[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 178 (Friday, September 17, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51926-51928]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-20092]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 72-1050; NRC-2016-0231]
Interim Storage Partners, LLC; WCS Consolidated Interim Storage
Facility; Issuance of Materials License and Record of Decision
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: License and record of decision; issuance.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued
Materials License No. SNM-2515 to Interim Storage Partners, LLC (ISP)
to construct and operate the WCS Consolidated Interim Storage Facility
(CISF) as proposed in its license application, as amended, and to
receive, possess, store, and transfer spent nuclear fuel and Greater-
than-Class-C radioactive waste at the WCS CISF in Andrews County,
Texas. ISP will be required to operate under the conditions listed in
Materials License No. SNM-2515. The NRC staff has published a record of
decision (ROD) that supports the NRC's decision to approve ISP's
license application for the WCS CISF and to issue the license.
DATES: September 17, 2021.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2016-0231 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You
may access publicly available information related to this document
using any of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2016-0231. Address
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann;
telephone: 301-415-0624; email: [email protected]. For technical
questions, contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT section of this document.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may access publicly
[[Page 51927]]
available documents online in the ADAMS Public Documents collection at
https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select
``Begin Web-based ADAMS Search.'' For problems with ADAMS, please
contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-
397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by email to [email protected]. The ADAMS
accession number for each document referenced (if it is available in
ADAMS) is provided the first time that it is mentioned in this
document. In addition, for the convenience of the reader, the ADAMS
accession numbers are provided in a table in the section of this
document entitled, SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.
Attention: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies
of public documents, is currently closed. You may submit your request
to the PDR via email at [email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 or
301-415-4737, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (ET), Monday through
Friday, except Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John-Chau Nguyen, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-0262; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Discussion
The NRC has issued a license to ISP for its WCS CISF in Andrews
County, Texas (ADAMS Package Accession No. ML21188A096). Materials
License No. SNM-2515 authorizes ISP to construct and operate its
facility as proposed in its license application, as amended, and to
receive, possess, store, and transfer spent nuclear fuel, including a
small quantity of mixed-oxide fuel, and Greater-than-Class-C
radioactive waste at the WCS CISF. The license authorizes ISP to store
up to 5,000 metric tons of uranium [5,500 short tons] of spent nuclear
fuel for a license period of 40 years. ISP will be required to operate
under the conditions listed in Materials License No. SNM-2515.
The NRC staff's ROD that supports the NRC's decision to approve
ISP's license application for the WCS CISF and to issue Materials
License No. SNM-2515 is available in ADAMS under Accession No.
ML21222A214. The ROD satisfies the regulatory requirement in section
51.102 paragraph (a) of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10
CFR), which requires that a Commission decision on any action for which
a final environmental impact statement (EIS) has been prepared be
accompanied by or include a concise public ROD. As discussed in the ROD
and the final EIS for ISP's license application for a CISF for spent
nuclear fuel in Andrews County, Texas (ADAMS Accession No.
ML21209A955), the NRC staff considered a range of reasonable
alternatives that included the No-Action alternative, as required by
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended; storage at a
government-owned CISF; alternative design and storage technologies; and
alternative locations. The final EIS documents the environmental
review, including the NRC staff's recommendation to issue an NRC
license to ISP to construct and operate a CISF for spent nuclear fuel
at the proposed location, subject to the determinations in the NRC
staff's safety review of the application. The final EIS conclusion is
based on the NRC staff's independent environmental review, as well as
(i) the license application, which includes the environmental report
and supplemental documents and ISP's responses to the NRC staff's
requests for additional information; (ii) consultation with Federal,
State, Tribal, and local agencies and input from other stakeholders,
including members of the public; and (iii) the assessments provided in
the final EIS.
The NRC staff prepared a final safety evaluation report that
documents the staff's safety and security review of the application
(ADAMS Accession No. ML21188A101). The staff's safety and security
review found that the application met applicable NRC regulations in 10
CFR part 72, ``Licensing Requirements for the Independent Storage of
Spent Nuclear Fuel, High-Level Radioactive Waste, and Reactor-Related
Greater than Class C Waste.''
Documents related to the application carry Docket ID NRC-2016-0231.
These documents for the ISP license include the license application,
the applicant's safety analysis report, emergency plan, physical
security plan, environmental report, updates to these documents, and
applicant supplements and responses to NRC staff requests for
additional information, and the NRC staff's final safety evaluation
report, final EIS, and ROD.
ISP's request for a materials license was previously noticed in the
Federal Register on November 14, 2016 (81 FR 79531). A notice of
docketing with an opportunity to request a hearing and to petition for
leave to intervene was published in the Federal Register on January 30,
2017 (82 FR 8773). Four groups of petitioners filed petitions to
intervene. An Atomic Safety and Licensing Board considered petitions
and admitted one contention. The Board subsequently dismissed the
contention as moot after ISP supplemented its application with
information that the contention had noted was missing, and the Board
subsequently terminated the adjudicatory proceeding. Intervenors
appealed the decisions to the Commission, and the Commission affirmed
the Board decisions, with one new contention remanded to the Board for
consideration. The Board subsequently dismissed the remanded
contention, and the Commission denied an appeal of the Board decision.
In issuing a materials license to ISP for the WCS CISF, the NRC has
determined based on its review of this application that there is
reasonable assurance that: (i) The activities authorized by the license
can be conducted without endangering the health and safety of the
public; and (ii) these activities will be conducted in compliance with
the applicable regulations of 10 CFR part 72. The NRC has further
determined that the issuance of the license will not be inimical to the
common defense and security.
In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's ``Rules of Practice,''
the details with respect to this action, including the final safety
evaluation report and accompanying documentation and license, are
available electronically in the ADAMS Public Documents collection at
https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, you can
access ADAMS, which provides text and image files of the NRC public
documents.
II. Availability of Documents
The documents identified in the following table are available to
interested persons through one or more of the following methods, as
indicated.
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Document ADAMS accession No.
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1. Initial application, safety analysis report (SAR) and ML16133A070 (Package).
environmental report (ER), dated April 28, 2016.
2. Application Revision 1, SAR Revision 1, and ER Revision ML17082A021 (Package).
1, dated March 16, 2017.
3. Application Revision 2, SAR Revision 2, and ER Revision ML18206A595 (Package).
2, dated July 19, 2018.
4. ER Revision 3, dated February 17, 2020.................. ML20052E144 (Package).
[[Page 51928]]
5. SAR Revision 3, dated May 22, 2020...................... ML20150A337 (Package).
6. Application Revision 3, dated August 24, 2020........... ML20237F470.
7. SAR Revision 4, September 2, 2020....................... ML20261H419 (Package).
8. Application Revision 4 and SAR Revision 5, dated April ML21105A766 (Package).
12, 2021.
9. Applicant response to request for additional ML18208A437.
information, dated July 19, 2018.
10. Applicant response to request for additional ML19009A099.
information, dated January 7, 2019.
11. Applicant response to request for additional ML19085A055.
information, dated March 22, 2019.
12. Applicant response to request for additional ML19156A048 (Package).
information, dated May 31, 2019.
13. Applicant response to request for additional ML19197A044.
information, dated June 26, 2019.
14. Applicant response to request for additional ML19184A159 (Package).
information, dated June 28, 2019.
15. Applicant response to request for additional ML19190A227 (Package).
information, dated June 28, 2019.
16. Applicant response to request for additional ML19217A231 (Package).
information, dated July 31, 2019.
17. Applicant response to request for additional ML19235A157 (Package).
information, dated August 20, 2019.
18. Applicant response to request for additional ML19270E399.
information, dated September 18, 2019.
19. Applicant submittal of supplemental information, dated ML19268A113 (Package).
September 20, 2019.
20. Applicant response to request for additional ML19337B502 (Package).
information, dated November 21, 2019.
21. Applicant response to request for additional ML20015A448 (Package).
information, dated January 6, 2020.
22. Applicant response to request for additional ML20028E843 (Package).
information, dated January 17, 2020.
23. Applicant response to request for additional ML20028D890 (Package).
information, dated January 22, 2020.
24. Applicant response to request for additional ML20052D995 (Package).
information, dated February 14, 2020.
25. Applicant response to request for additional ML20052E047 (Package).
information, dated February 14, 2020.
26. Applicant submittal of supplemental information, dated ML20071F152 (Package).
March 5, 2020.
27. Applicant response to request for additional ML20083J964 (Package).
information, dated March 16, 2020.
28. Applicant response to request for additional ML20105A133 (Package).
information, dated April 7, 2020.
29. Applicant response to request for additional ML20105A171 (Package).
information, dated April 7, 2020.
30. Applicant response to request for additional ML20139A173 (Package).
information, dated May 18, 2020.
31. Applicant response to request for additional ML20163A008.
information, dated June 11, 2020.
32. Applicant submittal of supplemental information, dated ML20203M040.
July 21, 2020.
33. Applicant submittal of supplemental information, dated ML21027A147.
January 27, 2021.
34. Draft Environmental Impact Statement, dated May 2020... ML20122A220.
35. Overview of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, ML20121A016.
dated May 2020.
36. Overview of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement ML20136A148.
(Spanish language version), dated May 2020.
37. Final Environmental Impact Statement, dated July 2021.. ML21209A955.
38. Overview of the Final Environmental Impact Statement, ML21200A050.
dated July 2021.
39. Final Safety Evaluation Report, dated September 2021... ML21188A101.
40. NRC Staff's Record of Decision, dated September 13, ML21222A214.
2021.
41. Materials License for ISP, dated September 13, 2021.... ML21188A096 (Package).
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Dated: September 13, 2021.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Shana R. Helton,
Director, Division of Fuel Management, Office of Nuclear Material
Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2021-20092 Filed 9-16-21; 8:45 am]
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