The above slide is from the EPRI slideshow, HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS, that first appeared on the web during 2005. The above highlight for 1999 is Ultrasonic Fuel Cleaning. However, the first public disclosure of this activity was likely the "CFR 50.59 SUMMARY REPORT FOR THE CALLAWAY PLANT, that was submitted by Callaway to the NRC on November 14, 2001, item RFR 19637. The NRC file code is ML013540440. The work proceeded in secrecy and my guess is that it began during 1998 because a provisional patent application, Ser. No. 60/128,391 was already submitted by EPRI on April 8, 1999. About three years later, U. S. Patent 6,396,892 was issued on May 28, 2002, with the assignment of ownership to EPRI.
The NRC has never performed a safety analysis of this equipment and its use. Following the installation and use of the equipment at Callaway and perhaps elsewhere, the NRC and its Advisory Committee Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) were informed that the equipment had been applied at nuclear power plants. The NRC has never licensed the equipment for installation and use. This has been a wild application of CFR 50.59!
The slide below was largely copied from an NRC Inspection Report that was sent to the South Texas Project on January 27, 2003. Clearly, the Inspectors reviewed several documents. However, this does not constitute a Safety Analysis. It is unlikely that any of the four documents have been reviewed and approved by the NRC staff that have input to licensing authorizations. None of the four listed documents are in the NRC's Public Document Room. This is another wild application of CFR 50.59.
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