ML101740157

Notice of Receipt of Update Antitrust Information and Opportunity for Public Comment

ML101740157
Person / Time
Site:	Watts Bar
Issue date:	06/24/2010
From:	Simmons A Division of Policy and Rulemaking
To:
Milano, P , NRR/DLPM, 415-1457
Shared Package
ML101740149	List: ML101740152 ML101740157
References
NRC-2008-0369, TAC ME0853
Download: ML101740157 (6)

Text

7590-01-P UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY DOCKET NO. 50-391 NOTICE OF RECEIPT OF UPDATED ANTITRUST INFORMATION AND OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

[NRC-2008-0369]

By letter dated May 13, 2010, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) submitted antitrust information in conjunction with its updated application for an operating license (OL) for a second pressurized-water reactor, Watts Bar Nuclear Plant (Watts Bar), Unit 2, located in Rhea County, Tennessee, approximately 50 miles northeast of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The information submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will assist the staff in determining whether there have been any significant changes since the completion of the antitrust review conducted for Watts Bar in 1979. This Federal Register notice acknowledges receipt of the updated information, notifies the public of the availability of this information, seeks public comment, and describes the procedures the NRC staff will use to evaluate the information.

On January 23, 1973, the NRC granted TVAs application for construction permits for Watts Bar, Units 1 and 2. On June 30, 1976, TVA filed an application for OLs for Watts Bar, Unit 1 and 2. The NRC issued an OL authorizing full-power operation of Watts Bar, Unit 1, in 1996. However, TVA did not complete construction of Unit 2, and construction was deferred.

Since that time, the NRC has granted extensions of the time period for completing construction of Unit 2 under its construction permit. On March 4, 2009, TVA updated its application for an OL for Watts Bar, Unit 2. The receipt of the updated application was noticed in the Federal

Register on May 1, 2009 (74 FR 20350). The OL application is currently pending review before the NRC.

At the time the NRC issued the construction permit for Watts Bar, Unit 2, Section 105c of the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) of 1954, as amended, required the NRC to conduct an antitrust review on all applications for a license to construct or operate a production or utilization facility

[42 U.S.C. § 2135(c)]. Thus, the NRC conducted an antitrust review in conjunction with the review of the application for a construction permit for Watts Bar, Unit 2 (37 FR 27646). In 2005, Congress determined that the NRC need not conduct antitrust reviews for applications filed after August 8, 2005 [42 U.S.C. § 2135(c)(9)]. Congress did so because other Government agencies more specialized in financial matters have demonstrated oversight and authority sufficient to discern and address potential anticompetitive behavior of nuclear energy producers (70 FR 61885). However, because TVA filed its original OL application for Watts Bar Unit 2 before 2005, under the AEA, the NRC must complete an antitrust review on this application.

Under Section 105(c)(2) of the AEA, the NRC will undertake an in-depth antitrust review on applications for an OL only when the NRC determines that significant changes in the licensees activities or proposed activities have occurred subsequent to the previous antitrust review on the construction permit [42 U.S.C. § 2135(c)(2)]. The Commission has interpreted this requirement to mean that the NRC must find the situation as changed has negative antitrust implications before it will conduct an in-depth antitrust review. See South Carolina Electric and Gas Company and South Carolina Public Service Authority (Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Station, Unit 1), CLI-80-28, 11 NRC 817, 835 (1980). Thus, the threshold question before the NRC is whether significant changes have occurred in TVAs activities, from an

antitrust perspective, since the NRC previously conducted its antitrust review on the application to construct Watts Bar, Unit 2.

The data submitted by TVA on May 13, 2010, contained information for review, based on NRC Regulatory Guide 9.3, Information Needed by the AEC Regulatory Staff in Connection with its Antitrust Review of Operating License Applications for Nuclear Power Plants. This information updated previous submissions to the NRC that supported the significant changes review the agency conducted on TVA for Watts Bar, Unit 1. The NRC completed this evaluation on August 15, 1991. Although the evaluation addressed TVAs OL application for Watts Bar, Unit 1, the analysis itself focused on TVAs economic activities. Thus, a separate significant changes analyses for Watts Bar, Unit 2, for that time period would be largely identical to the analysis already conducted for Unit 1. Therefore, the NRC staff sees no reason to conduct such a repetitive significant changes analysis. Instead, in conducting its significant changes analysis for Watts Bar, Unit 2, the NRC will rely on the analysis of TVAs economic activities conducted for Watts Bar, Unit 1, for the time period between the issuance of the construction permit and August 15, 1991. In addition, for the time period from August 15, 1991, to the present, the NRC will conduct a new significant changes analysis for Watts Bar, Unit 2.

For further details pertinent to the matters under consideration, see the application for the facility OL dated June 30, 1975, as supplemented on September 27, 1976, and as updated on March 4, 2009, and the updated antitrust information dated May 13, 2010, which are available for public inspection at the Commissions PDR, located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available records will be accessible electronically through the ADAMS Public Electronic Reading Room link on the internet at 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 documents located in ADAMS should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr.resource@nrc.gov. The OL application and its supplement and update are available at http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/plant-specific-items/watts-bar.html. To search for other related documents in ADAMS using the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 2 OL application docket number, 50-391, enter the term 05000391 in the Docket Number field when using either the Web-based search (advanced search) engine or the ADAMS find tool in Citrix.

Any person who desires additional information regarding the matter covered by this notice or who wishes to have comments considered with respect to significant changes related to antitrust matters that occurred since completion of the previous antitrust review, should submit such requests for information or comments to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555, Attention: Chief, Financial Analysis Branch, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, within 30 days of the date of this notice. Requests for additional information or comments may also be e-mailed to shanna.helton@nrc.gov.

Comments submitted in writing or in electronic form will be posted on the NRC Web site.

Because these comments will not be edited to remove any identifying or contact information, the NRC cautions the commenter against including any information that he/she does not want to be publicly disclosed. The NRC requests that any person soliciting or aggregating comments received from other persons for submission to the NRC inform those persons that the NRC will not edit their comments to remove any identifying or contact information, and therefore, they should not include any information in their comments that they do not want publicly disclosed.

The NRC will consider such comments submitted and forward those comments, as well as the information submitted by TVA, to the United States Attorney General. Upon reviewing this information, the United States Attorney General will provide the NRC with an opinion on whether there have been significant changes related to antitrust matters in TVAs activities.

Upon completion of the staffs review of significant changes, and after considering any opinion from the United States Attorney General and comments submitted by the public, the Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) may issue an initial finding as to whether there have been significant changes under section 105c(2) of the AEA. A copy of this finding will be published in the Federal Register and will be sent to the Washington, D.C. public document room and to those persons providing comments or information in response to this notice. The NRC will also make that initial finding available in ADAMS.

If the initial finding concludes that there have not been any significant changes, a request for reevaluation of the finding may be submitted within 30 days of the date of that Federal Register notice. The results of that reevaluation, if requested, will also be published in the Federal Register, and copies will be sent to the Washington, D.C. public document room.

The reevaluation will also be available on the NRCs public website through ADAMS. If that determination also finds no significant changes, it will become the final NRC decision after thirty days unless the Commission exercises sua sponte review.

If the Director of NRR concludes that significant changes have occurred since the completion of the antitrust review that the NRC previously conducted, the NRC will begin the

procedures necessary to conduct an in-depth antitrust review, as required by section 105c. of the AEA.

Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 24th day of June 2010.

FOR THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

/RA/

Anneliese Simmons, Acting Chief Financial, Policy, and Rulemaking Branch Division of Policy and Rulemaking Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation