[en] Many utilities operating nuclear power plants are expected to seek to extend the useful life of their plants through license renewal. These US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensees are expected to implement enhanced inspection, surveillance, testing, and monitoring (ISTM) as needed to detect and mitigate age-related degradation of important structures, systems, and components (SSCs). In addition, utilities may undertake various refurbishment and upgrade activities at these plants to better assure economic and reliable power generation. These activities performed for safety and/or economic reasons can result in radioactive waste generation, which is incremental to that generated in the original licensing term. Work was performed for the NRC to help define and characterize potential environmental impacts associated with nuclear plant license renewal and plant life extension. As part of this work, projections were made of the types and quantities of low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) likely to be generated by licensee programs. These projections were needed to estimate environmental impacts related to the disposal of such wastes

[en] One of the requirements for nuclear plant license renewal may be the establishment and demonstration of an effective aging management program. An analysis of both qualitative and quantitative information will be required to define the contents of this aging management program. The authors propose two quantitative figures of merit, Mean Event Detection Frequency and Mean Renewal Rate, that can be used to compare the effectiveness of various inspection, surveillance, test, and monitoring (ISTM) activities for aging mitigation. An example showing the relative effectiveness of an enhanced Loose Parts Monitoring System with current ISTM activities for steam generators and reactor internals is provided. (author)

[en] FSARs. Rockwell International, as operating contractor at the Rocky Flats plant, conducted a safety analysis program during the 1980s. That effort resulted in Final Safety Analysis Reports (FSARs) for several buildings, one of them being the Building 707 Final Safety Analysis Report, June 87 (707FSAR) and a Plant Safety Analysis Report. Rocky Flats Risk Assessment Guide, March 1985 (RFRAG85) documents the methodologies that were used for those FSARs. Resources available for preparation of those Rocky Flats FSARs were very limited. After addressing the more pressing safety issues, some of which are described below, the present contractor (EG ampersand G) intends to conduct a program of upgrading the FSARs. This report presents the results of a review of the methodologies described in RFRAG85 and 707FSAR and contains suggestions that might be incorporated into the methodology for the FSAR upgrade effort

[en] This report documents a plant-specific study for a BWR/4 with a Mark I containment that evaluated the potential for LOCA generated debris and the probability of losing long term recirculation capability due ECCS pump suction strainer blockage. The major elements of this study were: (1) acquisition of detailed piping layouts and installed insulation details for a reference BWR; (2) analysis of plant specific piping weld failure probabilities to estimate the LOCA frequency; (3) development of an insulation and other debris generation and drywell transport models for the reference BWR; (4) modeling of debris transport in the suppression pool; (5) development of strainer blockage head loss models for estimating loss of NPSH margin; (6) estimation of core damage frequency attributable to loss of ECCS recirculation capability following a LOCA. Elements 2 through 5 were combined into a computer code, BLOCKAGE 2.3. A point estimate of overall DEGB pipe break frequency (per Rx-year) of 1.59E-04 was calculated for the reference plant, with a corresponding overall ECCS loss of NPSH frequency (per Rx-year) of 1.58E-04. The calculated point estimate of core damage frequency (per Rx-year) due to blockage related accident sequences for the reference BWR ranged from 4.2E-06 to 2.5E-05. The results of this study show that unacceptable strainer blockage and loss of NPSH margin can occur within the first few minutes after ECCS pumps achieve maximum flows when the ECCS strainers are exposed to LOCA generated fibrous debris in the presence of particulates (sludge, paint chips, concrete dust). Generic or unconditional extrapolation of these reference plant calculated results should not be undertaken

[en] Pressure drop calculations across a LOCA induced fibrous debris bed have been successfully demonstrated to be accurate using the NUREG/CR-6224 semi-theoretical head loss correlation. One of the critical parameters needed for the NURE/CR-6224 correlation to predict the pressure drop across a fibrous debris bed are the characteristics of the debris constituents (density and characteristic size). This paper provides a brief description of the NUREG/CR-6224 head loss correlation and presents suggested debris characteristics of typical sources of debris found in American nuclear power plants for use in the correlation. (authors)

[en] Question for resolution of Generic Safety Issue No. 24 is whether or not PWRs that currently rely on a manual system for ECCS switchover to recirculation should be required to install an automatic system. Risk estimates are obtained by reevaluating the contributions to core damage frequencies (CDFs) associated with failures of manual and semiautomatic switchover at a representative PWR. This study considers each separate instruction of the corresponding emergency operating procedures (EOPs), the mechanism for each control, and the relation of each control to its neighbors. Important contributions to CDF include human errors that result in completely coupled failure of both trains and failure to enter the required EOP. It is found that changeover to a semiautomatic system is not justified on the basis of cost-benefit analysis: going from a manual to a semiautomatic system reduces the CDF by 1.7 x 10^-5 per reactor-year, but the probability that the net cost of the modification being less than $1, 000 per person-rem is about 20% without license renewal. Scoping analyses, using optimist assumptions, were performed for a changeover to a semiautomatic system with automatic actuation and to a fully automatic system; in these cases the probability of a net cost being less than $1,000/person-rem is about 50% without license renewal and over 95% with license renewal