Energy and Water Development Appropriations for 1982

RIL TITLE IMPACT OF NUC. STA. ON REC. BEHAVIOR AT COASTAL SITES
SPONSORING OFFICE(S): NRR

EIN

PROJECT TITLE

RES UNIT

RES. TECHNICAL LEAD

THE IMPACT OF OFFSHORE NUCLEAR GENERATING STATIONS ON RECREATIONAL BEHAVIOR AT ADJACENT COASTAL SITES.

RES COMMENTS

THESE RESULTS ARE OFFERED TO SUPPORT NRC COST-BENEFIT ANALYSTS WITH NEW AND IMPROVED INFORMATION FOR ASSESSNO LIKELY IMPACTS OF
NUCLEAR GENERATING STATIONS ON RECREATIONAL BEHAVIOR AT ADJACENT COASTAL SITES.

THE RESEARCH RESULTS INDICATE THAT: (A) PROXIMITY OF A FLOATING NUCLEAR PLANT IS LESS IMPORTANT THAN OTHER BEACH ATTRIBUTES IN
DETERMINING BEACH ATTRACTIVENESS; (B) PROBABLY NO MORE THAN CAND PERHAPS LESS THAN) 5% TO 10% OF CURRENT BEACH PATRONS WOULD
AVOID A BEACH AFTER FNP SITING 3 MILES DIRECTLY OFFSHORE; AND (C) IMPACT OF AN FHP WOULD DECREASE EXPONENTIALLY AS DISTANCE AWAY
INCREASED.

IN SUMMARY, THE PERCENTAGE REDUCTION IN TOURISM ATTRIBUTABLE TO SITING OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS OFFSHORE WOULD BE SMALL, BUT NOT
NECESSARILY NEGLIGIBLE, AT POINTS CLOSE BY. THE STABILITY OF THOSE IMPACTS OVER TIME, HOWEVER, DEPENDS UPON THE STABILITY OF
CURRENT ATTITUDES TOWARD AND BELIEFS ABOUT NUCLEAR POWER AND ITS SAFETY.

THIS STUDY IS BEING INCORPORATED INTO STAFF TESTIMONY ON FNP 1-8. THE TESTIMONY IS CONCERNED WITH POTENTIAL AVOIDANCE OF BEACH RESORTS, BY TOURIST, DUE TO PERCEIVED RISK FROM FLOATING NUCLEAR PLANTS SITED IN THE VICINITY OFFSHORE. EXTRAPOLATION OF TOURIST BEHAVIOR IN THE VICINITY OF LAND BASED NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS TO OFFSHORE PLANTS IS TENUOUS. THE STUDY ALSO PROVIDED A BROADER GENERIC UNDERSTANDING OF RECREATIONAL BEHAVIOR WHICH WILL STRENGTHEN OUR CAPABILITY TO HANDLE THIS ISSUE IN EIS'S GENERALLY.

*** NRR: IMPACT OF RESULTS ***

THIS STUDY HAS RESULTED IN STRONGER, MORE OBJECTIVE STAFF TESTIMONY CONCERNING TOURIST AVOIDANCE OF BEACHES IN THE VICINITY OF FNP'S. THE ESTIMATES OF POTENTIAL AVOIDANCE HAS ALLOWED CALCULATION OF LIKELY ECONOMIC IMPACT TO A RANGE OF COASTAL ECONOMIES. SATISFACTORY DISPOSITION OF THIS CONTENTION GENERICALLY IN THE FNP HEARINGS SHOULD REDUCE OR ELIMINATE THIS CONCERN IN FUTURE LICENSING ACTIONS FOR SPECIFIC FNP APPLICATIONS.

THIS STUDY WAS AN APPLICATION TO NUCLEAR SITUATIONS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH TOOLS DEVELOPED TO ANALYZE HUMAN BEHAVIOR RELATIVE TO RISK FROM NATURAL HAZARDS.

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RIL TITLE "BEACON/MOD 2"

SPONSORING OFFICE(S) RES

RES UNIT

RES

TECHNICAL LEAD

AND LIMITATIONS.
THIS RIL TRANSMITS THE BEACON/MOD 2 COMPUTER CODE MANUAL, DESCRIBES ITS FIELD OF APPLICATION AND DISCUSSES THE CODE'S STRENGTHS
BEACON/MOD 2 IS AN ADVANCED, BEST ESTIMATE CODE INTENDED FOR EVALUATION OF SHORT-TERM THERMOHYDRAULIC CONDITIONS
WITHIN "DRY" (FULL PRESSURE) MULTICOMPARTMENT CONTAINMENTS, OR WITHIN CERTAIN REGIONS OF THE "PRESSURE SUPPRESSION" DRYWELL.
THIS RESEARCH WAS INITIATED TO PROVIDE IMPORTANT MODELING IMPROVEMENTS FOR BEST ESTIMATE ANALYSIS OF THESE CONTAINMENT SYSTEMS.
MULTICOMPARTMENT PWR TYPE CONTAINMENTS.
BEACON/MOD 2 OFFERS CONSIDERABLE ADVANTAGES OVER THE EXISTING CONTAINMENT CODES FOR BEST ESTIMATE EVALUATION OF HYDRAULIC LOADS IN
IT IS PARTICULARLY SUITABLE FOR EVALUATION OF THE REACTOR CAVITY LOADS (FOR POSTULATED
BREAKS BETWEEN THE REACTOR VESSEL AND THE BIOLOGICAL SHIELD) IN BOTH PWR AND BWR CONTAINMENTS. THE CODE HAS ALSO SHOWN A
CAPABILITY TO DESCRIBE THE EVOLUTION OF A TWO-PHASE (FLASHING) JET AND THE RESULTING PRESSURE LOADS ON THE IMPACTED BARRIER.VA
IT IS RECOGNIZED THAT THE CODE MUST BE MORE EXTENSIVELY TESTED AGAINST EXPERIMENTAL DATA. NEVERTHELESS, THE BEACON/MOD 2 IS
LOADS.
RECOMMENDED FOR CALCULATIONS OF THE REACTOR CAVITY LOADS, FOR BOTH PWR AND BHR INSTALLATIONS, AND FOR EVALUATION OF JET IMPACT

THE BEACON CODE, AS PRESENTLY DEVELOPED, REPRESENTS A POTENTIAL TEST ESTIMATE COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR THE CALCULATION BY NRR OF SUBCOMPARTMENT PRESSURE/TEMPERATURE RESPONSES. OF PARTICULAR IMPORTANCE TO OUR LICENSING PROCESS IS THE ABILITY OF THIS CODE TO EVALUATE THE REACTOR CAVITY PRESSURE TRANSIENT IN TWO-DIMENSIONS AS OPPOSED TO THE ONE-DIMENSIONAL COMPUTER PROGRAMS CURRENTLY IN USE IN THE LICENSING PROCESS. UPON COMPLETION OF THE PLANNED CODE VERIFICATION EFFORTS, BEACON WILL BE USED TO BENCHMARK ALL LICENSING COMPUTER PROGRAMS TO ESTABLISH A MEASURE OF THE MARGINS, WHICH CURRENTLY EXIST IN THESE LICENSING CODES.

*** NRR IMPACT OF RESULTS ***

THE BEACON COMPUTER PROGRAM REPRESENTS A NEXT GENERATION COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR THE CALCULATION OF SUBCOMPARTMENT PRESSURE/TEMPERA-
TURE TRANSIENT RESPONSES. FOR THE PRESENT, HOWEVER, AND PENDING SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE VERIFICATION EFFORTS, NRR DOES NOT
PLAN TO USE THIS CODE IN THE LICENSING PROCESS. WHEN THE CODE HAS BEEN EVALUATED AGAINST EXPERIMENTAL DATA AND COMPLETELY CHECKED
OUT, IT WILL BE MADE A PART OF THE LICENSING PROCESS. THE CODE WILL THEN BE USED AS A BEST ESTIMATE TOOL TO DETERMINE THE SAFETY
MARGINS WHICH EXIST IN OUR CURRENT LICENSING REQUIREMENTS WILL DEPEND ON THE RESULTS OF THESE COMPARISONS.

*** NRR COMMENTS AND REMARKS ***

THE BEACON CODE HAS AN EXCELLENT POTENTIAL FOR BECOMING AN IMPORTANT LICENSING TOOL. AS A RESULT, IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT THE CODE
VERIFICATION EFFORT BE PERFORMED IN A TIMELY MANNER. THIS VERIFICATION EFFORT SHOULD TAKE PRIORITY OVER ANY ADDITIONAL MODIFICA-
TIONS TO THE CODE WHICH ARE AIMED AT EXPANDING ITS BASIC ANALYTICAL CAPABILITY.

THIS RIL DESCRIBES THE INTER-1 CODE FOR CALCULATING EFFECTS OF INTERACTION BETWEEN MOLTEN MATERIALS & CONCRETE & EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FROM WHICH IT WAS DEVELOPED. THIS WORK HAS RESULTED IN AN IMPROVED MODEL BASED ON EXPERIMENTS WITH PROTOTYPICAL MATERIALS.
IN SEPARATE EFFECTS EXPERIMENTS, MONOLITHIC SPECIMENS OF CONCRETE WERE SUBJECTED TO CONTROLLED THERMAL FLUXES IN ORDER TO MEASURE
RATES OF EROSION. EROSION IS LINEAR WITH TIME FOR A GIVEN HEAT FLUX, AFTER CORRECTION FOR THERMAL LOSSES THROUGHOUT REFLECTION &
RADIATION. THE DOMINANT MODE OF EROSION IS QUIESCENT MELTING OF THE CEMENT (I.E., THE BINDING MATERIAL), WITH NO DIFFERENCES
OBSERVED BY VARYING COMPOSITION OF AGGREGATE MATERIAL. THESE DATA ARE NECESSARY TO INTERPRET EROSION RATES OBSERVED IN INTEGRAL
EXPERIMENTS. AS A RESULT OF THE INTEGRAL EXPERIMENTS, IN WHICH PROTOTYPICAL MOLTEN MATERIALS CONTACT CONCRETE, THE FOLLOWING
CONCLUSIONS WERE DRAWN:

EROSION OF CONCRETE IS THERMALLY DOMINATED, WITH INSIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MECHANICAL AND CHEMICAL EFFECTS.
- THE PRINCIPAL MECHANISM OF EROSION IS MELTING OF OF THE BINDING MATERIAL, WITH NO SIGNIFICANT QUALITATIVE DIFFERENCES CAUSED BY
CHANGING THE COMPOSITION OF THE AGGREGATE.
THE COMPOSITION OF THE CONCRETE DETERMINES THE COMPOSITION AND MASSES OF GASES RELEASED AT THE INTERFACE OF THE MELT & CONCRETE.
TURBULENCE AND ESSENTIALLY SOTHERMAL CONDITIONS ARE INDUCED IN THE MELT BY THE PASSAGE OF DECOMPOSITION GASES.
- HYDROGEN & CARBON MONOXIDE ARE AMONG THE GASES EVOLVED FROM SURFACE OF THE MELT & THEY BURN UPON CONTACTING AIR. THIS INDICATES
THE H20 AND CO2 RELEASED FROM DECOMPOSING CONCRETE ARE REDUCED CHEMICALLY, MOST LIKELY BY OXIDIZING METALLIC CONSTITUENTS OF MELT.
THE EXPERIMENTS HAVE CULMINATED IN AN ANALYTICAL MODEL (INTER-1) OF THE MELT/CONCRETE INTERACTION WHICH CAN HELP EXTENT THEIR RANGE
OF APPLICABILITY.
WHILE DIRECT EXTRAPOLATION OF THE DATA TO PROTOTYPICAL CONDITIONS MUST ALWAYS BE MADE CAUTIOUSLY, ENOUGH CONFIDENCE HAS BEEN
DEVELOPED SO THAT NO FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES IN BEHAVIOR ARE ANTICIPATED IN SCALING TO FULL-SIZE SYSTEMS RESERVATIONS EXIST REGARD-
ING THE APPLICATION OF INTER-1 TO PREDICT SUCH VARIABLES AS THE TIME OF CONTAINMENT MELTTHROUGH OR OVERPRESSURIZATION. THE MODEL
CAN BEST BE UTILIZED IN ITS CURRENT FORM TO ESTIMATE THE RELATIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF VARIATIONS IN PARAMETERS SUCH AS MATERIALS,
PROPERTIES AND COMPOSITIONS, INTERFACE HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENTS, GEOMETRY, ETC.

THE PRIMARY SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WORK DESCRIBED IS IMPROVED UNDERSTANDING OF PHYSICAL PHENOMENA. RES RECOGNIZES THAT THE RESULTS
IS UNLIKELY TO HAVE SIGNIFICANT NEAR-TERM IMPACT ON CURRENT LICENSING PROCEDURES. IT SHOULD, HOWEVER, PROVIDE ADDITIONAL BACK-
GROUND INFORMATION USEFUL IN ANALYZING REGULATORY ISSUES INVOLVING ACCIDENTS BEYOND DESIGN BASIS EVENTS.

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Books

Energy and Water Development Appropriations for 1982: Hearings ..., Part 4