21  containment vent system, metal piping and the torus 22  metal shell.          These heat sinks are not credited in the 23  current        Hope    Creek      UFSAR    analysis,          contribute          to 24  approximately            2  degrees      Fahrenheit          decrease      in      the 25  peak bulk suppression pool water temperature.
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164 1                    MEMBER BONACA:              Passive heat sink.
2                    MR. DAVISON:            Correct.
3                    MEMBER BONACA:              What about your decay heat 4  curve after        you complete it?
5                    MR. DAVISON:            Yes,      next    slide. I    think 6 that's        seven,  right?          I    think      it's    approximately          7 7  degrees        -- 11 total,        right.
8                    MEMBER      BONACA:            It's      above  10  degrees 9  coming from changes              in    methodology --            inputs.
10                    MR. DAVISON:            Okay.          The table displays 11  the peak drywell air              --
12                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                    Back to this passive 13  heat sink is        credited in          long-term analysis,          this was 14  not done in        the original analysis?
15                    MR. DAVISON:            That's correct.
16                    MR. DENNY:          No,  sir.
17                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                  Okay. Even though it 18  is    an option that's          available in              the code,  so  --
19                    MR. DENNY:          There were no changes in                  the 20  code that would account for this.
21                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                    Thanks.
22                    MR. DAVISON:            Here's the table we referred 23  to a      few slides back.              It    displays the peak drywell 24  air      space    pressure        and      temperature,          the  peak bulk 25  suppression pool water temperature                            and the peak wet NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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165 1 well airspace pressure and temperatures as compared 2 between current licensed thermal power,                    EPU,  and the 3 design limits.        So the first        two columns specifically 4 under      the  CLTP  3339 megawatt          thermal    compares      the 5 current UFSAR analysis methodology with the new EPU 6 method results.          The most notable change is                the 9-7 degree reduction          in    the peak bulk suppression pool 8 water temperature.            This reveals the more realistic 9 results        associated        with      the      transition            of 10 methodologies from MWt to the ANS 5.1 and the addition 11 of the passive heat sinks per SuperHEX.
12                  The results using the EPU methodology for 13 the uprate, 3840 megawatts thermal, which is                    the next 14 column      over  --  this    result    showed    that  the    margin 15 exists in the containment structural code and the net 16 positive suction head design limits.                      Therefore,        the 17 design basis accident LOCA containment performance has 18 margin for all parameters at the EPU conditions.
19                  CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            Now let's  look at the 20 218 degrees F entry.              This value was originally 212, 21 is    that correct?
22                  MR. DAVISON:        Yes.
23                  MR. DAVISON:        Okay.        Now what      design 24 changes were made to increase that design limit to 218 25 degrees F?
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166 1                  MR. DAVISON:          There      were    no    design 2  changes.
3                  CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            So how is that design 4  limit increased to 218 degrees                  F from its      original 5 value of 212?
6                  MR. DelGAIZO:        This is      Ted DelGaizo.          We 7  have calculations on both RHR and core spray thermal-8 hydraulic      calculations        in  computer codes.            They're 9  pretty detailed.          And out of those calculations come 10  the NSPH calculation.                What we did is          in  order to 11  bound the higher numbers that we were getting for EPU 12  --    and in  fact, when we first          started this project and 13  we looked at 120%,          they were even a little            bit higher 14  --    I think 215 might have been the max --                so we picked 15  a number that would bound all possible suppression 16  pool temperatures and did the NSPH calculation with 17  that assumption.          So it's      an assumed value,          218.
18                    Now in addition to assuming that, we had 19  to do some other things.              We had to check the seals on 20  the core spray pump and make sure they could handle 21  218.      There were some other things that were done, but 22  basically,      in  order to change            that    to our new so-23  called design limit for suppression pool temperature, 24  we ran the NSPH calculations to show we had margins 25  with atmospheric in the containment,                    no overpressure, NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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167 1 218 F,        and we showed that we had sufficient --
2                        MR. WALLIS:        And this works because the 3  pumps are located way --
4                        MR. DelGAIZO:          Right,      our pumps        --    we 5  really have a great configuration.
6                        MR. WALLIS:        They're low down and            --
7                        MR. DelGAIZO:        Right.        The --
8                        MR. DAVISON:        They're vertical pumps.                Our 9  minimum suppression pool water is                      71-foot elevation in 10  the plant.          Our pumps are located on 54 and they drop 11  down 15 feet.
12                      MR. WALLIS:          Oh,    they're      those        long 13  tubular-type pumps --
14                      MR. DAVISON:        Yes.      Multiple stages.
15                        CHAIR    ABDEL-KHALIK:              So  what    is      the 16  elevation          difference          between      the    pump  inlet        port 17  center          line  and    the      minimum      water      level    in      the 18  suppression pool?
19                      MR. DelGAIZO:        The inlet        center line is 20  55-1/2 feet --            55.6 roughly.          The pool minimum is              71 21  feet and a half inch or --                  it's    basically 71 feet to 22  55-1/2,          so I  guess      that's    16  feet.        And as pointed 23  out,      that's    the pump's suction line.                The impeller is 24  about another 16 feet down below that.                            And we don't 25  credit        that.      We  went    from the      71    to  the    55,      and NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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168 1  that's        the  elevation          that    had to        be  used    in    the 2 calculation.          And we had 14.7 psia and the head loss 3  through the strainers and the friction losses through 4 the piping,        we ended up with NSPH margin above the 5 required.          And the required number we used is                            the 6 highest number the vendor tested.                          So in other words, 7 it    basically is          runout flow for the required                --    NSPH 8 required,        and    it's      actual    flow      for NSPH available 9 based on the computer code.
10                    MEMBER        BONACA:        So    let  me  just      --    to 11 complete my question and that was if                        I assume the same 12 computer code used before, the same inputs as before, 13 there would be an increase in bulk pool temperature of 14 about 10 degrees Fahrenheit?                    I'm trying to understand 15 the      contribution          of    the    decay      heat    curve  and      the 16 passive heat sink credit.
17                    MR. DelGAIZO:          Well,    the way I see that --
18 if you notice on this slide, under the CPPU method, we 19 actually have an 11 degree increase from the 201 to 20 the 212.        Two of that is          associated with the passive 21 heat sinks.          I would say the other 9 is                    the decay 22 heat.
23                    MEMBER BONACA:              Okay.        So the EPU 2840 24 would have been assuming the same conditions                            --
25                    MR. DelGAIZO:        Right.
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169 1                    MR. DENNY:        Two    degrees        in  there        for 2 passive heat sinks.
3                    MR. DelGAIZO:        Oh,    it  did?
4                    MR. DENNY:      I'm sorry.
5                    MR. DelGAIZO:        Yes,    you're right.
6                    MR. DENNY:      Apologize.          There's a little 7 correction.          In  the CLTP going from 210 to 201,                      that 8 included both changing from MWt to the ANS 5.1 which 9 gives you 7 degrees,              and then the passive heat sinks 10 give you another 2 degrees,                  so that totals          9 degrees 11 decrease.          The change      from 201        to 212      is  using the 12 same      exact  methodology        but    increasing          core    power.
13 That's giving you the actual EPU change.
14                    MEMBER BONACA:          All right.            So where you 15 have the list        of EPU method is        really same power level 16 but taking credit for those things.
17                    MR. DENNY:      Correct.
18                    MEMBER      BONACA:        I    understand        now      the 19 table.        These are the answer I needed.
20                    CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:                I'm    trying          to 21 reconcile the first            two entries in          the second column.
22 How can the new method predict a lower pressure while 23 predicting a higher temperature?
24                    MR. DENNY:      Yes,    sir.      I  looked at that 25 also.          The  lower    pressure      occurs      because      the    LAMB NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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170 1 blowdown versus M3CPT blowdown --                          M3CPT doesn't have 2 the elaborate nodalization,                      so the blowdown early in 3 the event is        more restrictive              in  LAMB than it        would be 4 in    M3CPT.        So    the    M3CPT      gave      you      a  higher        peak 5 pressure      early in        the    event.          In    LAMB,    it  actually 6 goes out a        little        bit    further,        so the peak pressure 7 you see, 48.1, and its              temperature is            happening around 8 a 4-second for an M3CPT alone analysis.
9                    MR. WALLIS:            So there's more gas in                there?
10 Is    that it?
11                    MR. DENNY:      It's    the resistance due to the 12 recirc lines.            M3CPT doesn't have --
13                    MR.      WALLIS:            I    take      it    the    partial 14 pressure of        the non-condensables                  is    bigger earlier?
15 Is    that what it        is    that makes it            --    presumably,        this 16 pressure --        the saturation pressure of the steam plus 17 the non-condensables,                that's      the problem you have,                  is 18 that?
19                    MR. DENNY:        Yes.
20                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                    Yes.
21                    MR. WALLIS:        Do you have the steam tables 22 here?
23                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                      I  do have a        steam 24 table but        the      question          is,    you    know,      what    is      the 25 contribution          of    the    non-condensable                gas    to      this NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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171 1  calculated pressure of 47.6?
2                    MR. DENNY:          They      both    have  the      same 3  initial        containment pressures and temperatures.
4                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                But the contribution 5 of      the    non-condensable,          if    you      were  calculating          a 6 higher        temperature,      will      be    higher      in  the    second 7 calculation,          right?
8                    MR. DENNY:          Non-condensable          gas      gets 9 transferred to the suppression pool really quickly,                                so 10 --    I  guess    I'm not sure I            understand the        question.
11 The non-condensable gas is                  in  the suppression pool.
12                    MEMBER BANERJEE:              I    guess what would be 13 interesting          is  to  look at        the      time at which        these 14 peaks          happen,    because          they        are  probably        not 15 coincidence.
16                    MR. DENNY:      Exactly.          In the UFSAR method, 17 you see that peak pressure at the roughly 4.4 seconds.
18                    CHAIR    ABDEL-KHALIK:                If  you  have        the 19 plots,        I think that would be very helpful.
20                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            That would be help --              I 21 think that would explain it.
22                    MR. WALLIS:      Well,      it's    apparently at 295 23 --    pressure is        62 psia,      so it's          almost all    steam in 24 the EPU method.
25                    MR. DENNY:      Yes,      sir.
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172 1                    MR. WALLIS:        And there must be some notes 2 on gas        and available        at  the    other    --    and  then the 3 UFSAR method.
4                    MR. DENNY:        This      is    showing    the      peak 5 pressure.        As the drywell pressure -- this is with LAMB 6 blowdown --        the drywell pressure rises and continues 7 to rise,        and it    goes to a little            dip and peaks at 8 about 10 seconds.              The FSAR figure which is              what the 9 48.1 which uses only M3CPT blowdown comes up really 10 quick, peaks at about 4.5 seconds and then comes back 11 down      and actually        stops    dropping.          It  shows      it's 12 allowing a lot of energy out a lot earlier than what 13 LAMB does,        because      LAMB    restricts        that    blowdown a 14 little      bit more due to the nodalization.                    When fluid 15 leaves the recirc line,                fluid has to be made up from 16 the vessel.          For M3CPT,      that vessel makeup is              almost 17 instantaneous, so you get a lot fast blowdown with the 18 M3CPT model.
19                    MR. WALLIS:      Well,    it  has to do with the 20 sweeping        out  of    non-condensables,            and    the partial 21 pressure of the non-condensables,                    presumably plus the 22 vapor pressure of the steam, equals the pressure you 23 get.
24                    MR. DENNY:      Yes,    sir.
25                    MR. WALLIS:        And we're just saying that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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173 1  from      the    steam    tables,      the    EPU method        corresponds 2 almost        exactly    to pure      steam.          That's because          it's 3  later      in  the process.
4                      MR. DENNY:      Exactly.
5                      MR. WALLIS:        And LAMB does a good job of 6 modeling the non-condensables sweep power?                              That's --
7 that depends upon the mixing model which often isn't 8 all    that good.
9                      MR. DENNY:        LAMB    is    not doing      anything 10 with containment.              It's    just a vessel blowdown.
11                      MR. WALLIS:        I'm sorry.
12                      MR. DENNY:      The M3CPT is          --
13                      MR. WALLIS:        It's    the other        one that's 14 doing        the    vessel.          But    this      is  assuming      a    mixed 15 containment?          What does it          assume about that?
16                      MR. DENNY:      It    assumes --        it  follows the 17 air    blowing out in          the --
18                      MR. WALLIS:            So  there's        a  well-mixed 19 containment?
20                      MR. DENNY:        -- suppression          pool    itself.
21 Initially,          yes,    sir.          Basically,          I  guess,        the 22 conclusion is          the --      because of the LAMB --              the M3CPT 23 blowdown,          the    non-condensables              get  swept      into      the 24 suppression pool a lot faster.
25                      MR. WALLIS:        Okay.
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174 1                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            But if it is a well-2 mixed          containm-ent,      how      can    there    be      a    zero 3 contribution          to  the    total      pressure    from      the    non-4 condensable gas at any power?
5                    MR. DENNY:        Because it's swept.            It gets 6 swept out.          Even with the mixed containment, it gets 7 swept out.
8                    MR. WALLIS:        It would be nice if you could 9 show the non-condensable contribution here                          somehow, 10 but    --  do you have another plot that shows that?
11                    MR. DAVISON:          No.
12                    MR. DENNY:        I don't know if we have vent 13 flows.        No.
14                    MR. WALLIS:          That's      a sort    of    reality 15 check is to look at that.
16                    MR. DENNY:      I can look and see if we have 17 vent flows where it would show air flow                      --
18                    MR. WALLIS:          Right.
19                    MR. DENNY:      --    and air drops off quickly.
20                    MR. WALLIS:        Maybe    you  can bring          that 21 tomorrow or something.
22                    MEMBER MAYNARD:          Are these numbers in your 23 table?        For the 3840,      is that actually 3840 or is it 24 3952?        The chart says 3952 and you earlier said that 25 you did the analysis basically at the 120                        --
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175 1                      MR. DENNY:        I'm sorry.          You're  talking 2 about power.              I'm trying to figure out what numbers 3 you were looking at.
4                      MEMBER MAYNARD:            This chart says 3952 and 5  it    looks    like    it  would peak        at    --  looks  like    about 6  50.6.        I see about 50.6 here.
7                      MR. DelGAIZO:      You know, I think all          these 8 values except the pool are 3952.                          I think the problem 9 is    here that        --
10                      MR. DENNY:          Right.          The  short-term 11 analysis was done at 102% of 120% uprate.
12                      MEMBER MAYNARD:            Okay.
13                      MR. DENNY:      Yes,    sir.
14                      MR. DelGAIZO:        The number that is        done at 15 102% of 3840 are those suppression pool temperatures 16 which were redone to check 3840.                        The others were left 17 alone because they were fine.
18                      MEMBER MAYNARD:            Okay.
19                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Can we go back to the 20 table and clarify this?
21                      MR. DelGAIZO:      I'm saying I think if          you -
22 - I think the words on this were that the 3840 column 23 is    3840 or greater,            and the one that is          actual 3840 is 24 suppression pool temperature.                        The others are 3952.
25 And that's          why it      is  include    --
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176 1                    MR. DENNY:      Air pressure would also be the 2  long-term analysis.
3                    MR. DelGAIZO:          Okay.      The same for both of 4  those.
5                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              So could you please 6  clarify      which of      the  entries      in    the  fourth    column 7 correspond to what power level?
8                    MR. DelGAIZO:        Paul, do you have Table 4-1 9 there from the PUSAR?            My understanding is            that of the 10  --    the only row that is            --  3840 is      suppression pool 11  temperature,        but    I  could be wrong.            That's why I'd 12  like to check on it.
13                    MR. DENNY:      Suppression pool temperature 14  is    this one here.
15                    MR. DelGAIZO:        Right.
16                    MR. DENNY:      Bulk pool temperature              --
17                    MR. DelGAIZO:        Peak,      right --    bulk      --
18                    MR. DENNY:      --  peak wet well pressure --
19                    MR. DelGAIZO:        Right.
20                    MR.      DENNY:          --    and      peak  wet        well 21  temperature would all            be from the long term analysis, 22  the SuperHEX.          That's    at 102% of          3840. That's the 23  bottom three rows is            102% for EPU,          102% of 3840.          The 24  upper two rows,        the 50.6 and the 298,            that was done at 25  102% of 120% uprate.
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177 1                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            Does that answer your 2 question,      Otto?
3                    MEMBER MAYNARD:          Yes.
4                    MR. DUKE:      This is      Paul Duke.        The only 5 value that we're reporting based on the 3840 is                                the 6 suppression pool temperature.
7                    MR. DENNY:      I'm sorry.
8                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                So for the record, 9  could you please state where these entries correspond 10  to?
11                    MR. DUKE:      The CPPU analysis is            based on 12  102% of 3952 megawatts with the exception of the bulk 13  suppression pool temperature,                which is        based on 102%
14  of 3840 megawatts.
15                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Thank you.
16                    (Off the record comments.)
17                    MR. DAVISON:        Okay?
18                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            So back to the table, 19  I mean I understand conceptually how you can have a 20  temperature        limit    of    218  degrees        F  because    of      the 21  elevation        difference.        But    somehow      it  doesn't make 22  sene      to  have  a  temperature        limit      greater  than        the 23  saturation temperature of the pool when you're saying 24  that you're utilizing              that limit corresponding                to a 25  containment pressure of one atmosphere.
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178 1                    MR. DelGAIZO:          Well,      but  that's        the 2  artificiality          we're driven to by the reg guide.                          I 3  mean I agree.          The reg guide forces us to assume 14.7.
4  We agree that at 218,              we have to be higher than 14.7.
5 In      fact,    if  we    even    took    that      up  to  saturation 6 pressure,        we'd do wonderfully on margin.                    So it        is 7  very conservative to do              --
8                    MR. WALLIS:        In regulatory space, you can 9  violate the laws of physics if                    you want to.
10                      CHAIR    ABDEL-KHALIK:              Well,  thank      you.
11  Please continue.
12                      MR. DAVISON:        That really covered what's 13  on page 47 when you take in that 218 and the 14.7 psia 14  into account.            The minimum net positive suction head 15  margin availability is conservatively determined to be 16  1.7 feet for our residual heat removal pumps and 1.2 17  feet for the core spray pumps.                      Therefore,    the ECCS 18  net      positive      suction      head      is      provided    without 19  crediting containment overpressure.
20                      And the final slide, 48,              this part of the 21  EPU, non-LOCA events were also analyzed.                        There was a 22  request for information regarding our Appendix R, and 23  the      following information is              provided.        This table 24  displays        the  peak      drywell    airspace        pressure,      peak 25  drywell        airspace        temperature          and    the  peak      bulk NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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179 1 suppression pool temperature is                    compared between CLTP, 2  EPU,      and the design limits for the limiting Appendix 3  R    event.        The    parameters        are    not      significantly 4  impacted        by  the    Appendix      R  event,        the  EPU    power 5 conditions,        and significant margin continues to exist 6 respective to the containment design analysis limits.
7                      CHAIR          ABDEL-KHALIK:                    Could        you 8  qualitatively          explain where          the Appendix R limiting 9  scenario is?
10                      MR. DAVISON:      Let's see,        Bill do you have 11  that in        your notes?        Shelly?      From the remote shutdown 12  panel,        right,    RCIC    is  --  there's      fire,      scram,        SRV 13  opening,        remote shutdown panel.              RCIC has to be placed 14  in    service within          10 minutes,        and    suppression          pool 15  cooling is        placed in        service within 20 minutes which 16  was      previously        time-validated          by    operations.            The 17  scenario and the actions that come out of that is                                our 18  most limited.
19                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                Okay.      Thank you.
20                      MR.      DAVISON:            And      that      ends        the 21  containment          response          session.            Any    additional 22  questions?
23                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              I guess the question 24  was        raised      earlier          as    to      what        independent 25  calculations,          if    any,      the  staff      has    performed          in NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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180 1 support of the calculations presented by the applicant 2 with regard to containment response.
3                    MR. LOBEL:        Excuse me,        this is    Richard 4 Lobel.        The  staff      didn't    perform      any  independent 5 calculations for Hope Creek.                The staff has previously 6 performed independent calculations.                      We did some for 7 Duane      Arnold    a  long    time    ago    comparing    our      code 8 CONTAIN.        I think we used --          if    I remember right,            we 9 used CONTAIN.          It was either CONTAIN or MELCOR we used 10 to compare it          with SuperHEX.          And more recently,              we 11 did      mass    and  energy,      independent        mass  and    energy 12 release and containment calculations for the Vermont 13 Yankee power uprate and the agreement                        for both was 14 very good.
15                    The      mass      and      energy      calculations 16 calculated        by    Vermont        Yankee        were    conservative 17 compared        to the    staff    calculations        that we did we 18 RELAP.        So we didn't        feel    it    was necessary        to do 19 independent          calculations          for      another    BWR      core 20 basically the same type of design using the same --
21 comparing the same codes again.                    So we didn't do any 22 independent calculations for Hope Creek.
23                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              So it  was the same 24 suite of three codes used by Vermont Yankee?
25                    MR. LOBEL:      Yes.
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181 1                    MR. WALLIS:      I'm surprised you didn't do 2 any calculations.            I mean here Said and I are doing a 3 hand calculation            on the vapor pressure                  and the gas 4 pressure        and  so  on    to  check      that      it  makes      sense.
5 Don't you do that routinely,                  I mean look at numbers 6 and say do they make sense physically?                          I would think 7 you'd always do that.
8                    MR. LOBEL:        Well,      we    do    that    kind        of 9 thing.        I  was speaking        to more        formal      calculations 10 with computer codes.
11                    MR. WALLIS:            Well,          but    the      hand 12 calculations might be more believable in                          some context 13 than the computer calculations.
14                    MR. LOBEL:        Well,      that's        part    of    the 15 review to --        I mean that's        a major part of the review 16 to look at the number and see that the numbers make 17 sense.
18                    MR. WALLIS:          Yes.            And    you      make 19 calculations,          too,    don't you?        Yes.
20                    MR. LOBEL:    The timing of the --              well,      and 21 we also not only within a given submittal, but we have 22 the      benefit      of    previous        calculations            from      other 23 licensees so we can compare things.
24                    MR. WALLIS:      Well,    when they say that the 25 heat capacity of the metal and the torus brings down NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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182 1 the temperature by a certain amount,                        you can easily 2 check that yourself and see is                    that reasonable.
3                    MR. LOBEL:      Sure.
4                      MR. WALLIS:        And do they make an error of 5 a factor of 10 or something.                  I would hope you guys do 6 that sort of thing.
7                      MR. LOBEL:      We do that sort of thing and 8  like I was going to say, we also compare calculations 9  between        different      submittals        to    see  that,  between 10  submittals, that if            there is a difference in a number, 11  to try to explain the difference in                      terms of size of 12  vessel,          size    of    containment,          amount    of    water, 13  different technical specification limits and that kind 14  of thing.          That's a big part of the review.
15                      MR. WALLIS:      Right.
16                      MR. DelGAIZO:        Sir,    I would like to say 17  also --        this is    Ted DelGaizo --          that we got our eyes 18  on that very subject which had to do with previous 19  margins we had shown on MPSH and the margins we were 20  showing here, and the staff made a nice catch on where 21  there were some disconnects which we explained that 22  did make sense actually when we dug into.                        So I think 23  there's no question they look pretty hard at MPSH from 24  our standpoint.
25                      MR. LOBEL:        I  understand      there    was      a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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183 1 question,        too,    about      the    LAMB        code?      Is    there        a 2 question?
3                    MR. WALLIS:          Oh, what's it          based on?        What 4 model does --          critical        flow.
5                    MR. LOBEL:        Well,      I    think the GE people 6 could        do    a    better        job    than        I    can,    but      it's 7 essentially,        as I understand it,                  an ECCS code.
8                    MR. WALLIS:          It's        a  MUDI      model      for 9 critical        flow?
10                    MR. LOBEL:        I believe          so,  yes,  MUDI SLP 11 model for critical              flow.
12                    MR. DENNY:      LAMB has both MUDI SLP and a 13 homogeneous equilibrium.                  And for Hope Creek, we used 14 homogeneous equilibrium.
15                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                Is that conservative?
16                    MR. DENNY:      It  is    --
17                    MR. LOBEL:      It  is    in    terms of mass flow.
18                    MEMBER BANERJEE:                It      gives you      a    lower 19 sump speed.
20                    CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:                  So  it      is      not 21 conservative.
22                    MR. DENNY:      No,  it    is    conservative.          It    is 23 not as        conservative        --  SLP would give you a                    higher 24 blowdown,        yes.      But is      the licensing basis blowdown 25 method.        Now the M3CPT UFSAR one that you have here NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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184 1  from their table, URSAR one was M3CPT with homogeneous 2 equilibrium.              Now    we  use    LAMB      with  homogeneous 3 equilibrium.
4                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Would the staff        care 5  to    comment      about    the    appropriateness          of  using        a 6 homogeneous equilibrium model for the blowdown phase 7 of the LOCA with regard to containment analysis.
8                    MR. LOBEL:      There was a staff          evaluation 9 of      a    GE  topical        report      using      the  homogeneous 10 equilibrium model that was done a long time ago.                                  I 11 can't remember the date.                And the staff        concluded that 12 using      the HEM was acceptable              and      conservative,        not 13 because of the homogeneous                  equilibrium model            itself 14 but because of the GE modeling that went along with it 15 resulted in        a conservative calculation.                And I don't 16 remember offhand what the details were,                        but it      was a 17 staff      evaluation of a GE topical report.                    I  can get 18 the number of the topical report.                        I don't remember 19 offhand what --            why the conclusion was what                it    was, 20 but I remember it            had to do with the GE modeling.
21                    MR. BOLGER:      This    is    Fran Bolger.          You 22 know, the standard review plan for mass-energy release 23 requires        that    the blowdown        had    to  be  conservative 24 relative to data.              The homogeneous          equilibrium model 25 as it      applied includes a multiplier in                the sump-cooled NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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185 1 region,        and that multiplier will yield blowdown rates 2 which are conservative.
3                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            The multiplier if        you're 4 in    sump-cooled        blowdown.        It's    not    sort    of  like a 5 Fauske multiplier,            something like that?              What do you 6 have there?
7                    MR. BOLGER:      I don't have the details on 8 how the multiplier was derived.
9                    MEMBER      BANERJEE:        Anyway,      whatever        the 10 multiplier is,          certainly it      will be okay.          It  won't be 11 conservative in          the sump-cooled range.              It  can just be 12 sort      of a    curve-fit      to date probably and there                    are 13 various models.            But in    the two-phase region,              I don't 14 see      that    saturate        agreeing        that    it      would        be 15 conservative?
16                    MR. WALLIS:      So the bigger the pipe the 17 closer you get to homogeneous,                    don't you --
18                    MEMBER BANERJEE:            And the longer the pipe.
19                    MR. WALLIS:        - and the more weaker is              very 20 close to homogeneous.
21                    MEMBER BANERJEE:              Yes,    if you have a long 22 and big pipe,        it's    pretty close, but it            depends on the 23 scenario        I  suppose.            Short      pipes,      you're        not 24 homogeneous.
25                    MR. WALLIS:        But it's      been approved by the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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186 1 NRC so --
2                          MR. LOBEL:        If    I remember the --
3                          MEMBER      BANERJEE:            Against    the      laws      of 4 physics.              That's    what you said --
5                          MR. LOBEL:        --  if  I  remember    the topical 6 report,          the analysis was for long pipes.                        It  wasn't 7 just modeling a nozzle.                        It  was modeling flow through 8 the pipe            --
9                          MEMBER BANERJEE:                Yes. If  it's      a  long 10  pipe,      it'll        be pretty good.
11                          CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              We would appreciate 12  that reference.
13                          MR. LOBEL:        Okay.
14                          CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Please continue.
15                          MR. DAVISON:            That was      the    end of        the 16  containment analysis actually.
17                          CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              We'll continue with 18  the next presentation.
19                          MR. DAVISON:          Thank you, gentlemen.            That 20  takes us to slide 50,                  start      with the FAC presentation.
21  Hope Creek's FAC program was developed in                                accordance 22  with the industry standard from the NRC Generic Letter 23  89-08 requirements and,                      of course,      the EPRI Guidance.
24  In 2006,          the bases document was updated to include the 25  system's susceptibility evaluations including the wear NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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187 1 associated with both single- and two-phase flow.                                  The 2 susceptible non-modeled analysis captures piping not 3 suitably modeled due to uncertainty of the operating 4 conditions              or      the        actual          small-bore          pipe 5 configurations themselves.                        The non-modeled analysis 6 is    used      to    prioritize        inspections          and  proactive 7 replacement            of    the    piping        with    non-susceptible 8 materials.
9                      CHECWORKS, which Hope Creek has used since 10 Refuel Outage Number 6 was upgraded in                              2007 to the 11 latest version and reflects the targeted power uprate 12 for 111.5% conditions.                The living program consistent 13 of    the predictive            software        and  inspection        results 14 trending and the operating experience ensures that our 15 inspections and replacement strategy --
16                      MR. WALLIS:              Now    as      I  understand 17 CHECWORKS,        it  sort of evolves.            You get it      and then as 18 you get experience,                you change the way it              predicts 19 what's        going    to  happen.            And  so  it's    very plant 20 specific.
21                      MR. DAVISON:        That is    correct.
22                      MR. WALLIS:              And    so    when    it      says 23 predictive analysis here,                    it's    really --      a lot of it 24 is    based on your operating experience and inspection 25 and      so    on    that    gives      it      a  much    more    realistic NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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188 1 predictive capability?
2                      MR.      DAVISON:              That's        essentially 3  customized to the actual station and then we continue 4  to factor in          --
5                      MR. WALLIS:      The more years you've been 6 using it,        the better it        should be?
7                      MR. DAVISON:      Correct.        That is    correct.
8                      CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:              Did  I  hear      you 9  correctly          saying      that    this      has    been    essentially 10  extrapolated to the 11.5% power increase?
11                      MR. DAVISON:      Yes.        So what we actually 12  did was we --          knowing that this cycle will be running 13  at 111.5%,        we actually put it            in    for the full cycle.
14  We updated the model and then we went forward to look 15  to    see    if  there    is  any    earlier        inspections      --      or 16  excuse me --          later    inspections        in    subsequent refuel 17  outages that because of the uprate would need to be 18  done earlier.            So we actually plugged it              in early, did 19  all of our extrapolations to determine if                            there were 20  things we needed to do ahead of time,                        our last refuel 21  outage in other words.
22                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:                How do you correct 23  for the fact that you are going to be operating part 24  of the cycle at the current licensing thermal power 25  and part of the cycle at the elevated power in trends NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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189 1
2                      MR. DAVISON:        We put 111.5 for the whole 3 cycle.
4                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Okay.
5                      MR. DAVISON:      We increased the wear rate.
6                      CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              But if    you're trying 7  to learn from this model to be able to extrapolate, 8 you ought to be able to extrapolate correctly.
9                        MR. DAVISON:      Correct.        What we needed to 10  do is      to do the initial            prediction.          What we didn't 11  want to do is            wait until we got to EPU,                updated the 12  model      with      111.5    and    find out      that      we  should have 13  pulled        up    inspections        early    and      it    was  too      late 14  because        our last      refuel      outage      was    in  the    fall      of 15  2007.        So that's      essentially what we did to it.
16                        CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Okay.
17                        MS. KUGLER:      This is    Shelly Kugler.            Just 18  to correct Paul real quickly.                    The model was actually 19  --    was inputted that mid-cycle,                    we'd actually go to 20  111.5% --        it  didn't --      the full    cycle was not in            there 21  --    so we could more accurately model with the EPU.
22                        CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              Okay.
23                        MR. DAVISON:      Thank you,        Shelly.      On page 24  51    for what was          the    impact,    the    change      of    the EPU 25  conditions          did not result        in  any actual new systems NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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190 1 being added to the FAC program.                  The evaluation of the 2 inspection scope for the next two refuel outages did 3 not identify any current scheduled inspections that 4 needed        to  be  performed      earlier.          That  was      that 5 predictive and looking back to see if                      we needed to 6 pull things up.          So nothing was identified.
7                    However, changing wear rates will occur as 8 part of the EPU implementation.                  Therefore, additional 9 baseline testing was added to the program scope.                              In 10 fact, 9 new baseline components were added to the last 11 refuel outage back in            the fall, and 18 will be added 12 to the next refuel outage which is                      our spring 2009 13 outage.          The  program      is    continuously      updated          to 14 incorporate the operating conditions, as we mentioned 15 earlier        -- water chemistry,        inspection results and any 16 configuration          changes        that    we      would  make        via 17 modification like as in small-bore piping.
18                    Approximately 110 components are inspected 19 each outage if          you normalize them to how many we do 20 per outage.          As a result,        numerous components have 21 been replaced with FAC-resistant piping;                      typically, 22 small-bore piping over the last several outages.
23                    MEMBER ARMIJO:        Along those lines,          could 24 you fill        me in  on the extent to which you use,                    for 25 example, chrome-moly steels in your plant and the more NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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191 1 vulnerable materials?
2                    MR. DAVISON:          Yes. Most of the original 3 piping,        small-bore piping wise,              is  carbon steel.
4                    MEMBER ARMIJO:              Carbon steel.
5                    MR. DAVISON:            Right. So everything we 6 replace, piping system wise, is with the higher chrome 7 content, chrome-moly steel so that it's                      FAC-resistant.
8 Still,      you know, puts --          it's    captured in    the program 9 as an upgraded material that is                      not susceptible, but 10 all the replacements we do have the less susceptible 11 materials.
12                    MEMBER ARMIJO:                How about    your bigger 13 lines,      steam lines,        extraction lines,          other stuff?
14                    MR. DAVISON:            Almos't    all  of  that        is 15 carbon.            It's      all      susceptible.            No    specific 16 replacements          done.      When      we  have  an  issue    --      for 17 example, back in 3R14,                our last refuel outage, during 18 the previous cycle,              we had a through-wall leak of an 19 extraction-steam piping T.                    Most of that large piping 20 had been replaced with the upgraded piping materials.
21 However,        the T --    it's      a 26-inch T --        was not,      so it 22 still      remains    susceptible.              There was a kind of a 23 discontinuity between                the inner diameters          of the T 24 versus        the    piping        in    an    upstream    valve.            It 25 accelerated some wear.                It was in the FAC program, did NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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192 1 not detect it.            We had a through-wall leak about 3/8-2 inch by 1-inch actual                hole in        the piping.            When we 3 went      in  to do    the repair,          which was        go inside          the 4 piping in-body and do weld build-up on the ID of the 5 pipe,      we used FAC-resistant material when we did the 6 repair on that T.
7                    MEMBER ARMIJO:              With a weld build-up?
8                    MR. DAVISON:        Correct,        on the ID of the 9 pipe.        That's correct.
10                    MR. WALLIS:      This feedwater heater number 11 1, that's        extracting wet steam,                is    it?      That's --          I 12 just wondered            if    the wetness          changed        significantly 13 when you extracted more, presumably, with the upgrade 14 and if        the CHECWORKS really did a good job of taking 15 account of that?
16                    MR. DAVISON:      Well,      it    was the --          that's 17 our --        I mean that's        why it's        up on the screen.                That 18 is    our highest          prediction          of  change      of wear        rates 19 roughly from 10 to 12 mils per year, which is                              why it's 20 a    target      force      mainly      driven        by    the      increased 21 extraction            pressure          related            to      the      turbine 22 replacements            and,      of    course,          the    power        uprate 23 condition.
24                    MR.      WALLIS:      It's      the pressure.              Is    it 25 steam or is          it    steam with droplets in                  it?      Is    that NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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193 1 part of the problem with the wearing?
2                      MR. DAVISON:          I    don't    know    if  there's 3 anyone who can specifically help me with that.                              I know 4  it    takes into account the liquid drop impingement --
5                      MR. WALLIS:      It      probably      does    because 6 that's      --
7                      MR. DAVISON:          --  part    of  it    as    well.
8  Correct.        And it    also factors in            cavitation in        other 9  circumstances        as well.
10                      MR. WALLIS:          It's    not    really      a  safety 11  issue      anyway    unless      someone        happens      to  be    in      the 12  vicinity.
13                    MR. DAVISON:        Which is        a locked high rad 14  area for us in          that condition.            Nonetheless,        we don't 15  want to have steam leaks.                In fact, we did an extended 16  condition on the other ones                      and we'll      be affecting 17  some repairs because              we do have          some thinning,          not 18  anything that would go through-wall,                      but we are going 19  to repair those, same methodology using the improving 20  materials.
21                    MEMBER ARMIJO:            As a weld?
22                    MR. DAVISON:        Correct, ID build-up, inside 23  diameter build-up of the piping T.
24                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              The 10 to 12 mils per 25  year,      does  that    correspond          to  this maximum average NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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194 1 wear rate --
2                  MR. DAVISON:        Yes.
3                  CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:                          for      that 4 particular line?
5                  MR. DAVISON:        It's    actually 10.5 to 12.3 6  is    the prediction in        increase.          It's    a    .0023    inches 7 per year increase in            wear in      that location.
8                  CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:                And      just        for 9 reference,      how thick is        the pipe?
10                    MR. DAVISON:      It's    --  we do have a nominal 11  thickness      on that,      in  the piping.            I    think it's          1-12  inch,      but we can get that.
13                    CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:              How big is        the line?
14                    MR. DAVISON:          Twenty      --  do you have            the 15  piping size,        Shelly or Paul?
16                    MEMBER ARMIJO:              What pipe are we talking 17  about?
18                    MR. DAVISON:          Extraction          steam    in      the 19  number one feedwater.
20                    MR. WALLIS:      It's      probably way above the 21  thickness necessary to meet the requirement.
22                    MR. DAVISON:              Oh,      yes,        structural 23  integrity,        even    with    the      through-wall,          was    never 24  challenged.        We did do        structural          analysis        to make 25  sure      that  even    with    the      leak,      we  didn't        have        a NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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195 1 structural integrity problem.                      This is    strictly just 2  through-wall leakage.                  And we have a set of PNIDs we 3  can pull these --
4                        MR. WALLIS:        That's fine.        We'll follow up 5  later.
6                      MR. DAVISON:        Okay.      So we talked about, 7  you      know,      the    highest      one    being      this    number        one 8  feedwater heater.                We will be performing additional 9  inspections in            that particular area to validate the 10  model and make sure we check it                  going forward, because 11  that's our number one focus area.
12                        Okay.      And the last slide,            52,    we have 13  incorporated EPU into the model,                        made the necessary 14  adjustments to our inspection program.                          No new scope 15  was specifically              added.      Implementing      EPU does not 16  cause        any    near-term        pressure        boundary      challenges 17  associated          with    FAC    and    our    components.          They're 18  adequately          verified,      inspected        and checked        in      the 19  model        itself.        And we      don't      foresee    any    specific 20  challenges with increased flow.
21                        If  there are no questions,            I'll    go right 22  into patient curves.                Okay. In slide 53 and actually 23  54 and 55 are the three actual patient                            curves that 24  were adopted back in November of 2004 when we did the 25  uprate for the neutron fluence associated with the EPU NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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196 1 conditions to ensure that the fracture toughness of 2 the vessel material bounds the structural                      integrity 3 requirements.        The fluence was developed using the NRC 4 methodology in accordance with the GE topical report.
5 The curves        are applicable        through the      end of        life 6 which is        less than 32 effective full power years.
7                    For all three individual curves, the upper 8 vessel limit shown as the dashed line to the right 9 there        is  impacted    by    the    stress    level    increase 10 associated        with  the    feedwater        flow,  the  feedwater 11 nozzles flow and temperature changes associated with 12 the EPU.        The fluence impact on the belt line, which 13 is    the    solid  line,    does    not    become    limiting,        and 14 ultimately,        the upper      shelf energy remains          greater 15 than the code requirement for the design of the life, 16 50 foot-pounds.
17                    One thing to add --        we are a member of the 18 Integrated Surveillance Program for all the U.S. BWRs.
19 However,        Hope Creek is      the only Hitachi vessel in the 20 United States, and our specific data is actually only 21 used for Hope Creek itself.
22                    The first      of three capsules were removed 23 at the end of Cycle 5.                Two capsules remain in              the 24 vessel.          The  second      capsule      will  be    removed        in 25 approximately 2014, which is one year earlier than the NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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197 1 pre-EPU predication for the quarter-t fluence level.
2  The third capsule remains                in  the vessel for future 3 considerations.            No specific plans on removing that 4 capsule right now.
5                    MEMBER ARMIJO:        I guess I don't understand 6 the issue about the Hitachi vessel.                      Now you can use 7  the data from the other plants but they're not using 8 the data from your plant?                Or how --
9                    MR. DAVISON:        Yes.      Actually,  we are a 10  member of the Integrated Surveillance Program because 11  we share costs with the other folks who are in that, 12  and we share lessons learned, generic lessons learned.
13  Because we are the only Hitachi vessel,                      we really --
14  our data goes in and we use our own data.                    Nobody else 15  can use the data.            We're in      it  for the --
16                    MEMBER      ARMIJO:        You      can't  use    other 17  people's data either --
18                    MR. DAVISON:        Not      the  specific      data, 19  correct.        If    they do      lessons        learned,  changes          in 20  methods,      something        comes    out    that's    applicable          to 21  everybody, we will take those learnings, so we want to 22  be part of the learning organization                      from the,        you 23  know, the body of OE.            But as far as data in-data out, 24  it's      our Hitachi vessel.
25                    MEMBER ARMIJO:          Okay.
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198 1                    MR. DAVISON:            And      that  really    ends      my 2 update          on  the    curves      unless            there  are    specific 3 questions.          They've been            in    effect      since 2004.            We 4 will be submitting              for license renewal                in  August of 5 2009.        At that time,        they would be updated again and 6 that methodology would be adopting or changing to the 7  RAMA code for the fluence levels.
8                    MR. WALLIS:            Does      this  uprated      power 9  change          the  embrittlement                life      of    the    vessels 10  significantly?
11                      MR. DAVISON:          No,    it    does not.
12                      MR. WALLIS:        It    doesn't change it          by year 13  or something like that?                It's      less than --      presumably, 14  there's more fluence?              Is    there more fluence or less -
15  - depends upon how you arrange                          things,  doesn't it?
16                      MR. DAVISON:            Yes.        There will be more 17  fluence.
18                      MR. WALLIS:        Okay,        more fluence.
19                      MR. DAVISON:            In    fact,    when we      get      to 20  vessel        internals,      we'll      talk        about  the  individual 21  fluence levels --
22                      MR. WALLIS:        We'll do that tomorrow?
23                      MR. DAVISON:          --  on not only the internal 24  components but the vessel itself.
25                      CHAIR      ABDEL-KHALIK:                  Are    there        any NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
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199 1 additional questions for Mr.          Davison?
2                (No audible response.)
3                CHAIR ABDEL-KHALIK:            Are  there  comments 4 that the staff  would like to make on any of the topics 5 that were presented today?
6                (No audible response.)
7                CHAIR    ABDEL-KHALIK:              Okay.          We're 8 adjourned for today.
9                (Whereupon,    at 3:21 p.m.,        day one of the 10  foregoing matter was adjourned.)
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433      WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701        www.nealrgross.com
 
CERTIFICATE This is  to certify that the attached proceedings before the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in    the matter of:
Name of Proceeding:        Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards Docket Number:              n/a Location:                  Rockville,        MD were      held  as herein      appears,      and    that  this    is    the original transcript thereof for the file                    of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission taken by me and, thereafter reduced to typewriting by me or under the direction of the court reporting company,                    and that the transcript        is  a  true    and    accurate      record    of    the foregoing proceedings.
Charles Morrison Official Reporter Neal R. Gross & Co.,            Inc.
NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W.
(202) 234-4433            WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701          www.nealrgross.com
 
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Ag_)e-njd-)a Day 1
        " Introduction                              Tom Joyce
        " Hope Creek EPU Overview                    Paul Davison
        " Operations                                Bill Kopchick o Power Ascension and Testing                Bill Kopchick
        "    Fuel Methods                            Don Notigan o Containment Analysis Methodology          .Paul Davison and Response o FAC and Pressure-Temperature Limit Curves  Paul Davison Day 2 o Steam Dryer and Vessel Internals          Paul Davison o Probabilistic Safety Assessment            Ed Burns Grid Reliability                        Paul Davison aoere etf CGf qeRA'n                                                          1-3
 
@0@@@@@@@@@@@0@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@oO nn H@P@          -
 
===Background===
Licensing Approach Hope Creek Plant Overview EPU Parameter Changes EPU Major Plant Modifications EPU Implementation Schedule Conclusions HoPeCreek                              1-5 000*0004*01090*00000000000QOOOOOOOOQOIOOQI004,f
 
                                      - - :~y(.I,1pIhrT Hope Creek Generating Station n 100 percent owned and operated by PSEG Nuclear, wholly owned subsidiary of PSEG Power.
o Operating License issued 7/25/1986
      " Boiling Water Reactor- GEType 4
      " Mark 1 Containment
      " Thermal Power o Original license                3293 MWt o 1.4 % Appendix KUprate          3339 MWt
                  - Implemented 2001 o 15% Requested Uprate            3840 MWt
*U~PMGSTAIION 1-6
 
Hope Cree    EU    Ovevie MWt versus %Power 3952 MWt            ---  120.0%    ------------------    118.4%                                  ----------
                                                                        -                    102.9%
3840 MWt  EPU            116.6%                            115%        --------------- 100%      ----------
3723 MWt  TPU          --- 113.1%-              ----------  111.5%      ---------------- 97.0%    -----------
3339MWt  CLTP(AppK)    101.4%    -------------------- 100%          -                    87.0% ----
3293 MWt OLTP            100 %    -%          -        -    98.6%  ------------------- 85.8% -----
                              % 3293 MWt                        % 3339 MWt                    % 3840 MWt OLTP Power                        CLTP Power                      EPU Power
                  ,                      *=ek1-7
 
Licensing Approach Alternate Source Term o Amendment 134 Pressure/Temperature Limits o Amendment 157 GE14 Fuel Transition o Amendment 158 ARTS/MELLLA e Amendment 163 Ei EPU License Amendment 0
,yope~                            1-8 I -8
 
Parameter Changes Parameter                              CLTP    EPU (115%)
Core Thermal Power (Mwth)                3339      3840 Full Power Recirc Flow Range (Mlbm/hr) 76.6-105  94.8-105 Nominal Steam Dome Pressure (PSIA)      1020      1020 Feedwater Flow (Mlbm/hr)                14.37      16.74 Main Steam Flow (Mlbm/hr)              14.40      16.77 Final Feedwater Temp (Degrees F)        422.6      431.6 1-9
 
Hop,              reek Ee      zai wi 2003                  2004                        2006
* 500kV Breaker for Grid        e Installed LP Turbines &    e Implemented Stability (required by PJM)  Controls (DEHC and TSI)      ARTS/MELLLA
* Installed Cooling Tower      e Increased Main Generator
* Upgraded 'A' Steam Jet Air Upgrade                      Rating                      Ejector e Installed Turbine Moisture
* Upgraded Iso-Phase Bus Separator Upgrades          Duct Cooling 9 Replaced A & B Phase Main
* Feedwater Heater Dump Station Transformers        Valve Upgrades 9 Temporary Vibration
* Replaced Moisture Monitoring Equipment (for    Separator Relief Valves baseline data acquisition)
* Replaced 5th Pt FWH Relief Valves
* Upgraded MSL Pipe Supports
* Installed MSL Strain Gages in Drywell Hpcreek                                                                          1 -10
~F~ERATu4a STAttOf~                                                                  1 10
                                                                                        -
 
2007                                2008 (After License Amendment)
* Upgraded Condensate Demineralizer
* MSL High Flow Setpoints Resin Trap Strainers                o OPRM Setpoints o Installed HP Turbine                o APRM Setpoints
* Installed Redundant MSL Strain Gages o HWCI
* Modified MSL Small Bore Piping Socket Welds
* BOP Instrumentation Replacements, Scaling, and Setpoint Changes
* Raised RCIC Turbine Backpressure Trip Hqpe"reek
( 0gc 1 -11
 
EPU Projected Implementation Schedule Plant Physical Modifications o Complete Ei Tech Spec Setpoint Changes o Online following License Amendment E]  Power Ascension from 100% CLTP to 111.5% of CLTP o Spring 2008 Ht.o..ree~,                                              1-12
 
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                                            $i iU 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000o
 
0tý,ns, S na Tes.[,n Overview
* Operator Training
* Operator Response Power Ascension Testing f Hpe Cree qTerO 1 -14
 
Plant Modifications Classroom &Simulator Training Procedure Changes Operating Experience r//t*eCreek-11 0~~~~~00000000000000000000000000000000
 
Rie'-'pqnt No New Operator Actions Result from EPU Changes to Response Times u Detection &Diagnosis Time c3Time to Achieve Cold Shutdown Increases s Accident Time to Reach TAF Decreases Ei Time to Boil During Shutdown Decreases No Mitigating Strategies Affected Minor Changes to EOPs HCTL, PSP, BIIT
*Hope Creek; GFMr  TAV?
1 -16
 
              ,e,                pýonj
                      -----
                      -----
                        ---
Emergency Operating Procedures E
I-a) 0 0
ID CD_
400    500  600    700 800 900 1000 1100 RPV Pressure (psig)
Heat Capacity Temperature Limit(HCTL)
              ,.pe Cre*
(#o-                                                                              1 -17 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000o
 
Emergency Operating Procedures 40-
                            - EPU 35  - --                        __
CLTP 0LT ca  30-n  25-      -
E  20-
            --
o  15 in CL U)
Suppression Pool Water Level (ft)
Pressure Suppression Pressure (PSP)
HlPe Creek                                                          1 -18
 
Emergency Operating Procedures CL E
FT a--
0 Q_
CL
:3 U) 10 Reactor Power (%)
Boron Injection Initiation Temperature (BUT) a I` Cmekr,)
,,--,,H_QW N=ýý                                                                1 -19
 
P  -Wt A~s.esl TeStin Preparation Organization &Conduct of Testing Incremental Approach (Power Plateaus)
Major Test Evolutions (IY=-peIreel 1 - 20
 
Preparation o Test Objectives o Satisfactory Equipment Performance o Careful, Monitored Approach to EPU Power o Meet All Established Requirements o Roles &Responsibility Development/Industry Benchmarking o Test Plan &Implementing Test Procedure Development E] Power Ascension Test Training
                              -                        1-pe2 1 - 21
 
BI1Q)win      A-c-aIla            Te-        i HOPE CREEK EPU IMPLEMENTATION & POWER ASCENSION TEST TEAM ORGANIZATION II    HCGS PLANT MANAGER                I a--                  ---
II            Test Director III          Project Manager II Licensing                            Environmental Licensing I
y IPA Test Manager 11 EPU Implementation & Test Team Leader II Ii EPU Implementation & Test Team IPA Coordinator Implementation Lead Pwr Ascension Lead II l,
EPU Lead Responsible Engineer ,lI Team Member Core Performance        fl-        Team Member Chemistry/Radiation Team Member        Lii          Team Member          I I&C/Digital Feed            Pressure Reg/Feedwater I
Team Member                      Team Member Turbine Valve/MSIV      M        Vibration Monitoring Team Member Performance Monitoring H      GE StartUp Consultant    1 C-
  *HbeCekj 1 - 22
 
Incremental Approach mCommitments in PUSAR; LCR H05-01; and ELTR-1 o Similar to Approach Used in Other EPUs E] Baseline Data at 90% and 100% Followed By Constant Rodline Power Ascension at 2.5% Increments Ei Power Plateaus at Each 5% Power Step &Final Power
*HbPeCreek 1 - 23
 
-0)                                                  *N-~,.
en* b, Major Test Evolutions o Twelve Power Ascension Tests E] Steam Dryer/Critical Piping Monitoring Program E] EPU System Monitoring Plans Plant Walkdowns
*H~oeCreek; 1 - 24
 
C
              =
OO000000OooOOO0OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0OOOOOOOOO
 
Cycle 15 EPU Core Design
* Core loading consists of 216 SVEA-96+ and 548 GE14 fuel assemblies
* All fuel assemblies have PCI resistant design (barrier liner clad) and integrated debris filter features 0
1- 26
 
Application of NRC Approved GE Methods to Core Design
        &Safety Analysis for EPU Confirmatory Evaluations of Key Fuel Parameters Were Performed for Legacy Fuel (non-GE fuel) o Limitations and Conditions from NRC-Approved Licensing Topical Report NEDC-33173P "Applicability of GE Methods to Expanded Operating Domains" Applicable to Hope Creek EPU Were Fully Implemented o All Cycle Specific Core Design Calculations and Reload Evaluations for EPU Are Complete o Supplemental Reload Licensing Report Is Complete 1 -27 soQooooQoo~ooQooooooooo00000000000000000000o
 
Confirmatory Evaluations for SVEA-96+ Fuel in Cycle 15 EPU
* Low Reactivity Profile o BOC average bundle exposure = 33455 MWD/STU
* Maximum Bundle Powers of SVEA-96+ Fuel in Cycle 15 at EPU are Less than Maximum Bundle Powers Experienced in Cycle 14 at CLTP
* SVEA-96+ Fuel is Non-limiting with respect to MFLCPR, MAPLHGR and MFLPD Thermal Limits SVEA-96+ Fuel Does Not Contribute to Safety Limit MCPR
              ~~AD~AVJN              gTAOI~1            -28
 
Limitations and Conditions for Hope Creek EPU o SER Imposes 25 Limitations and Conditions for Use of GE Methods on Expanded Operating Domains o 14 of 25 applicable to Hope Creek EPU Cyclel5
                - All 14 limitations and conditions met o 11 of 25 not applicable to Hope Creek EPU Cycle 15
                - No TGBLA04, No MELLLA+, and No TRACG AOO 1Ce1-29 DO 0 0 0 00  0 0 0 00      0 0 0 00      0 0 0 0 00  0 0 0 00 0 00r0 0 00O
 
Conclusion o Application of NRC Approved GE Methods with GEl 4 Fuel Design o Three Consecutive GE14 Reloads o Fuel Performance consistent with the EPU Reference Plant Experience Base o Confirmatory Evaluations Performed for Legacy Fuel (non-GE fuel) o Legacy fuel will be non-limiting in EPU core operation Ho
~FNER~8TA1r1Qff ek 1 - 30
 
Conclusion Limitations and conditions from NRC Approved Licensing Topical Report NEDC-33173P applicable to Hope Creek EPU were fully implemented All EPU Cycle Specific Core Design Calculations and Reload Evaluations are Complete Ei Supplemental Reload Licensing Report'is Complete Ei Fuel Methods and Analyses Confirm the Safe Operation of the Fuel inthe Hope Creek 115% Extended Power Uprate 1 - 31
*eeeeeoeOeeoeeeeeeeeeeoe@@eee@@@e9@eeOOe@@oO
 
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Limitations and Conditions from NRC Approved Licensing Topical Report NEDC-33173P Applicable to Hope Creek EPU Were Included inthe Hope Creek SER All Applicable Limitations and Conditions inthe Hope Creek EPU SER Were Fully Implemented 0
Ho GENER~~ON ek                                                  1 - 33
 
00**90000*0009000000900000000006000000000000 Limitations and Conditions for Hope Creek EPU SER Imposes 25 Limitations and Conditions for Use of GE Methods on Expanded Operating Domains o 14 of 25 applicable to Hope Creek EPU Cycle15
              - All 14 limitations and conditions met o 11 of 25 not applicable to Hope Creek EPU Cycle 15
              - No TGBLA04, No MELLLA+, and No TRACG AOO 1- 34
 
te to                      -13" p,,,,ffoabk MU,            GE Methodý      Expan-            gj -wo-.,mij a,[,,nr,,s),
SER Limitation or Condition Y
Disposition TGBLA06/PANAC1 1 methods used for Cycle 15 Core Design Power-to-Flow ratio =41 MWt/Mlbm/hr (3840 MWt) / (94.8 Mlbm/hr) 0.02 added to the Cycle 15 dual loop and single loop SLMCPR for EPU operation C
1- 35
 
SER Limitation or Condition
                  #                          Disposition R-factor calculation at a bundle level confirmed to be consistent with hot channel axial void conditions 7    ECCS-LOCA analyses included top and mid-peaked power shapes Fuel Rod T-M Acceptance Criteria met for U02 and GdO2 rods
,HopeCreek                                                                  1 -36
~&oFN~AArJJ4a S~Ar~ct~                                                      I 36
                                                                              -
 
SER Limitation or Condition
                  #                        Disposition Analysis results demonstrating compliance with T-M 10  criteria documented in SRLR; analysis results will be supplied to NRC as attachment to EPU Core Operating Limits Report 13% margin calculated to screening criteria for fuel melt 11  (TOP); 22% margin calculated to screening criteria for pellet-cladding mechanical interaction (MOP) 17  Bypass voiding confirmed to remain below 5%at all LPRM levels when operating at steady-state conditions
\ENEJOQATJOOjOQ8TOOf                                                      1 - 37
 
*@...eOeOOeOeOOee..@eOOeeOe...eOOeeOe@@..@..
SER Limitation or Condition
                #                          Disposition OPRM cell calibration errors due to presence of 18  bypass voiding at low-flow conditions were accounted for in cycle specific evaluations of OPRM setpoint 0.01 added to Cycle 15 OLMCPR for EPU conditions to 19  account for uncertainty in Findlay-Dix void quality correlation Plant specific application of GE methods to SVEA-96+
Fuel has been justified e  ee 1 -38 JPLflON                                                            1 38
                                                                          -
 
SER Limitation or Condition
      #                                Disposition Plant specific application of TGBLA06 to SVEA-96+
Fuel has been justified 1- 39
 
011 itpan Meth*
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                                            !!
                                            -ý q
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#25 EPU Reference Plant Experience Base Comparison HCGS 115% Consistent with Metric                                    Value      EPU Value Experience (Y/N)
Max. Bundle Power (MW)                    7.58            7.18      Y Max. Bundle Power/Flow Ratio 0.89            0.77      Y (MW/(Ib/hr xl.OE-04))
Exit Void Fraction of Max. Power Bundle    0.90            0.88      Y Max. Channel Exit Void Fraction            0.90            0.88 Core Avg. Exit Void Fraction              0.77            0.76      Y Peak LHGR (kW/ft)                          13.4          12.52      Y Peak Nodal Exposure (GWd/ST)              58.8          57.97      Y dpeCreek 1 - 40
 
      *",.&-~~~~~      F'-**,-* .,7" Conclusion Ei Limitations and Conditions from NRC Approved Licensing Topical Report NEDC-33173P Applicable to Hope Creek EPU Were Included inthe Hope Creek SER All Applicable Limitations and Conditions inthe Hope Creek EPU SER Were Fully Implemented o Fuel Methods and Analyses Confirm the Safe Operation of the Fuel inthe Hope Creek 115% Extended Power Uprate k,,*",.4e      rAn
* 1 - 41
 
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            .ý 4
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Hop Cree Co t i m n I
I 1 - 43
 
inaf      Re  p~ -rs Used NRC Approved GE Analyses Methods Primary Analysis Codes
* LAMB -- Blow-Down Flow Rates
* M3CPT -- Short Term Pressure &Temperature Response
* SHEX -- Long Term Containment Response Short Term Results Minimal Containment Impact
    " Small Blow-down Flow Rate Change due to Constant Pressure Power Uprate Long Term Results o Increased Peak Bulk Suppression Pool Temperature o Increased Decay Heat Loading ffHp*Cr~eek; 1 - 44
 
Analyses
  " Analyses at or above 102% of 3840 MWt
  " Decay Heat by ANS/ANSI 5.1-1979 with 2a Uncertainty
  " Passive Heat Sinks Credited in Long-Term Analysis Results All Containment Parameters Remain Below Design Limits Analyses Comparison E] CLTP Response Compared using CPPU Methodology (1peCreeI-4    ~1                                        - 45
 
                      -;--n,-,t9 se ctne                  0a,    G-mpais Hope Creek DBA LOCA Containment Performance Results CLTP Parameter                            3339 MWt              EPU    Design UFSAR      EPU Method 3840 MWt      Limit Method Peak Drywell                48.1 psig        47.6 psig  50.6 psig 62 psig Air Space                      2910 F          2950 F    2980 F  3400 F Peak Bulk 210 0F          201FF    212.30 F  218°F Pool Temp Peak Wet                    27.5 psig        27.6 psig  27.7 psig 62 psig Well Air Space                          210 0F        198.2 0 F  212.2 0F  310 0F
!HopeCreek                                                                  1 -46
~~~:¶mRATJMa 8TAYWM                                                        I 46
                                                                              -
 
Is  E*      V B RHR and Core Spray NPSH-Available Assumptions mBulk Pool Temperature - 2180 F Ei Containment Pressure = 14.7 psia NPSH-Required Based on Maximum Tested Flows NPSH-AVAILABLE > NPSH-REQUIRED 1 -47
 
Appendix R Analysis Responses Parameter        CLTP        EPU      Design Limit Peak Drywell        9.3 psig  11.1 psig      62 psig Pressure Peak Drywell        300.20 F    300.30 F      3400 F Temperature Peak Bulk Pool      195.50 F    206.30 F      2180 F Temp          I            I          II g pc~e                                                1 - 48
 
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Program Overview
* Program Meets Generic Guidance o Generic Letter 89-08 o EPRI Tech Report 1011838 (NSAC 202L)
* Basis Document updated 2006 Susceptible Non-Modeled (SNM) analysis completed 2006 CHECWORKS predictive model upgraded 2007 Program incorporates:
e Predictive analysis using EPRI software o Component re-inspections (trending) o SNM o Operating Experience - Industry &Plant o Engineering Judgment 1 -50
 
FI'l    A*
          -0      *-      **'eatd Qorsigo EPU Impact Ei  No additional -systems added to FAC program o Previously inspected components reviewed for impact to next scheduled inspection - No impact o EPU.Baseline Inspections n EPU Flow and Temperature Changes Maximum average wear rate increase: 23.2% (#1 FWH Extraction- Steam subsystem)
      "ISreek                                                  1 -51
 
Conclusion FAC Program active; takes into account changes in plant configuration and operating conditions Results of EPU impact incorporated into inspection scope to ensure no near-term pressure boundary issues as a result of EPU
" STAON                                                    1 -52
 
                                  -ýi-Mk TviestsPff Preýs-sur e,andlea,                            f satat t r,Go                                      as
                                                                                      =NEW 1,200 1,100 1,000 CL  900 Lu 800 a.
0 LU  700 LU 600 0
LU w    500 400 300 IL 200 100 0
      "°                  0    50-        100          150        200    250 MINIMUM REACTOR VESSEL METAL TEMPERATURE ('F)    1 - 53 eeeeeee00000000000000000e000000000000000000o
 
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0              50        100          150        200    250 0~cea
_                                        MINIMUM REACTOR VESSEL METAL TEMPERATURE ('F) 1 - 54
 
vivie Ge-itical, Heatup and C-b I'do              -11      mý 1,200 1,100 1,000 900 a.
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300 200 100 0    50        100          150        200    250 MINIMUM REACTOR VESSEL METAL TEMPERATURE ('F)    1 - 55
 
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2I
 
HCGS    PV &InternalsI~
                      -    fet
                              -
Fluence                            HEAD VENT          U    -    HEAD SPRAY Flow Induced Vibration (FIV)
Structural Effects IGSCC                                                                STEAM OUTLET (TYR OF 4)
Post-EPU confirmation inspections
                                                                    -  TOP GUIDE JET PUMP m-    REORC INLL-(TYR OF 10)
                                                              !7      RECIRC LOOP SUCTION CORE PLAT E CRD HOUSING I  TO CLEANUP COOLING WATER  S    M SUCTION HqeLGWek 2-2
 
Em-,P  lu'n  *R        P`:I Irradiation-Assisted Stress Corrosion Cracking (IASCC)
Components exceeding IASCC fluence threshold of 5x102o n/cm 2 Shroud Top Guide o Incore Dry Tube Assembly
[ Shroud inspection remains lAW BWRVIP-76.
Top Guide inspection program will be implemented following EPU o Grid beams will be inspected lAW BWRVIP-183 o 10% cells will be inspected within 12 years, 5%in 6 years o Sample locations will be high fluence locations
      , Incore dry tubes will be inspected lAW GE SIL 409 9-11
 
Results of evaluation - EPU will not adversely affect RPV internals
* Vibration levels for EPU estimated by extrapolating prototype plant data and GE experience
* Shroud, shroud head &moisture separator, jet pumps, feedwater sparger well below GE acceptance criteria Jet pump sensing lines - no resonance with recirc pump vane passing frequency E2-4
 
SOOOOOOOO EPROOOQOU      1,Ec        m R
                          -P-Results of evaluation - EPU will not adversely affect RPV Evaluated components with CLTP fatigue usage factor
    >0.5 and experience changes inoperating parameters o All remained acceptable with respect to stress and fatigue.
            - Main Closure Studs
            - Shroud Support
            - Core Spray Nozzle Verified that modified components, three RPV nozzle weld overlays, acceptable for EPU operation.
Hope Creek has no ASME flawed components accepted for continued service by analytical evaluations HoCreek2-5
 
IGSCC program implementation not changed by EPU
[ EPU causes slight changes to temperature, pressure and flow for reactor coolant pressure boundary materials; negligible effect on tensile stresses o EPU results in higher oxygen generation rates; hydrogen injection rates will be adjusted to compensate E]    No material changes as a result of EPU HoC#                k                                                2-6 GEN~AArN.~ S TAT/ON 2-6
 
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  -,s o-,,,                              lt 9-M, jý,
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Jet pump wedges lAW BWRVIP-41, Rev. 1 Changed core resistance Feedwater spargers and end brackets o Increased flow Shroud head bolts Increased feedwater flow impacts bolts HpCreek 2-7 2-7
 
s~e    I *,re Steam Dryer Design Margin Power Ascension Test Plan Hope Creek                              2-8 GENC0000A0        00,000 000rA0 000 00N00 2-8 o
 
j,ea p,e C,rre e,k Ste-am Dry,e-,r;'D_'easii gn H-Curved Hood 3rd generation of GE steam dryer design Modified on-site prior to operation Baseline Inspections done o Per BWR VIP recommendations o No fatigue cracking identified 0*eCre 2-9
 
a*
                      *I W0                *
                *19,                      Outer Hood 0.5" Center outlet Plenum 0.5" Tie-bars 2" x 2" Reinforced middle and inner hood to end plate joint Center,            Support lugs on RPV ID Outlet Plenum (not shown) leveled Hood to end plate reinforcement N'J I...
Ar
* 1" 2- 10
 
Sie-    tf D          a'ns, MSL Flow      MSL Flow      Dryer        EPU    MSL Branch Velocity    Velocity      Drye      r EPU          LBrn (ft/sec) OLTP (ft/sec) EPU Configuration Operation  Dead Legs Vermont              140          168    Square Hood 120% OLTP      None Yankee Quad Cities          168          202    Square Hood 117% OLTP      None Unit 2 Susquehanna          135          153    Curved Hood 120% OLTP  Loops A and Units 1 and 2                                                      D Hope Creek            141          167    Curved Hood 116.6% OLTP    None Crro                                                                  2-11
 
Hop    Cree      Mai    Sta  Lie C    D      A A
Upper dr1y%%Cll locationi
                                                                                    -  ,~AtrO~ 'sir
                                                                                .1 I
ii 1~
K Dashed red-lines show location of SSES 26-inch MSL dead branches, which do not exist at HCGS.
HopeWCreek 2-12 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000o
 
Q000000000000000000000000000000000-0000000000o Locations (all are welds)                Stress Ratio    Stress Ratio Shift SR-alternating      SR-Peak Outer hood vane bank /perforated            2.18            4.64    -7.5%
entry plate Inner hood / hood support (stiffener)        2.22            4.64    +5.0%
Middle vane bank / base plate                2.24            4.59    +5.0%
Outer hood vane bank top vertical plate      2.27            4.72    -7.5%
      / perforated entry plate Skirt / upper support ring                    9.36            1.58      0%
Inner hood / outlet plenum end plate          4.34            1.83    -10%
Cover plate / outer hood                      3.72            2.42    -7.5%
Inner vane bank side panel/outlet            23.98            2.43      +5%
plenum end plate                            23.98_2.43_+5%
HopeCheek                                                                2-13
 
S ..          D.... ........-
                          .  . I 1 IA. -, I .II Monitoring
* MSL strain gages
* MSL accelerometers
* MSL moisture carryover Evaluation
        " Strain gage limit curves
        " Power ascension rate of < 1% CLTP/hr
        " Collection of strain gage data at every 1% increase o Used for trending
        " Evaluation every 2.5% power
        " Power plateaus at each 5% power step and final EPU power Reporting o    Provide data for NRC review at each plateau (5%power) iH/iec2eek GEE~,~SAIN2-14
 
CR &Hdwdm&#xfd; NW4@
N O0
                    .2-W
 
Strain gage data shows a relatively quiet plant.
ACM revision 4 used to improve predictions at low frequencies FEM performed with harmonic domain methodology for more accurate results Biases and Uncertainties were accounted for in-both ACM &
FEM Alternating stress ratios at EPU remain-above 2 Slow and Measured Power Ascension Plan
                                                            /
GCC~,GSAi,,2                                          -16
 
Ti (3)]]
rHopeCrek 2-17
 
TUraint 0----,aqe Data, Q()mpadso-, nn, M14 Ot-b.',teur Pkanjitiss S"t (3)]]
S,,dp~ k 2-18
*ee@@@o@eeee@e@@@@@@e@@@@e@O@efl@*@@@@@9@@O@
 
Revision 4 o 0 Hz-60 Hz -[[
(3)]]
Revision 4 is identical to Revision 2 for 60- Hz - 200Hz Revision 4 n Based on Benchmark of Quad Cities utilizing Hope Creek's EPU Mach Number Blind Benchmaark of Quad Cities was-completed at higher Mach Number ACM Predictability same at both power levels HpeCreek2-19
 
(3)]]
Hdjiiecreek9 GgrATNGT Th2                            -- 20
*eeeo@@@e@ee@e@eeee~e@@@o@eeee@@@eee@eeeee@ee
 
Performed in harmonic domain which results in more accurate results El Harmonic domain utilizes 1% damping over entire frequency range Time domain requires "pinning" structural damping at two frequencies o Between the two pins, damping was under-predicted o Below the lower pin and above the higher pin, damping was over-predicted
      =. Actual stress for each frequency can be quickly calculated Benchmarked time domain and frequency domain o Results the same when differences indamping are accounted for G2-21
 
Pressures are deduced from circumferential strain measurements made on Main Steam Lines Strain measurements contain noise in addition to acoustic pressure fluctuations Strain measurements are conditioned by removing following noise signals o]
(3)]]
Most significant impact of signal conditioning occurs at-[[
0 (3)]]
(,HipeMR Cr ek2                                                      -22
 
9bw  4- 9M pree-'
6BCMI
          'Re      4,          0d )Uh  6Wnt
[[                    _________                        I'__ I__
                                                      +    I
                                                      .4    1 9    I (3)]]
Strain Gage Error [[ (3)]]
Strain Gage Location Error [[ (3)]]
Pressure Sensor Error [[ (3)]]
Total Bias &Uncertainty accounted for by increasing appliediload.
0
  ~-HojeGreek                                                      2 -23
          '~rAroN                                                  2-23
 
FEM modeling benchmark Independently validated CDI's capability to model a complex structure Developed a Unit 2 Steam Dryer FEM Performed Forced Vibration Test utilizing Hope Creek Unit 2 steam dryer FEM Predictions Compared Favorably with Test Data FEM Bias and Uncertainties Derived e2                                                        - 24
 
-Elem              tit-Model' Wasa Effect on Bias  Effect on Source                    (%)      Uncertainty (%)
Shaker Tests Discrete Mesh Error Discrete                              (3)]]
Frequency Error, Bias and Uncertainty are not frequency dependent Calculated loads increased by FEM bias and uncertainty.
1H( peCreekP 2 - 25
 
........ i.... l...m,
                    . e n t::o0, Wa , -.-.
Frequency shift of load between +/-10%
Lowest stress ratio among all shifts was used as stress ratio for that node A2                                            - 26
 
Smallest alternating stress ratio 2.18 Conducted test at 1/8th scale 1/8-Scale Model Testing (SMTs) predicted onset of Safety Relief Valve (SRV) acoustic resonance SMT results not used to define CLTP dryer loads (311) o Test      predicted an increase of [[
(3 )]]
fHtpe Creek*
2 -27 G~igCRAr~NC '~TAraN                                                  2-27
 
MSL Strain Gage Data Shows a Relatively Quiet Plant.
ACM Revision 4 Used to Improve Load Predictions at Low Frequencies FEM Performed with Harmonic Domain Methodology for More Accurate Results Biases and Uncertainties Accounted for-in ACM &FEM Margin to Stress Limits at EPU Remains Greater Than 100%
G~E G2-,re                                            28
 
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Purpose of EPU Risk Evaluation E]  Provide risk perspective regarding effect of EPU implementation o Estimate change in Full Power, Internal Events CDF and LERF produced by EPU implementation o Identify qualitatively changes in risk from other sources (e.g., external events and shutdown configurations) produced by EPU implementation o Compare with RG 1.174 for risk significance of change 2H-230 00000000000000000E00A000N00000A0000N
 
Risk Evaluation Process Overview n EPU submittal based on deterministic evaluation of licensing criteria, i.e., not a risk-informed submittal.
mRegulatory Guide 1.174 provides quantitative measures that provide risk perspective on EPU submittal.
mQuantitative risk metrics chosen by NRC in RG 1.174 are Core Damage Frequency (CDF) and Large Early Release Frequency (LERF).
n RG 1.174 acceptance guidelines consider both initial values and magnitude of changes in CDF and LERF as a result of proposed changes.
H/ ICrleek                                                      2-31
 
Risk Evaluation Methods E3 Identify plant configuration and procedural changes
* Use updated PRA models
* Identify those PRA elements affected by changes
* Incorporate hardware and procedure changes in PRA model EiUse realistic success criteria and limits
* Calculate risk metrics (ACDF, ALERF)
* Compare results with Reg. Guide 1.174 Guidelines
    ~~A                                                        2- 32 000*0000000000offoooo0000000000000000000000oo
 
ba!b&#xb6;&#xb6;"fis.      y    -at me EPU Changes                  Possible PRA Elements Affected Success Criteria (Depressurization, ATWS overpressure)
Power Level                                              HRA (Allowed Timing)
System Fault Trees (SORV probability I Challenges)
Level 2 (Core Melt Progression Timing)
HRA Configuration Changes                                    System Fault Trees Initiating Events (Reduced Margin)
Hardware Changes aPhysical Changes                              System Fault Trees oReliability changes (bounding)                Data (including Initiating Events) 1 Procedural changes                                        HRA (Time available and EOP limits)( )
Procedural__changes_                                      Success Criteria (1)  Changes in time to cues based on RPV water level, PSP, HCTL, BIIT.
(H---Cr k 2 -33 G~IJERAT~N~ ~rKI ION                                                                            2 33
                                                                                                    -
 
PB y s-Nmijept
                    ~l.afe&#xfd;-A-.,e.*.      at      ai Hope Creek PRA Model Scope and Quality o Internal Events PRA developed inaccordance with ASME PRA Standard to meet Capability Category 1-o Industry Peer Review conducted November 1999 PRA Model extensively modified in2003 to resolve all recommendations (i.e., F&Os) o PRA self-assessment against ASME PRA Standard Addendum B June 2006 confirms 92% of Supporting Requirements meet Capability Category 110) o External Events and Shutdown Conditions addressed, but not quantified (only scoping studies available) o Assessed to be very small contributors to change in risk associated with EPU implementation
()  Capability Category IIis expectation for PRAs to support risk informed submittals.
Hdpe Creek-GEEAIGSAIN2                                                                                - 34
 
B~-~            A ss EPU PRA Changes                                ASME PRA Element Modified Initiating Event Frequency to reflect potential for increased    IF challenges due to reduced margins (e.g., %flow margin)
Slight change in system success criteria (RPV Depressurization,            SC ATWS over pressure, modified number of SRV challenges)
No significant impact due to. hardware changes (e.g., replaced "in-kind" with like equipment), however, modified SORV probability No new accident sequences identified                                      AS Reduced time available for crew diagnosis and execution                    HR No significant impact due to procedural changes (HCTL, PSP, BIIT          HR changes are assessed as negligible)
HopCrek.                                                                    2 -35 GENEflANG ~A  ON                                                              2 35
                                                                                  -
 
Summary Comparison Baseline (CLTP) and Uprated (EPU) CDF and LERF for Hope Creek Internal -Events Model Change in    RG 1.174 Risk Risk Metric          CLTP      EPU        Risk Metric Characterization CDF        9.42E-06  1.01 E-05      6.8E-07    Very Small LERF          2.37E-07  2.98E-07        6.1 E-08    Very Small
<Hi--- Creek*                                                              2 -36 GeNCRAYNO ~TATJON                                                          2 36
                                                                              -
 
1Probabilisi
-                  t Styii AssessmenrO                                                            OO
___ OOO      OOt_
Acceptance Guidelines for CDF LL a
0 10-5 1.6 10-6 10-5                    104                  10-3 CDF -- )
E0 Upper bound estimate of CDF change for power uprate Acceptance Guidelines for Core Damage Frequency (CDF)
(Uses HCGS Level 1 and 2 PRA for Internal Events)
HGCNEfr    eG STAT)ON 2 - 37
 
Probblsi    Saet      Assssen Acceptance Guidelines for LERF U-
          -J 10.6 10-7 10-6                  1o-5                  0- LERF -I-
                    ]  Upper bound estimate of LERF change for power uprate Acceptance Guidelines for Large Early Release Frequency (LERF)
(Uses HCGS Level 1 and 2 PRA for Internal Events)
&%qaft 2 - 38
 
Pr              -  A' -  -
I Summary of EPU Risk Impact
* Risk impact was evaluated using standard PRA methods (quantitative and qualitative)
* Quantified risk impact is a small percentage of current plant risk
* ACDF is a very small risk change per Reg, Guide 1.174
* ALERF is a very small risk change per Reg. Guide 1.174
* Risk impacts from external events and shutdown conditions are either negligible or minor 2--
(#                                                                39
 
Grid Relabiit
          - (GEE-AIN  STATION 12-4
 
EteJftoti1Ia                0 PJM Planning Requirements
* Hope Creek operates within PJM Interconnection
* PJM members required to follow FERC approved Regional Transmission Expansion Planning (RTEP) process o Feasibility Study o System Impact Study o Generation Interconnection Facilities Study o Interconnection Service Agreement (ISA) - FERC Docket ER05-815-001
*HopC reek*
2 - 41
 
PJM System Impact Study for Hope Creek E]  Met all Criteria except MAAC Criteria IVStability Requirements o System stability maintained without loss of load during and after:
              - A. Three-phase fault with normal clearing time.
              - B. Single phase-to-ground fault with delayed clearing.
              - C. Loss of any single facility with no fault.
o Results: Unstable for single-line-to-ground fault at Hope Creek on 500 kV Hope Creek-Red Lion 5015 line with stuck bkr 3-4 (60X).
E]Modification: Breaker 2-4 (62X) subsequently added in series with breaker 3-4 (60X) as part of EPU Design Change Package to resolve and comply with Criteria IV H2e2-42
 
-ElecrOica 1G1rid Reiability - Addition of  Breaker 62X PSEG Nuclear Hope Creek and Salem 500 kV Switchyards Red Lion    New Freedom                    East Windsor    New Freedom 5015 Line      5023 Line                      5021 Line      5024 Line (25 mi)      (43 mi)                  (109 mi to Deans)  (50 mi)
Identified as worst case fault 62X added for EPU C,*NqRA    TATON 2 - 43
 
Artificial Island Operating Guide Updated for EPU
    " Interconnection Facilities Study performed and results documented in Artificial Island Operating guide (AIOG)
    " One, two, and three unit operation o 3805 MW max. supplied by Artificial Island with 1320 MW from Hope Creek Power System Stabilizers (PSS) inand out-of-service o PSS provides input to regulators to damp small-signal oscillations.
    " Trip-A-Unit Scheme enabled and disabled o Selective tripping of Salem Unit 1 or 2 improves system stability by reducing power transfer over critical lines after severe transmission contingencies HpeCreek2-44
 
000000000*000000000000000000000000000-00000oo tcal GO- RF[ell',abL Increased power output studied in accordance with- FERC approved PJM planning process.
Reliability maintained by real-time contingency analysis tools and load dispatching within stability limitations oe    k2-45
 
Full Core Map Hope Creek Cycle 15 Vendor Fuel Type Location Map 3 5 9 11 13 1s  17  19  21  73  2s    77  79    31  33  3S    37  31  41  43 45  47  40  51    S3 55 51 so X  SVEMS+ Twive Burned          S
                                                              $VEAW+Fuel L.      GE14 Fuel      SVEA9+  Four Times Hopncfmk                                                                                                                    31 ON A N A ON                                                                                                                  31
 
          'bac-A&#xfd;,      LkfS MELLLA Power / Flow Map Power / FLow Operating Map for Hope Creek EPU 120                                                                          120 110                                                                  /
3840 MWt 110 100                                                                          100 MELLLA Boundary 90                                                                          90 CD                                                            3339 MWt 80                                                                          80 cv, 70                                                                          70 0    60                                                                          60 CL  50                                                                          50 40                                                                          40 30                                                                          30 0
20                                                                          20 10                                                                          10 0                                                                        0 0  10    20    30    4(0    50    60      70 80    90    100 110 Core Flow (% Rated) cAYkh 50
 
w                              w                            w Je    15  CoeD~    sin Cycle 15 Bundle Inventory Summary Fuel Product Line          Cycle Quantity Batch Enr. Batch Ave.
Loaded          w/o U-235    Exp.
(GWDIST)
SVEA            11      16      3.60      36.76 SVEA            12    200      3.61      33.19 GE14            13    164      4.02      23.33 GE14            14    156      3.93      14.43 GEl4            15    228      4.00      0.00 Cycle 15 Total        764      3.88      17.41 HopeCreek                                                            60
~c~R4rNc  srAri~                                                    60
 
0
    &#xfd;5 P L&#xfd;                                                  13A/,K Lt P SLMC      Hstogra
                  %Contribution of Bundle Type to EPU Cycle 15 SLMCPR 40 35      33.7            33.2 30 r-25
.0 20 0
C 15 GE14 Fresh 10 5
0.2 0
Type 1          Type 2        Type 3          Type 4      Type 5 Bundle Type 61}}

Latest revision as of 17:12, 14 January 2025

Transcript of ACRS Power Uprates Subcommittee Meeting on March 20, 2008, Pages 1-199
ML081080034
Person / Time
Site: Hope Creek PSEG icon.png
Issue date: 03/20/2008
From:
Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards
To:
References
NRC-2076
Download: ML081080034 (341)


Text