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AP1000 Design Certification Amendment
On March 28, 2002, Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC (Westinghouse), submitted its application for final design approval (FDA) and standard DC for the AP1000 design. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff issued the final safety evaluation report (FSER) and the FDA on September 13, 2004. The proposed DC rule was published in the Federal Register on April 18, 2005 (70 FR 20062). Subsequently, Westinghouse submitted changes to the AP1000 design information in Revision 15 to the design control document (DCD). The NRC staff evaluated these changes in a supplement to the FSER (NUREG-1793, “Final Safety Evaluation Report Related to Certification of the AP1000 Standard Design,” Supplement 1). The Executive Director for Operations (EDO) transmitted the final rule to the Commission on December 14, 2005 (SECY-05-0227, “Final Rule—AP1000 Design Certification”). On December 30, 2005, the Commission voted to approve the final DC rule for the AP1000 standard plant design, and the Secretary of the Commission signed the final rule on January 23, 2006, after approval of the information collection requirements by the Office of Management and Budget.
On January 27, 2006, the NRC issued the AP1000 final design certification rule (DCR) in the Federal Register (71 FR 4464). Applicants or licensees intending to construct and operate an AP1000 design may do so by referencing the AP1000 DCR. On March 10, 2006, the NRC issued a revised FDA based on Revision 15 of the Westinghouse DCD.
In a joint letter dated March 8, 2006, NuStart Energy Development, LLC (NuStart) and Westinghouse stated that they would be submitting the AP1000 technical reports to the NRC for review during the preapplication phase for the Bellefonte COL application. These reports will provide the following:
- information needed to close all or part of specific generically applicable COL items in the AP1000 certified standard design
- standard design changes that are a result of the AP1000 detailed design efforts
- specific standard design information in areas or for topics where the AP1000 DCD focused on design process/methodology and Design Acceptance Criteria (DAC)
- deferral of COL information items to as-built requirements (e.g., inspections, test, analyses, and acceptance criteria (ITAAC))
Most of the technical reports are related to the closing or partial closing of the AP1000 DCD COL information items; however, the largest review effort will center on the expected design changes. The design changes include a redesign of the pressurizer, a revision to the seismic analysis to allow an AP1000 to be constructed on site with rock and soil conditions other than the hard rock conditions certified in the AP1000 DCR, changes to the instrumentation and controls (I&C) systems, a redesign of the fuel racks, and a revision of the reactor fuel design. Another area requiring large resources will be the review of DAC-related items, such as the technical reports on human factors engineering (HFE), the I&C design, and piping. Additionally, Westinghouse submitted one report covering numerous COL information items that can be completed only after the plant is built. Westinghouse proposes to convert these items to either ITAAC, license conditions, or license commitments.
By letter dated May 26, 2007, Westinghouse submitted an application to amend the AP1000 Design Certification Rule and Revision 16 to the AP1000 DCD. Revision 16 contains changes proposed in technical reports, some of which have not been reviewed by the NRC staff. The May 26, 2007 application noted that the submittal was being made in advance of the effective date of the Part 52 rule provisions that establish the design certification amendment process within the regulations. The letter requested that the NRC establish a schedule for acceptance of the application.
In a letter dated January 18, 2008, the NRC documented the completion of its acceptance review and stated that the application was being docketed. Subsequently, on February 15, 2008, the NRC issued a letter to Westinghouse establishing its review schedule. The schedule supports issuance of a final safety evaluation report for the amendment in March 2010.
As of February 2008, Westinghouse had submitted 122 technical reports for staff review. Although submitted as part of the Bellefonte COL preapplication phase, these technical reports apply generically to the remaining COL applications that intend to reference the AP1000 design. The staff has held several meetings with Westinghouse and has performed audits of documentation related to leak-before-break analyses, I&C, HFE, and seismic analyses.