[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 211 (Thursday, October 31, 2002)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 66347-66348]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-27700]


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 Proposed Rules
                                                 Federal Register
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of 
 the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these 
 notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in 
 the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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  Federal Register / Vol. 67, No. 211 / Thursday, October 31, 2002 / 
Proposed Rules  

[[Page 66347]]



NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 50

[Docket No. PRM-50-78]


Robert H. Leyse; Receipt of Petition for Rulemaking

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; notice of receipt.

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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received and 
requests public comment on a petition for rulemaking filed by Robert H. 
Leyse. The petition has been docketed by the NRC and has been assigned 
Docket No. PRM-50-78. The petitioner is requesting that the NRC 
regulations that govern domestic licensing of production and 
utilization facilities be amended to address the impact of fouling on 
the performance of heat transfer surfaces throughout licensed nuclear 
power plants. The petitioner believes that the fouling of heat transfer 
surfaces is not adequately considered in the licensing and compliance 
inspections, testing programs, and computer codes for nuclear power 
facilities.

DATES: Submit comments by December 16, 2002. Comments received after 
this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but assurance 
of consideration cannot be given except as to comments received on or 
before this date.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555. Attention: Rulemaking and 
Adjudications staff.
    Deliver comments to 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, 
between 7:30 am and 4:15 pm on Federal workdays.
    You may also provide comments via the NRC's interactive rulemaking 
Web site through the NRC home page (http://ruleforum.llnl.gov). At this 
site, you may view the petition for rulemaking, this Federal Register 
notice of receipt, and any comments received by the NRC in response to 
this notice of receipt. Additionally, you may upload comments as files 
(any format), if your web browser supports that function. For 
information about the interactive rulemaking website, contact Ms. Carol 
Gallagher, (301) 415-5905 (e-mail: [email protected]).
    For a copy of the petition, write to Michael T. Lesar, Chief, Rules 
and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of 
Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001. Documents related to this action are available for public 
inspection at the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) located at 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael T. Lesar, Office of 
Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555. Telephone: 301-415-7163 or Toll-Free: 1-800-368-5642 or E-mail: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission received a petition for 
rulemaking dated September 2, 2002, submitted by Robert H. Leyse 
(petitioner). The NRC has determined that the petition meets the 
threshold sufficiency requirements for a petition for rulemaking under 
10 CFR 2.802. The petition has been docketed as PRM-52-78. The NRC is 
soliciting public comment on the petition for rulemaking.

The Petitioner's Request

    The petitioner is requesting that the regulations in 10 CFR part 50 
be amended to address the impact of fouling on the performance of heat 
transfer surfaces throughout nuclear power plants. Specifically, the 
petitioner requested that the NRC amend 10 CFR part 50 to include 
fouling considerations in NRC-funded test programs such as the Rod 
Bundle Heat Transfer (RHBT) at Penn State University and the RELAP and 
TRAC series NRC computer codes. The petitioner believes that the 
fouling of heat transfer surfaces is not adequately considered in the 
licensing and compliance inspections of nuclear power plants.

Justification for the Petition

    The petitioner states that the NRC must produce a complete 
inventory of all significant heat transfer surfaces because regulations 
are needed to address the impact of fouling on the performance of heat 
transfer surfaces in all licensed nuclear power plants. The petitioner 
asserts that NRC regulations must require reporting of the performance 
of these surfaces including records of degradation, cleaning 
procedures, and effectiveness, and must address mechanical degradation 
of heat transfer assemblies, especially in fuel assemblies. The 
petitioner also states that the amended regulations must require 
detailed reporting that must be publicly available. The petitioner 
believes that the current regulations do not address the significance 
of severe fouling of nuclear fuel elements and that NRC licensing bases 
and technical specifications do not limit the amount of fouling of fuel 
elements.
    The petitioner cites an Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards 
(ACRS) Subcommittee meeting transcript dated May 31, 2002, stating that 
the fouling of fuel elements in some cases is sufficient to induce 
significant oxidation of the fuel cladding that has led to ``a debate 
over (whether) the 17 percent includes the prior oxidation or it's just 
the oxidation during the ramp-up.'' Another ACRS Subcommittee 
transcript dated April 24, 1998, led the petitioner to believe that the 
fouling issue is not being adequately considered, stating that after 
axial offset anomalies were traced to fouling of nuclear fuel elements, 
the ACRS was told this phenomena is ``a(n) annoyance. They affect 
economics, but they are not safety issues.''
    The petitioner states that severe fouling of nuclear fuel elements 
also leads to axial growth of the fuel rods beyond design limits 
because the operating temperatures of fuel rods become greater than 
allowed for in design. According to the petitioner, the fuel rods may 
expand sufficiently along their length to become restrained from 
further axial growth by the fuel assembly end fittings causing the rods 
to bow and make contact with adjacent rods and control rod guide tubes.
    The petitioner cites another instance when one nuclear power plant 
continued to operate at power, the need for repeated cleaning of an air 
cooling

[[Page 66348]]

heat exchanger was not recognized as a key indicator of a substantial 
leak in the primary reactor system. Because this plant's operation 
remained within the technical specifications, there was no basis for 
plant operators to perform investigations. The petitioner believes this 
instance calls for the regulations to address the need for 
investigating the grossly off-normal performance of this heat exchange 
equipment. The petitioner states that in several instances, the fouling 
of steam generator tubes has reduced heat transfer effectiveness enough 
to force operation at reduced secondary side pressures in order to 
maintain heat transfer rates. The petitioner believes that this fouling 
is not only an operating annoyance, but will likely impact safety 
issues.
    The petitioner has concluded that fouling of main condenser heat 
transfer surfaces has led to degradation of heat transfer effectiveness 
and that these fouling deposits have occasionally been released into 
the coolant stream, contributing to the fouling of fuel elements.
    The petitioner also has concerns with test programs and states that 
during the past several decades, the NRC has funded over one billion 
dollars of heat transfer test programs that have not included any 
allowance for the fouling of heat transfer surfaces that occurs during 
operation of nuclear power plants. The petitioner states that these 
test programs must be thoroughly studied and that allowances must be 
made for a range of fouling of the heat transfer surfaces. The 
petitioner believes it is very likely that it will not be possible to 
produce reliable allowances for a range of degrees of fouling and 
states that the results of the prior test programs such as FLECHT, 
LOFT, Semiscale, and others must not be applied to the production of 
computer codes for reactor heat transfer analyses.
    The petitioner also notes that the NRC is currently spending 
millions of dollars on heat transfer testing at facilities such as the 
RHBT at Penn State University and believes that ``these programs must 
be realigned to cover the cases of several degrees of fouling.''
    The petitioner notes that the NRC has also funded several hundred 
million dollars of computer codes related to heat transfer processes in 
nuclear power reactors. The petitioner states that these codes (TRAC, 
RELAP, and others) have not considered the effects of fouling on heat 
transfer surfaces at nuclear power facilities and must not be applied 
to the licensing of nuclear power plants until ``reliable allowances 
for a range of degrees of fouling are incorporated in the codes.''
    The petitioner states that amended regulations will illustrate if 
conditions similar to those already reported in certain Licensee Event 
Reports (LERs) will constitute license violations and cites LER 50-458/
99-016-00 as a possible example.

The Petitioner's Suggested Codified Text

    The petitioner did not provide proposed changes to codified text in 
presenting issues in the petition that address the impact of fouling on 
the performance of heat transfer surfaces throughout licensed nuclear 
power plants.

The Petitioner's Conclusions

    The petitioner has concluded that the increased attention to detail 
in plant design, analysis, and operations that will be effected by the 
amended regulations will enhance operating effectiveness and safety, 
discourage incomplete and misleading reporting to regulatory 
authorities, and reduce opportunities for sabotage by insiders. The 
petitioner has also concluded that the increased reporting requirements 
with respect to fouling of heat transfer surfaces at nuclear power 
facilities will provide improved information to professional risk 
analysts who advise financial management organizations, to individual 
investors, and to State agencies that oversee the sale and acquisition 
of nuclear power plants by utility holding companies that operate 
within their jurisdiction.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 24th day of October, 2002.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Annette Vietti-Cook,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 02-27700 Filed 10-30-02; 8:45 am]
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