[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 246 (Friday, December 23, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 79000-79002]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-27987]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket Nos. 50-18 and 50-185; NRC-2022-0210]
GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, LLC; Vallecitos Boiling Water
Reactor and the Empire State Atomic Development Agency Vallecitos
Experimental Superheat Reactor; Limited Post-Shutdown Decommissioning
Activities Report
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of receipt; availability; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: By letter dated September 21, 2022, as supplemented by letter
dated November 22, 2022, GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, LLC (GEH,
the licensee) submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
a ``limited'' post-shutdown decommissioning activities report (LPSDAR)
for the Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor (VBWR) and the Empire State
Atomic Development Agency Vallecitos Experimental Superheat Reactor
(EVESR). The LPSDAR provides an overview of GEH's planned activities,
schedule, projected costs, and environmental impacts for the
decommissioning of the VBWR and EVESR. Accordingly, the NRC is noticing
receipt of the LPSDAR and making it available for public comment.
DATES: Submit comments by April 24, 2023. Comments received after this
date will be considered, if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is
able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before
this date. See section III, ``Request for Comment,'' of this document
for additional information.
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ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods;
however, the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the
Federal rulemaking website:
Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2022-0210. 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.
Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop:
TWFN-7-A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff.
For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting
comments, see ``Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments'' in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jack D. Parrott, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington DC 20555-0001, telephone: 301-415-6634; email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2022-0210 when contacting the NRC
about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain
publicly available information related to this action by any of the
following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2022-0210.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly 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.
NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public
documents, by appointment, at the NRC's PDR, Room P1 B35, One White
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. To make
an appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to
[email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between
8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET), Monday through Friday,
except Federal holidays.
B. Submitting Comments
The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the
Federal Rulemaking website (https://www.regulations.gov). Please
include Docket ID NRC-2022-0210 in your comment submission.
The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact
information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your
comment submission. The NRC will post all comment submissions at
https://www.regulations.gov as well as entering the comment submissions
into ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to
remove identifying or contact information.
If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons
for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to
include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be
publicly disclosed in their comment submission. Your request should
state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to
remove such information before making the comment submissions available
to the public or entering the comment submissions into ADAMS.
II. Discussion
The VBWR, NRC License No. DPR-1, and EVESR, NRC License No. DR-10,
are licensed as nuclear power reactors under part 50 of title 10 of the
Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Domestic Licensing of
Production and Utilization Facilities.'' The reactors are located at
the GEH Vallecitos Nuclear Center (VNC) in Alameda County, California.
The VBWR is considered to have permanently ceased operations on
September 9, 1965, upon issuance of a possession-only license by NRC.
Likewise, EVESR was considered permanently shut-down upon issuance of
its possession-only license on April 15, 1970. The spent nuclear fuel
from each reactor has been permanently removed from the VNC site.
The regulations in 10 CFR 50.82, ``Termination of license,'' govern
the decommissioning of nuclear reactor facilities licensed by the NRC.
Documents equivalent to decommissioning plans for the VBWR and EVESR
were submitted to the NRC on March 21, 1991 (ADAMS Accession Nos.
ML20021A155 and ML20021A144, respectively). Paragraph (a)(4)(i) of 10
CFR 50.82, ``Termination of license,'' states that a Post-Shutdown
Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) shall be submitted prior to
or within 2 years following permanent cessation of operations. However,
since the decommissioning plans for the VBWR and EVESR were submitted
before the regulations in 10 CFR 50.82 were first promulgated in 1996,
the licensee was exempted from submitting PSDARs. The first paragraph
of 10 CFR 50.82 describes that decommissioning plans submitted before
the effective date of the rule, August 28, 1996 (61 FR 39278), are
considered to be the PSDAR submittals for those reactors.
However, on September 21, 2022, as supplemented on November 22,
2022 (ADAMS Package Accession No. ML22326A351), GEH submitted a LPSDAR,
for the VBWR and EVESR. A PSDAR is a description of the planned
decommissioning activities along with a schedule for their
accomplishment, a discussion that provides the reasons for concluding
that the environmental impacts associated with site-specific
decommissioning activities will be bounded by appropriate previously
issued environmental impact statements, and a site-specific
decommissioning cost estimate. Although not required to submit PSDARs
for the VBWR and EVESR because of the previously submitted
decommissioning plans, GEH prepared a LPSDAR according to the
requirements of 10 CFR 50.82(a)(4)(i) and the NRC's guidance for PSDARs
in Regulatory Guide 1.185, Revision 1, ``Standard Format and Content
for Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report,'' (ADAMS Accession
No. ML13140A038) and submitted to the NRC on September 21, 2022. This
was done to demonstrate how GEH would comply with the requirements of
10 CFR 50.82(a)(6) and 10 CFR 50.82(a)(7) which do apply to the
decommissioning of the VBWR and EVESR. The requirements of 10 CFR
50.82(a)(6) and 10 CFR 50.82(a)(7) restrict the decommissioning
activities that can be performed and require GEH to notify NRC of any
changes to the decommissioning activities that are inconsistent with
those described in the PSDAR.
While the requirements of a PSDAR submittal do not apply to the
LPSDAR submittal for the VBWR and EVESR, including the requirements for
NRC to notice receipt of the PSDAR, make it available for public
comment, and to hold a public meeting in the vicinity of
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the site, NRC is noticing receipt of the LPSDAR and making it available
for public comment to enhance transparency and provide for public
participation in our regulatory activities in accordance with NRC's
approach to open government. While NRC will not be holding a public
meeting in conjunction with this LPSDAR submittal, there will be public
meetings held when GEH submits a License Termination Plan (LTP) for the
VBWR by September 8, 2023, and by April 15, 2028, for the EVESR in
accordance with 10 CFR 50.82(a)(9)(i) which requires LTPs to be
submitted at least 2 years before termination of the license, and 10
CFR 50.82(a)(3) which requires that power reactor decommissioning be
complete within 60 years of the permanent cessation of operations. An
LTP must include a site characterization, identification of remaining
dismantlement activities, plans for site remediation and the final
radiation survey, an updated site-specific estimate of remaining
decommissioning costs, a supplement to the environmental report
describing any new information or significant environmental change
associated with the proposed license termination activities, and
identification of any parts of the site that were released for use
before approval of the LTP.
III. Request for Comment
The VBWR and EVESR LPSDAR is available in ADAMS under Package
Accession No. ML22264A324. The NRC is requesting public comments on the
LPSDAR for the VBWR and EVESR by April 24, 2023. The NRC will review
the LPSDAR to the requirements of a PSDAR and send a letter to GEH with
the results of our evaluation, and the consideration of any public
comments.
Dated: December 20, 2022.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Shaun M. Anderson,
Chief, Reactor Decommissioning Branch, Division of Decommissioning,
Uranium Recovery, and Waste Programs, Office of Nuclear Material Safety
and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2022-27987 Filed 12-22-22; 8:45 am]
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