ML032900065

Environmental Assessment Regarding Proposed Additions to the Spent Fuel Pool Cask Area Rack Amendment (Tac Nos. MB6909 and MB6910)

ML032900065
Person / Time
Site:	Turkey Point
Issue date:	10/17/2003
From:	Ellen Brown NRC/NRR/DLPM/LPD2
To:	Stall J Florida Power & Light Co
Brown E, NRR/DLPM 415-2315
References
TAC MB6909, TAC MB6910
Download: ML032900065 (7)

Text

October 17, 2003 Mr. J. A. Stall Senior Vice President, Nuclear and Chief Nuclear Officer Florida Power and Light Company P.O. Box 14000 Juno Beach, Florida 33408-0420

SUBJECT:

TURKEY POINT PLANT UNITS 3 AND 4 - ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT REGARDING PROPOSED ADDITIONS TO THE SPENT FUEL POOL CASK AREA RACK AMENDMENT (TAC NOS. MB6909 AND MB6910)

Dear Mr. Stall:

Enclosed is a copy of the Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact related to your application for amendments dated November 26, 2002, as supplemented in a letter dated September 8, 2003. The proposed license amendments would increase the number of fuel assemblies that can be stored at each unit at Turkey Point from 1,404 fuel assemblies to 1,535 fuel assemblies, an increase of 131. A freestanding spent fuel storage rack module would be installed in the cask pit in each units spent fuel pool. In addition, the new spent fuel storage racks will use Boral as a neutron absorbing material.

The assessment is being forwarded to the Office of the Federal Register for publication.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Eva A. Brown, Project Manager, Section 2 Project Directorate II Division of Licensing Project Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket Nos. 50-250 and 50-251

Enclosure:

Environmental Assessment cc w/encl: See next page

October 17, 2003 Mr. J. A. Stall Senior Vice President, Nuclear and Chief Nuclear Officer Florida Power and Light Company P.O. Box 14000 Juno Beach, Florida 33408-0420

SUBJECT:

TURKEY POINT PLANT UNITS 3 AND 4 - ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT REGARDING PROPOSED ADDITIONS TO THE SPENT FUEL POOL CASK AREA RACK AMENDMENT (TAC NOS. MB6909 AND MB6910)

Dear Mr. Stall:

Enclosed is a copy of the Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact related to your application for amendments dated November 26, 2002, as supplemented in a letter dated September 8, 2003. The proposed license amendments would increase the number of fuel assemblies that can be stored at each unit at Turkey Point from 1,404 fuel assemblies to 1,535 fuel assemblies, an increase of 131. A freestanding spent fuel storage rack module would be installed in the cask pit in each units spent fuel pool. In addition, the new spent fuel storage racks will use Boral as a neutron absorbing material.

The assessment is being forwarded to the Office of the Federal Register for publication.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Eva A. Brown, Project Manager, Section 2 Project Directorate II Division of Licensing Project Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket Nos. 50-250 and 50-251

Enclosure:

Environmental Assessment cc w/encl: See next page DISTRIBUTION:

PUBLIC BClayton (Hard Copy) JMunday, RII PDII-2 R/F AHowe EBrown OGC ACRS REmch EHackett CGuerrero JTappert ADAMS NUMBER: ML032900065

• Input provided in Memo to A. Howe OFFICE PDII-2/PM PDII-2/LA RLEP/SC OGC PDII-2/SC NAME EBrown BClayton JTappert* AHowe DATE 10/703 10/7/03 09/23/03 10/10/03 10/16/03 OFFICIAL RECORD COPY

7590-01-P UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION FLORIDA POWER AND LIGHT DOCKET NOS. 50-250 AND 50-251 TURKEY POINT, UNITS 3 AND 4 ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND FINDING OF NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering issuance of amendments to Renewed Facility Operating License Nos. DPR-31 and DPR-41, issued to Florida Power and Light Company, for operation of the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant, Units 3 and 4, located in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Therefore, as required by 10 CFR 51.21, the NRC is issuing this environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact.

ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT Identification of the Proposed Action:

The proposed action would increase the number of fuel assemblies that can be stored at each unit at Turkey Point from 1,404 fuel assemblies to 1,535 fuel assemblies, an increase of 131. A freestanding spent fuel storage rack module would be installed in the cask pit in each units spent fuel pool. In addition, the new spent fuel storage racks will use Boral as a neutron absorbing material.

The proposed action is in accordance with the licensees application for amendment dated November 26, 2002, as supplemented in a letter dated September 8, 2003.

The Need for the Proposed Action:

The Turkey Point Nuclear Plant, Units 3 and 4, has two pressurized-water reactors.

Unit 3 commenced operation in 1972 and Unit 4 in 1973. Based on the current licensed capacity, current spent fuel inventory, and the projected discharges of spent fuel, Unit 3 will lose

the capability to fully offload the reactor core by the year 2007. Unit 4 will lose the capability to fully offload the reactor core by the year 2009. To extend this capability beyond the above dates, the licensee has proposed license amendments to install a freestanding spent fuel storage rack module in the cask pit of each units fuel handling building. The spent fuel pool for each unit is currently licensed to store a total of 1,404 fuel assemblies in high-density racks using Boraflex neutron absorbing panels. The new racks will use Boral as the neutron absorbing material. The racks are designed for storage of 131 fuel assemblies, increasing the total storage capacity of each unit to 1,535 assemblies.

The additional storage capacity provided by the cask pit racks will be used to store spent fuel to allow refueling outage fuel offloads and non-outage fuel shuffles. The cask pit racks will be removed, cleaned, and stored in an alternate location prior to any spent fuel cask loading operations.

Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action:

The NRC has completed its evaluation of the proposed action and concludes, as set forth below, that there are no significant environmental impacts associated with the proposed amendment. The details of the staffs safety evaluation will be provided in the license amendment when it is issued by the NRC.

During refueling outages, there may be a slight increase in the amount of heat that has to be removed from the combination of the spent fuel pool and the cask pit. The peak increase will be less than one percent, and the heat load from spent fuel storage is very small compared to the heat load from normal plant operations. Therefore, the overall increase in the amount of heat released will be quite small and insignificant.

Even though additional boron will be introduced by the Boral panels in the storage racks in the cask pit, no significant increase in tritium production from the neutron capture by boron-10 is expected.

The proposed action will not significantly increase the probability or consequences of accidents, there are no significant changes in the types or significant increase in the quantities of effluents that may be released offsite, and there is no significant increase in occupational or public radiation exposure.

With regard to potential non-radiological impacts, the proposed action does not have a potential to affect any historic sites. It does not affect non-radiological plant effluents and has no other environmental impacts. Therefore, there are no significant non-radiological environmental impacts associated with the proposed action.

Accordingly, the NRC concludes that there are no significant environmental impacts associated with the proposed action.

Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action:

As an alternative to the proposed action, the staff considered denial of the proposed action (i.e., the no-action alternative). Denial of the application would result in no change in current environmental impacts. The environmental impacts of the proposed action and the alternative action are similar.

Alternative Use of Resources:

The action does not involve the use of any different resources than those previously considered in the Final Environmental Statement related to operation of Turkey Point Plant, dated July 1972, and Supplement 5 to NUREG-1437, Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants Regarding Turkey Point Units 3 and 4, dated January 2002.

Agencies and Persons Consulted:

On September 29, 2003, the staff consulted with Michael Stevens of the Bureau of Radiological Control regarding the environmental impact of the proposed action. The State official had no comments.

FINDING OF NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT On the basis of the environmental assessment, the NRC concludes that the proposed action will not have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment. Accordingly, the NRC has determined not to prepare an environmental impact statement for the proposed action.

For further details with respect to the proposed action, see the licensees letter dated November 26, 2002, as supplemented by a letter dated September 8, 2003. Documents may be examined, and/or copied for a fee, at the NRCs Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, Public File Area 01 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available records will be accessible electronically from the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room on the NRC Web site, http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov.

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 17th day of October 2003.

FOR THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

/RA/

Eva A. Brown, Project Manager, Section 2 Project Directorate II-2 Division of Licensing Project Management Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation

Mr. J. A. Stall TURKEY POINT PLANT Florida Power and Light Company cc:

M. S. Ross, Attorney Attorney General Florida Power & Light Company Department of Legal Affairs P.O. Box 14000 The Capitol Juno Beach, FL 33408-0420 Tallahassee, Florida 32304 T. O. Jones, Site Vice President Plant General Manager Turkey Point Nuclear Plant Turkey Point Nuclear Plant Florida Power and Light Company Florida Power and Light Company 9760 SW. 344th Street 9760 SW. 344th Street Florida City, FL 33035 Florida City, FL 33035 County Manager Walter Parker Miami-Dade County Licensing Manager 111 NW 1 Street, 29th Floor Turkey Point Nuclear Plant Miami, Florida 33128 9760 SW 344th Street Florida City, FL 33035 Senior Resident Inspector Turkey Point Nuclear Plant Vice President, Nuclear Operations Support U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission P.O. Box 14000 9762 SW. 344th Street Juno Beach, FL 33408-0420 Florida City, Florida 33035 Mr. Rajiv S. Kundalkar Mr. William A. Passetti, Chief Vice President - Nuclear Engineering Department of Health Florida Power & Light Company Bureau of Radiation Control P.O. Box 14000 2020 Capital Circle, SE, Bin #C21 Juno Beach, FL 33408-0420 Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1741 Heinz Mueller [5 copies]

Mr. Craig Fugate, Director Environmental Review Coordinator Division of Emergency Preparedness US EPA Region 4 Department of Community Affairs 61 Forsyth Street, SW.

2740 Centerview Drive Atlanta, Georgia 30303-3104 Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2100