Note to Editors: NRC Acknowledges Letter from ConEd

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NRC NEWS U. S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGION I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406

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No. I-00-60

August 8, 2000

CONTACT:

Diane Screnci (610)337-5330/ e-mail: dps@nrc.gov Neil A. Sheehan (610)337-5331/e-mail: nas@nrc.gov

NOTE TO EDITORS:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has acknowledged a letter from Consolidated Edison Company of New York which details the company's plan for conducting additional testing at its Indian Point 2 nuclear power plant in Buchanan, N.Y. The tests - which are normal practice to ensure systems are in operating order - will be conducted in accordance with the plant's licensing and design basis. The NRC staff has no objection to ConEd's plan.

This letter does not allow the plant to restart the nuclear reactor. In June, the company submitted an operational assessment to show it could continue operation, for a specified period of time, with the existing steam generators. No decision on restart will be made until the NRC staff has carefully and thoroughly reviewed all of the information ConEd has provided and the staff is certain the plant can be operated safely.

Copies of the letters from ConEd and the NRC's response are attached.

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August 8, 2000

Mr. A. Alan Blind
Vice President, Nuclear Power
Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc.
Broadway and Bleakley Avenue
Buchanan, NY 10511

SUBJECT: CHANGE IN LICENSEE COMMITMENT REGARDING TESTING, INDIAN POINT NUCLEAR GENERATING UNIT NO. 2

Dear Mr. Blind:

In letters dated August 2 and 4, 2000, you informed the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of a proposed change to the commitments made in your letter of June 30, 2000, regarding testing at the Indian Point Nuclear Generating Unit No. 2. Specifically, you are now requesting to operate the plant as needed below 350 F in accordance with your current licensing and design basis in order to perform additional testing and maintenance. In the June 30 letter, you had stated that, following completion of planned testing activities, the plant would be returned to the cold shutdown condition and "remain there until NRC approval for startup is received." In your August 4 letter, you corrected the references listed in the August 2 letter.

The NRC staff has no objection to this change in commitment and recognizes that you will continue to operate the plant within the current licensing basis to conduct routine testing and maintenance. The staff continues to evaluate your steam generator operational assessment to support operation of the plant for a limited period with the existing steam generators. Until such time that the NRC reaches a decision in this regard, the facility Technical Specifications preclude increasing reactor coolant system temperature above 350 F.

We encourage you to keep your stakeholders informed of this and other decisions regarding changes in plant status.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Patrick D. Milano, Senior Project Manager, Section 1 Project Directorate I Division of Licensing Project Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation

A. Alan Blind
Vice President
Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc.
Indian Point Station
Broadway & Bleakley Avenue
Buchanan, NY 10511
Telephone (914) 734-340
Fax: (914) 7345718
blinda@coned.com

Re: Indian Point Unit No.2

Docket No.50-247
NL- 00-101

Document Control Desk
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Mail Station P1-137
Washington, D.C. 20555

SUBJECT: Indian Point Unit No.2 Operating Mode Information

REFERENCE: 1) Con Edison Letter to USNRC Document Control Center dated July 5, 2000, "Indian Point Unit No.2 Pre-Startup Testing Clarification"

2) Con Edison Letter to USNRC Document Control Center dated June 30, 2000, "Indian Point Unit No.2 Pre-Startup Testing"

The purpose of this letter is to request relief from the commitments made in reference 1 to restrict operations while below 350F, which would otherwise be allowed in accordance with the plant license and Technical Specifications, pending NRC approval for restart as described in reference 2.

The pre-startup testing which was described in Reference 1 has been completed. The steam generator tube leakage testing, performed in accordance with EPRI methodology, showed no detectable steam generator tube leakage in any of the four steam generators.

Based on the successful results of the steam generator testing, Con Edison is requesting relief from the commitments made in the reference 1. Con Edison proposes to operate the plant as needed below 350F in accordance with our current licensing and design basis to perform additional routine pre-startup testing and maintenance.

Should you or your staff have any questions concerning this item, please contact Mr. John McCann, Manager, Nuclear Safety and Licensing (914) 734-5129.

Sincerely,

/RA/

A. Alan Blind