ML061300094

Issuance of Amendment Eliminate License Condition 2.F Requiring Reporting of Violations of Section 2.C of the Operating License

ML061300094
Person / Time
Site:	Nine Mile Point
Issue date:	06/28/2006
From:	Colburn T NRC/NRR/ADRO/DORL/LPLA
To:	O'Connor T Nine Mile Point
Colburn, TG,NRR/DLPM,415-1402
References
TAC MC9506
Download: ML061300094 (9)

Text

June 28, 2006 Mr. Timothy J. OConnor Vice President Nine Mile Point Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, LLC P.O. Box 63 Lycoming, NY 13093

SUBJECT:

NINE MILE POINT NUCLEAR STATION UNIT NO. 2 - ISSUANCE OF AMENDMENT RE: DELETION OF LICENSE CONDITION 2.F REQUIRING REPORTING OF VIOLATIONS OF SECTION 2.C OF THE OPERATING LICENSE (TAC NO. MC9506)

Dear Mr. OConnor:

The Commission has issued the enclosed Amendment No. 116 to Facility Operating License No. NPF-69 for the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, Unit 2. The amendment consists of changes to the Facility Operating License in response to your application transmitted by letter dated December 29, 2005.

The amendment deletes the license condition, Section 2.F, that requires the reporting of violations in Section 2.C in the operating license.

A copy of the related Safety Evaluation is enclosed. A Notice of Issuance will be included in the Commission's next regular biweekly Federal Register notice.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Timothy G. Colburn, Senior Project Manager Plant Licensing Branch I-1 Division of Operating Reactor Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No. 50-410

Enclosures:

1. Amendment No. 116 to NPF-69

2. Safety Evaluation cc w/encls: See next page

ML061300094 Package:

OFFICE CLIIP LPM LPL-1\PE LPLI-1\PM LPLI-1\LA LPLI-1\BC DIRS\ITSB OGC NAME Wreckley Nmorgan TColburn SLittle RLaufer TKobetz SUttal DATE 1/24/06 5/24/06 5/24/06 5/25/06 6/7/06 5/31/06 6/4/06 Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, Unit No. 2 cc:

Regional Administrator, Region I Mr. Carey W. Fleming, Esquire U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Senior Counsel 475 Allendale Road Constellation Generation Group, LLC King of Prussia, PA 19406 750 East Pratt Street, 17th Floor Baltimore, MD 21202 Resident Inspector Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station Mr. Peter R. Smith, President P.O. Box 126 New York State Energy, Research, Lycoming, NY 13093 and Development Authority 17 Columbia Circle Mr. James R. Evans Albany, NY 12203-6399 LIPA P.O. Box 129 Lycoming, NY 10393 Supervisor Town of Scriba Route 8, Box 382 Oswego, NY 13126 Mr. Paul D. Eddy Electric Division NYS Department of Public Service Agency Building 3 Empire State Plaza Albany, NY 12223 Charles Donaldson, Esquire Assistant Attorney General New York Department of Law 120 Broadway New York, NY 10271 Mark J. Wetterhahn, Esquire Winston & Strawn 1700 K Street, NW.

Washington, DC 20006 Mr. Michael J. Wallace President Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, LLC c/o Constellation Energy Group 750 East Pratt Street Baltimore, MD 21202

NINE MILE POINT NUCLEAR STATION, LLC (NMPNS)

LONG ISLAND LIGHTING COMPANY DOCKET NO. 50-410 NINE MILE POINT NUCLEAR STATION, UNIT 2 AMENDMENT TO FACILITY OPERATING LICENSE Amendment No. 116 License No. NPF-69

1. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the Commission) has found that:

A. The application for amendment by Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, LLC (the licensee) dated December 29, 2005, complies with the standards and requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (the Act) and the Commission's rules and regulations set forth in 10 CFR Chapter 1; B. The facility will operate in conformity with the application, the provisions of the Act, and the rules and regulations of the Commission; C. There is reasonable assurance (i) that the activities authorized by this amendment can be conducted without endangering the health and safety of the public, and (ii) that such activities will be conducted in compliance with the Commission's regulations; D. The issuance of this amendment will not be inimical to the common defense and security or to the health and safety of the public; and E. The issuance of this amendment is in accordance with 10 CFR Part 51 of the Commission's regulations and all applicable requirements have been satisfied.

2. This license amendment is effective as of the date of its issuance and shall be implemented within 60 days of the date of issuance.

FOR THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

/RA/

Richard J. Laufer, Chief Plant Licensing Branch I-1 Division of Operating Reactor Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation

Attachment:

Changes to the Facility Operating License Date of Issuance: June 28, 2006

ATTACHMENT TO LICENSE AMENDMENT NO. 116 TO FACILITY OPERATING LICENSE NO. NPF-69 DOCKET NO. 50-410 Replace the following pages of the Facility Operating License with the attached pages. The revised pages are identified by amendment number and contain marginal lines indicating the areas of change.

Remove Page Insert Page 4 4 9 9

SAFETY EVALUATION BY THE OFFICE OF NUCLEAR REACTOR REGULATION RELATED TO AMENDMENT NO. 116 TO FACILITY OPERATING LICENSE NO. NPF-69 NINE MILE POINT NUCLEAR STATION, LLC (NMPNS)

NINE MILE POINT NUCLEAR STATION, UNIT 2 DOCKET NO. 50-410

1.0 INTRODUCTION

By letter dated December 29, 2005 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System Accession No. ML060100467), Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, LLC (the licensee) submitted a request for changes to the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, Unit No. 2 (NMP2), Facility Operating License. The requested changes would delete the reporting requirement in the Facility Operating License related to reporting violations of Section 2.C.

2.0 REGULATORY EVALUATION

A section or condition was included in the Facility Operating Licenses issued to some nuclear power plants requiring the licensee to make reports to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regarding violations of other sections of the operating license (typically Section 2.C).

A typical license condition reads as follows:1 Except as otherwise provided in this license and its appendices, the Licensee shall report any violations of the requirements contained in Section 2.C of this license in the following manner: initial notification shall be made within 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> to the NRC Operations Center via the Emergency Notification System with written followup within thirty days in accordance with the procedures described in Section 50.73 to Part 50 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR)

(Licensee event report system).

In addition to the information provided to support licensing decisions, the NRC obtains information about plant operation, licensee programs, and other matters using a combination of inspections and reporting requirements. Routine or scheduled reports that are required to be submitted to the NRC are defined in the related regulations, specific license condition, technical specification, or an NRC-approved program document. The reporting of emergencies, unplanned events or conditions, and other special cases may also be addressed within such 1

The condition (2.F) in the Facility Operating License for NMP2 is similar to the standard language.

documents by the inclusion of reporting thresholds and are also the focus of the reporting requirements in 10 CFR 50.72, Immediate notification requirements for operating nuclear power reactors, and 10 CFR 50.73, Licensee event report system. Changes to the reporting regulations in 10 CFR 50.72 and 50.73 became effective in January 2001 (see Federal Register notice on October 25, 2000 (65 FR 63769) and included extending the allowable reporting times for licensee event reports (LERs) from 30 days to 60 days.

3.0 TECHNICAL EVALUATION

Section 2.F, in the NMP2 Facility Operating License, requires the licensee to report any violations of the requirements of Section 2.C and defines the method and allowable time periods for such reports. The reporting threshold (i.e., a violation) for some of the conditions included in Section 2.C duplicates those defined in 10 CFR 50.72 and 10 CFR 50.73. However, the requirements in the Facility Operating License may have different deadlines than those defined in the regulations following a rule change in 2001. This difference in reporting requirements has led to variations in reporting since many Facility Operating Licenses do not contain the subject condition. For those licensees with a 30-day reporting requirement in the Facility Operating License, the condition has decreased the benefits of the rulemaking. For those cases where the current Facility Operating License requirement to report violations is also reportable in accordance with the regulations defined in 10 CFR 50.72 and 10 CFR 50.73, the NRC staff finds that the regulations adequately address this issue and the elimination of the duplicative requirement in the Facility Operating License is acceptable.

Some of the conditions addressed in Section 2.C of the Facility Operating License may address the maintenance of particular programs, administrative requirements, or other matters where a violation of the requirement would not result in a report to the NRC in accordance with 10 CFR 50.72 or 10 CFR 50.73. In most cases, there are requirements for reports to the NRC related to these conditions in other regulations, the specific license condition or technical specification, or an NRC-approved program document. In other cases, there are reports to other agencies or news releases that would prompt a report to the NRC (in accordance with 10 CFR 50.72(b)(2)(xi)). The NRC staff also assessed violations of administrative requirements that could be reportable under the current License Condition but that may not have a duplicative requirement in a regulation or other regulatory requirement. The NRC staff finds that the requirements to report such problems within 24 hours2.777778e-4 days <br />0.00667 hours <br />3.968254e-5 weeks <br />9.132e-6 months <br /> with written reports to follow using the LER process is not needed. The NRC staff is confident that the information related to such violations that is actually important to the NRCs regulatory functions would come to light in a time frame comparable to the 60-day LER requirements. The information would become available to the appropriate NRC staff through the inspection program, updates to program documents, resultant licensing actions, public announcements, or some other reliable mechanism.

The NRC staff finds that the elimination of Section 2.F in the NMP2 Facility Operating License will not result in a loss of information to the NRC that would adversely affect either its goal to protect public health and safety or its ability to carry out its various other regulatory responsibilities.

4.0 STATE CONSULTATION

In accordance with the Commission's regulations, the New York State official was notified of the proposed issuance of the amendment. The State official had no comments.

5.0 ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATION

The amendment changes recordkeeping, reporting, or administrative procedures or requirements. The NRC staff has determined that the amendment involves no significant increase in the amounts, and no significant change in the types, of any effluents that may be released offsite, and that there is no significant increase in individual or cumulative occupational radiation exposure. The Commission has previously issued a proposed finding that the amendment involves no significant hazards consideration, and there has been no public comment on such finding (71 FR 23958). Accordingly, the amendment meets the eligibility criteria for categorical exclusion set forth in 10 CFR 51.22(c)(9). Pursuant to 10 CFR 51.22(b) no environmental impact statement or environmental assessment need be prepared in connection with the issuance of the amendment.

6.0 CONCLUSION

The Commission has concluded, based on the considerations discussed above, that: (1) there is reasonable assurance that the health and safety of the public will not be endangered by operation in the proposed manner, (2) such activities will be conducted in compliance with the Commission's regulations, and (3) the issuance of the amendments will not be inimical to the common defense and security or to the health and safety of the public.

Principal Contributor: W. Reckley Date: June 28, 2006