Evaluation of potential severe accidents during low power and shutdown operations at Surry, Unit 1: Analysis of core damage frequency from internal fires during mid-loop operations. Volume 3, Part 1, Main report

During 1989, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) initiated an extensive program to carefully examine the -potential risks during low power and shutdown operations. The program includes two parallel projects being performed by Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). Two plants, Surry (pressurized water reactor) and Grand Gulf (boiling water reactor), were selected as the plants to be studied. Th e objectives of the program are to assess the risks of severe accidents initiated during plant operational states other than full power operation and to compare the estimated core damage frequencies, important accident sequences and other qualitative and quantitative results with those accidents initiated during full power operation as assessed in NUREG-1150. The objective of this report is to document the approach utilized in the Surry plant and discuss the results obtained. This study shows that the core-damage frequency during mid-loop operation at the Surry plant is comparable to that of power operation. We recognize that there is very large uncertainty in the human error probabilities in this study. This study identified that only a few procedures are available for mitigating accidents that may occur during shutdown. Procedures written specifically for shutdown accidents would be useful.