[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 112 (Friday, June 9, 2000)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 36647-36649]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-14686]
========================================================================
Proposed Rules
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
========================================================================
Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 112 / Friday, June 9, 2000 / Proposed
Rules
[[Page 36647]]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Part 72
[Docket No. PRM-72-5]
Nuclear Energy Institute; Receipt of Petition for Rulemaking
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; Notice of receipt.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received and
requests public comment on a petition for rulemaking filed by the
Nuclear Energy Institute. The petition has been docketed by the NRC and
has been assigned Docket No. PRM-72-5. The petitioner is requesting
that the NRC regulations governing storage of spent nuclear fuel be
amended to establish a more efficient process for issuing and amending
certificates of compliance (CoC) for dry cask storage of spent nuclear
fuel under a general license. The petitioner believes the current NRC
process of traditional notice and comment rulemaking is not appropriate
for the routine task of maintaining a list of certified casks and that
the burden of maintaining this listing in the regulations outweighs any
benefit. The petitioner proposes that the list of CoCs be deleted from
the regulations and that NRC should notice applications for new CoCs
and amendments in the Federal Register for a 60-day comment period. The
petitioner also proposes that amendments for existing CoCs that do not
have the potential to have a significant impact on public health and
safety be immediately effective upon publication of the amendment in
the Federal Register.
DATES: Submit comments by August 23, 2000. Comments received after this
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but assurance of
consideration cannot be given except as to comments received on or
before this date.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555. Attention: Rulemakings and
Adjudications staff.
Deliver comments to 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland,
between 7:30 am and 4:15 pm on Federal workdays.
You may also provide comments via the NRC's interactive rulemaking
website through the NRC home page (http://ruleforum.llnl.gov). At this
site, you may view the petition for rulemaking, this Federal Register
notice of receipt, and any comments received by the NRC in response to
this notice of receipt. Additionally, you may upload comments as files
(any format), if your web browser supports that function. For
information about the interactive rulemaking website, contact Ms. Carol
Gallagher, (301) 415-5905 (e-mail: [email protected]).
For a copy of the petition, write to David L. Meyer, Chief, Rules
and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of
Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001. Documents related to this action are available for public
inspection at the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) located at the Gelman
Building, 2120 L Street, NW, Washington, DC 20555.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David L. Meyer, Office of
Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555. Telephone: 301-415-7162 or Toll-Free: 1-800-368-5642 or E-mail:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission received a petition for
rulemaking dated April 18, 2000, submitted by the Nuclear Energy
Institute (petitioner). The petitioner is requesting that the
regulations in 10 CFR Part 72 governing storage of spent nuclear fuel
in dry storage casks be amended. Specifically, the petitioner is
requesting that the NRC establish a more efficient process for issuing
new and amending existing certificates of compliance (COC) for dry cask
storage of spent nuclear fuel under a general license. The petitioner
believes that the current process of traditional notice and comment
rulemaking for issuing and amending CoCs is inefficient and that the
burden of maintaining the list of approved dry storage casks in
Sec. 72.214 outweighs any benefit.
The petitioner has concluded that the listing of CoCs in
Sec. 72.214 is not necessary and believes that removal of these
requirements will have no impact. The petitioner requests that the
regulations in 10 CFR Part 72 be amended by removing Sec. 72.214.
Instead, the petitioner proposes that NRC notice applications for new
CoCs and amendments to existing CoCs in the Federal Register for a 60-
day comment period. When the NRC determines that an amendment to an
existing CoC does not have the potential to have a significant impact
on public health and safety, the petitioner recommends that the
amendment become immediately effective upon publication in the Federal
Register. The petitioner recommends that initial applications and
significant amendments would not become effective until the NRC has
evaluated public comments and published its findings in the Federal
Register.
The NRC has determined that the petition meets the threshold
sufficiency requirements for a petition for rulemaking under 10 CFR
2.802. The petition has been docketed as PRM-72-5. The NRC is
soliciting public comment on the petition for rulemaking.
Discussion of the Petition
The petitioner notes that the NRC Spent Fuel Project Office staff
is currently considering an alternative process to the NRC's current
practice of listing and amending CoCs by rulemaking. The petitioner
supports the NRC staff's efforts and encourages the NRC to
expeditiously amend 10 CFR Part 72 to establish an efficient process
for issuing new and amending existing CoCs for dry cask storage of
spent nuclear fuel under a general license. The petitioner requests
that the NRC consider a streamlined process proposed by the petitioner
that focuses opportunities for public input on issues that have the
potential to have a significant impact on public health and safety. The
petitioner proposes that the NRC discontinue the use of traditional
notice and comment rulemaking and that Sec. 72.214, the listing of
CoCs, be repealed.
The petitioner believes there is no benefit in using rulemaking for
the ministerial act of maintaining a list of
[[Page 36648]]
certified casks and that the burden of maintaining the list in the
regulations outweighs any benefit. The petitioner has concluded that
the list of certified casks neither affords any additional authority on
the CoC holder nor places additional weight on requirements that govern
dry cask usage. The petitioner proposes that NRC notice applications
for new CoCs and amendments to existing CoCs in the Federal Register
for a 60-day comment period. For amendments to certified casks,
applicants could propose that the requested amendment has no potential
to adversely affect public health and safety. If NRC agreed with the
applicant and found that no significant hazard exists, the amendment
would be effective immediately upon publication in the Federal
Register. The petitioner proposes that initial applications and other
amendments would not become effective until the NRC evaluated public
comments and published its findings in the Federal Register.
The petitioner notes that by 2005, as many as 50 plants will
require dry cask spent fuel storage to continue operating or to proceed
through decommissioning. In the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as
amended (NWPA), Congress conferred responsibility on the Federal
Government to ``expedite the effective use of existing storage
facilities and the addition of new needed storage capacity'' at
civilian nuclear power facilities. The petitioner also notes that cask
vendors must amend CoCs frequently to meet the growing need for dry
cask storage and that, by 2001, the fuel discharged from operating
plants will exceed the maximum licensed burnup limits of current casks.
The petitioner contends that the current NRC practice of issuing CoCs
and associated amendments by rulemaking is inadequate because it takes
about 24 months to amend CoCs through the rulemaking process. The
petitioner believes that with a 24-month response time, the
unavailability of dry casks will impede plant operations and
decommissioning at some point.
The petitioner contends that NRC's practice of listing and amending
cask CoCs by cask-specific rulemaking goes beyond Congress' intent in
the NWPA. The petitioner believes that by issuing more than ten CoCs
under 10 CFR Part 72, the NRC has fulfilled its legislative obligation
and demonstrated that the regulations are sufficient to certify
technologies for use as directed in the NWPA. The petitioner states
that conducting cask-specific rulemakings wastes resources and requires
constant reconsideration of the same technical issues. The petitioner
believes that many CoC amendments do not involve new or novel technical
issues and are only being reviewed to demonstrate that a certificate
holder has complied with NRC requirements for cask certification.
The petitioner recommends that NRC provide notice in the Federal
Register and consider public comments before issuing CoCs for new casks
and amendments to existing CoCs that potentially impact public health
and safety. The petitioner states that proceeding in this manner would
show that the NRC provides for public input and does not waste the
agency's or the public's resources that could be directed toward
actions on new casks and issues that may significantly affect public
health and safety and away from actions that only demonstrate
compliance with existing requirements and guidance. The petitioner also
believes that the process for issuing and amending CoCs for spent fuel
storage should be similar to that used for transportation CoCs under 10
CFR Part 71. The petitioner states that it is illogical to certify
casks used for the dual purpose of storage and transportation by two
entirely different processes. The petitioner further states that the
certification process for transportation CoCs has been effective since
its inception over 20 years ago and that no reason exists for the
process for certification of casks for storage to be any more demanding
than that for certifying casks for transportation.
The petitioner recommends that NRC consider an application process
for new CoCs as follows: Submittal of application for new CoC; NRC
prepares a draft Safety Evaluation Report (SER); the draft CoC and SER
are noticed in the Federal Register for public comment; NRC publishes
its findings in a Federal Register notice; and the CoC and SER are
issued.
The petitioner recommends the following process for amendments to
existing CoCs. The change to the CoC is identified and developed by the
CoC holder, and an evaluation under Sec. 72.48, ``Changes, tests, and
experiments'' is performed to determine if prior NRC approval is
needed. If NRC's approval is not required, the amendment may be
implemented and the Safety Analysis Report (SAR) is updated. If prior
NRC approval is required, the CoC holder performs a ``Significant
Impact'' evaluation and submits the proposed amendment to the NRC. If
the NRC agrees that the proposed amendment poses ``No Significant
Impact,'' the amendment is published in the Federal Register and
becomes immediately effective upon publication, the change is
implemented, and the SAR is updated. If the NRC does not determine that
the amendment poses no significant impact, the draft CoC is published
in the Federal Register for a 60-day public comment period. After the
comment period expires, the NRC publishes its findings in a Federal
Register notice, the change is implemented, and the SAR is updated.
The petitioner proposes that Sec. 72.214, ``List of approved spent
fuel storage casks'' be deleted from the regulations. The petitioner
also proposes that Sec. 72.238, ``Issuance of an NRC Certificate of
Compliance'' be amended by inserting the following language after the
existing codified text:
The Director, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards,
or the Director's designee will publish each initial application and
each application for amendment in the Federal Register for a 60-day
comment period. An application may include a proposed determination
that the amendment proposed does not involve a ``significant impact
consideration'' based on an analysis of the criteria listed below.
Upon receipt of an application, the Director, or the Director's
designee will make a determination of whether it agrees with the
applicant's ``no significant impact considerations'' proposal. If
the Director or the Director's designee agrees with the applicant's
proposed determination, the amendment will be effective upon
publication in the Federal Register prior to receipt and analysis of
public comments.
An amendment is considered to have the potential to pose a
significant impact if subsequent use of the cask would:
(a) Result in a significant increase in the probability or
consequences of an accident previously evaluated;
(b) Create the possibility for a new or different kind of
accident from any accident previously evaluated; or
(c) Involve a significant reduction in a margin of safety.
The petitioner has also submitted examples of amendments considered
likely to involve significant impact considerations that it proposes
for inclusion in a regulatory guidance document. These would be
amendments that result in a significant increase in offsite doses and
leakage across the confinement boundary, an increase in Keff above 0.95
without compensatory changes, significant increases in mechanical
stress beyond allowable limits in codes referenced in the NRC Standard
Review Plans (SRPs), and cladding temperatures that significantly
exceed SRP limits.
Lastly, the petitioner has submitted examples of amendments it
believes would not likely involve significant impact considerations
that it proposes for inclusion in a regulatory guidance document.
Examples include amendments that consist of:
[[Page 36649]]
(1) An administrative change to technical specifications (TS)
including a change to achieve consistency throughout the TS, correction
of an error, or a change in nomenclature.
(2) A TS change to ensure that no significant increase exists in
the probability or consequences of analyzed accidents and does not
significantly reduce safety margins such as an increase in the
allowable leak rate compensated by an increase in fill gas quantity, an
increase in the allowable handling height of the cask compensated by
energy absorbing features, addition of a more reactive fuel design that
could lead to Keff exceeding 0.95 compensated by an increase in areal
poison density of fixed neutron poison sheets, and an increase in
helium backfill pressure compensated by increased material properties
to prevent components from exceeding code allowables.
(3) A change in the TS that includes an additional limitation, such
as a more stringent surveillance requirement.
(4) A change that may result in some increase to the probability or
consequences of a previously analyzed accident or may reduce the safety
margin in some way, but where the results are within all acceptable
criteria at the time of approval, such as an increase in Keff or
offsite exposures beyond ``minimal.''
(5) Replacing explicit limits on fuel assemblies, decay heat, and
source terms with a table that incorporates limits and ensures that
these limits are met by prescribing minimum cooling times for various
combinations of enrichment versus burnup.
(6) Substitution of another NRC-approved quality assurance program
for fabrication of casks such as modifying Part 50, Appendix B for Part
72.
(7) A change to a CoC that consists of minor changes to storage
operations that remain within regulatory requirements such as a
reduction in the center-to-center cask spacing in the Independent Spent
Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI), a reduced storage cask temperature
monitoring frequency, an increased time duration without transfer cask
annulus cooling for canisters with fuel loading below a certain
kilowatt level, or a reduction in the areal poison density in boral
fixed poison sheets offset by an increase in the allowable percentage
of the manufacturer's minimum assured boron content in criticality
calculations.
(8) An expansion of the cask capacity including the number of
bundles, higher initial enrichment, or higher burnup bundles when
certain conditions are satisfied.
(9) Inclusion of a more recent NRC requirement than is contained in
the licensee's CoC or site-specific license.
(10) Inclusion of an exception or alternative approved by the NRC
for another licensee.
(11) Administrative improvements such as the use of generic
organization position titles that clearly indicate position function as
opposed to specific titles or use of generic organization charts to
delineate functional responsibilities.
The Petitioner's Conclusions
The petitioner has concluded that the NRC requirements governing
storage of spent nuclear fuel in 10 CFR Part 72 should be amended to
establish a more efficient process for issuing and amending CoCs for
dry cask storage under a general license. The petitioner has also
concluded that the current NRC process of traditional notice and
comment rulemaking is not appropriate for the routine task of
maintaining a list of certified casks and that the burden of
maintaining this listing in the regulations outweighs any benefit. The
petitioner requests that the list of CoCs be removed from the
regulations and that the NRC notice applications for new CoCs and
amendments to existing CoCs in the Federal Register for a 60-day
comment period. The petitioner also requests that amendments for
existing CoCs that have no potential to have a significant impact on
public health and safety be immediately effective upon publication in
the Federal Register.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 5th day of June, 2000.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Annette L. Vietti-Cook,
Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 00-14686 Filed 6-8-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P