ML072900397
| ML072900397 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Beaver Valley |
| Issue date: | 10/22/2007 |
| From: | Louise Lund NRC/NRR/ADRO/DLR |
| To: | |
| Howard K, NRR/DLR/RLRB, 415-2989 | |
| Shared Package | |
| ML072900306 | List: |
| References | |
| Download: ML072900397 (8) | |
Text
7590-01-P UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION FIRSTENERGY NUCLEAR OPERATING COMPANY BEAVER VALLEY POWER STATION, UNITS 1 AND 2 NOTICE OF ACCEPTANCE FOR DOCKETING OF THE APPLICATION AND NOTICE OF OPPORTUNITY FOR HEARING REGARDING RENEWAL OF FACILITY OPERATING LICENSE NOS. DPR-66 AND NPF-73 FOR AN ADDITIONAL 20-YEAR PERIOD DOCKET NOS. 50-334 and 50-412 The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) is considering an application for the renewal of Operating License Nos. DPR-66 and NPF-73, which authorize FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC), to operate Beaver Valley Power Station, Units 1 and 2, respectively, at 2900 megawatts thermal for each unit. The renewed licenses would authorize the applicant to operate Beaver Valley Power Station, Units 1 and 2, for an additional 20 years beyond the period specified in the current licenses. The current operating licenses for Beaver Valley Power Station, Units 1 and 2, expire on January 29, 2016, and May 27, 2026, respectively.
FENOC submitted the application dated August 27, 2007, pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations CFR Part 54 (10 CFR Part 54), to renew Operating License Nos.
DPR-66 and NPF-73 for Beaver Valley Power Station, Units 1 and 2, respectively. A Notice of Receipt and Availability of the license renewal application (LRA) was published in the Federal Register on September 24, 2007 (72 FR 54301).
The Commissions staff has determined that FENOC has submitted sufficient information in accordance with 10 CFR Sections 54.19, 54.21, 54.22, 54.23, 51.45, and Enclosure 2
51.53(c) to enable the staff to undertake a review of the application, and the application is therefore acceptable for docketing. The current Docket Nos. 50-334 and 50-412 for Operating License Nos. DPR-66 and NPF-73, respectively, will be retained. The determination to accept the license renewal application for docketing does not constitute a determination that a renewed license should be issued, and does not preclude the NRC staff from requesting additional information as the review proceeds.
Before issuance of each requested renewed license, the NRC will have made the findings required by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (the Act), as amended, and the Commissions rules and regulations. In accordance with 10 CFR 54.29, the NRC may issue a renewed license on the basis of its review if it finds that actions have been identified and have been or will be taken with respect to: (1) managing the effects of aging during the period of extended operation on the functionality of structures and components that have been identified as requiring aging management review; and (2) time-limited aging analyses that have been identified as requiring review, such that there is reasonable assurance that the activities authorized by the renewed license will continue to be conducted in accordance with the current licensing basis (CLB), and that any changes made to the plants CLB comply with the Act and the Commissions regulations.
Additionally, in accordance with 10 CFR 51.95(c), the NRC will prepare an environmental impact statement that is a supplement to the Commissions NUREG-1437, Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Power Plants, dated May 1996. In considering the LRA, the Commission must find that the applicable requirements of Subpart A of 10 CFR Part 51 have been satisfied. Pursuant to 10 CFR 51.26, and as part of the environmental scoping process, the staff intends to hold a public scoping meeting. Detailed information regarding the environmental scoping meeting will be the subject of a separate Federal Register notice.
Within 60 days after the date of publication of this Federal Register Notice, any person whose interest may be affected by this proceeding and who wishes to participate as a party in the proceeding must file a written request for a hearing or a petition for leave to intervene with respect to the renewal of the license. Requests for a hearing or petitions for leave to intervene must be filed in accordance with the Commissions Rules of Practice for Domestic Licensing Proceedings in 10 CFR Part 2. Interested persons should consult a current copy of 10 CFR 2.309, which is available at the Commissions Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland 20852 and is accessible from the NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS)
Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at 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 NRCs PDR reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail at pdr@nrc.gov. If a request for a hearing/petition for leave to intervene is filed within the 60-day period, the Commission or a presiding officer designated by the Commission or by the Chief Administrative Judge of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel will rule on the request and/or petition; and the Secretary or the Chief Administrative Judge of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel will issue a notice of a hearing or an appropriate order. In the event that no request for a hearing or petition for leave to intervene is filed within the 60-day period, the NRC may, upon completion of its evaluations and upon making the findings required under 10 CFR Parts 51 and 54, renew the license without further notice.
As required by 10 CFR 2.309, a petition for leave to intervene shall set forth with particularity the interest of the petitioner in the proceeding, and how that interest may be affected by the results of the proceeding, taking into consideration the limited scope of matters that may be considered pursuant to 10 CFR Parts 51 and 54. The petition must specifically
explain the reasons why intervention should be permitted with particular reference to the following factors: (1) the nature of the requestors/petitioners right under the Act to be made a party to the proceeding; (2) the nature and extent of the requestors/petitioners property, financial, or other interest in the proceeding; and (3) the possible effect of any decision or order which may be entered in the proceeding on the requestors/petitioners interest. The petition must also set forth the specific contentions which the petitioner/requestor seeks to have litigated in the proceeding.
Each contention must consist of a specific statement of the issue of law or fact to be raised or controverted. In addition, the requestor/petitioner shall provide a brief explanation of the bases of each contention and a concise statement of the alleged facts or the expert opinion that supports the contention on which the requestor/petitioner intends to rely in proving the contention at the hearing. The requestor/petitioner must also provide references to those specific sources and documents of which the requestor/petitioner is aware and on which the requestor/petitioner intends to rely to establish those facts or expert opinion. The requestor/petitioner must provide sufficient information to show that a genuine dispute exists with the applicant on a material issue of law or fact.1 Contentions shall be limited to matters within the scope of the action under consideration. The contention must be one that, if proven, would entitle the requestor/petitioner to relief. A requestor/petitioner who fails to satisfy these requirements with respect to at least one contention will not be permitted to participate as a party.
1 To the extent that the application contains attachments and supporting documents that are not publicly available because they are asserted to contain safeguards or proprietary information, petitioners desiring access to this information should contact the applicant or applicants counsel to discuss the need for a protective order.
The Commission requests that each contention be given a separate numeric or alpha designation within one of the following groups: (1) technical (primarily related to safety concerns); (2) environmental; or (3) miscellaneous.
As specified in 10 CFR 2.309, if two or more requestors/petitioners seek to co-sponsor a contention or propose substantially the same contention, the requestors/petitioners will be required to jointly designate a representative who shall have the authority to act for the requestors/petitioners with respect to that contention.
Those permitted to intervene become parties to the proceeding, subject to any limitations in the order granting leave to intervene, and have the opportunity to participate fully in the conduct of the hearing. A request for hearing or a petition for leave to intervene must be filed in accordance with the NRC E-Filing rule, which the NRC promulgated in August 2007, 72 FR 49, 139 (August 28, 2007). The E-filing process requires participants to submit and serve documents over the internet or in some cases to mail copies on electronic storage media.
Participants may not submit paper copies of their filings unless they seek a waiver in accordance with the procedures described below.
To comply with the procedural requirements of E-Filing, at least five (5) days prior to the filing deadline, the petitioner/requestor must contact the Office of the Secretary by e-mail at HEARINGDOCKET@NRC.GOV, or by calling (301) 415-1677, to request: (1) a digital ID certificate, which allows the participant (or the counsel or representative) to digital sign documents and access the E-Submittal server for any proceeding in which it is participating; and/or (2) creation of an electronic docket for the proceeding (even in instances in which the requestor/petitioner (or its council or representative) already holds an NRC-issued digital ID certificate). Each requestor/petitioner will need to download the Workplace Forms Viewer' to access the Electronic Information Exchange (EIE), a component of the E-Filing system. The Workplace Forms Viewer' is free and is available at
http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/install-viewer.html. Information about applying for a digital ID certificate is available on NRCs public website at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/apply-certificates.html.
Once a requestor/petitioner has obtained a digital ID certificate, had a docket created, and downloaded the EIE viewer, it can then submit a request for hearing or petition for leave to intervene. Submissions should be in Portable Document Format (PDF) in accordance with NRC guidance available on the NRC public website at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html.
A filing is considered complete at the time the filer submits its documents through EIE. To be timely, an electronic filing must be submitted to the EIE system no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the due date. Upon receipt of a transmission, the E-Filing system time-stamps the document and sends the submitter an e-mail notice confirming receipt of the document. The EIE system also distributes an e-mail notice that provides access to the document to the NRC Office of the General Counsel and any others who have advised the Office of the Secretary that they wish to participate in the proceeding, so that the filer need not serve the documents on those participants separately. Therefore, applicants and other participants (or their counsel or representatives) must apply for and receive a digital ID certificate before a hearing request/petition to intervene is filed so that they can obtain access to the document via the E-Filing system.
A person filing electronically may seek assistance through the Contact Us link located on the NRC website at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html or by calling the NRC technical help line, which is available between 8:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m., Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. The help line number is (800) 397-4209 or locally, (301) 415-4737.
Participants who believe that they have a good cause for not submitting documents electronically must file a motion, in accordance with 10 CFR 2.302(g), with their initial paper filing requesting authorization to continue to submit documents in paper format. Such filings must be
submitted by: (1) first class mail addressed to the Office of the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudication Staff; or (2) courier, express mail, or expedited delivery service to the Office of the Secretary, Sixteenth Floor, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Maryland 20852, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff. Participants filing a document in this manner are responsible for serving the document on all other participants. Filing is considered complete by first-class mail as of the time of deposit in the mail, or by courier, express mail or expedited delivery service upon depositing the document with the provider of the service.
Non-timely requests and/or petitions and contentions will not be entertained absent a determination by the Commission, the presiding officer, or the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel that the petition and/or request should be granted and/or the contentions should be admitted based on a balancing of the factors specified in 10 CFR § 2.309(c)(1)(i)-(viii). To be timely, filings must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the due date.
Documents submitted in adjudicatory proceedings will appear in NRCs electronic hearing docket which is available to the public at http://ehd.nrc.gov/EHD_Proceeding/home.asp, unless excluded pursuant to an order of the Commission, an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, or a Presiding Officer. Participants are requested not to include personal privacy information, such as social security numbers, home addresses, or home phone numbers in their filings. With respect to copyrighted works, except for limited excerpts that serve the purpose of the adjudicatory filings and would constitute a Fair Use application, participants are requested not to include copyrighted materials in their submission.
Detailed information about the license renewal process can be found under the Nuclear Reactors icon at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal.html on the NRCs website. Copies of the application to renew the operating licenses for Beaver Valley Power Station, Units 1 and 2, are available for public inspection at the Commissions PDR, located
at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland 20852-2738, and at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applications.html, the NRCs website while the application is under review. The application may be accessed in ADAMS through the NRCs Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html under ADAMS Accession Number ML072430913.
As stated above, persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS may contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov.
The NRC staff has verified that a copy of the LRA is also available to local residents near Beaver Valley Power Station, Units 1 and 2, at the Beaver Area Memorial Library, 100 College Avenue, Beaver, Pennsylvania 15009, and the Beaver County Library System, 1 Campus Drive, Monaca, Pennsylvania 15061.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 22nd day of October, 2007.
FOR THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
/RA/
Louise Lund, Acting Director Division of License Renewal Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation