ML11263A010

G20110686/LTR-11-0482/EDATS: SECY-2011-0514 - Ltr. Rep. Nita M. Lowey Regulation Identification Number (Rule) Flexibility on Relicensing Terms - Indian Point

ML11263A010
Person / Time
Site:	Indian Point
Issue date:	08/15/2011
From:	Lowey N US Congress, Committee on Appropriations
To:	Jaczko G NRC/Chairman
Shared Package
ML11269A032	List: ML11263A010 ML11265A139
References
G20110686, LTR-11-0482, SECY-2011-0514, RIN 3150-AD04, EDATS: SECY-2011-0514
Download: ML11263A010 (7)

Text

EDO Principal Correspondence Control FROM: DUE: 10/05/11 EDO CONTROL: G20110686 DOC DT: 08/15/11 FINAL REPLY:

Representative Nita M. Lowey TO:

Chairman Jaczko FOR SIGNATURE OF : ** GRN ** CRC NO: 11-0482 Borchardt, EDO DESC: ROUTING:

Regulation Identification Number (RULE) Borchardt Flexibility on Relicensing Terms - Indian Point Weber (EDATS: SECY-2011-0514) Virgilio Ash Mamish OGC/GC DATE: 09/19/11 Leeds, NRR Dean, RI ASSIGNED TO: CONTACT: Burns, OGC Schmidt, OCA EDO Rihm SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS OR REMARKS:

Note: Letter to Rep. Lowey fm A. Vietti-Cook dated 09/16/11 is attached. Please prepare response in accordance with OEDO Notice 2009-0441-02 (ML093290179). NRR and Region I to provide input to Roger Rihm, OEDO, if required. Roger to coordinate response with OGC and OCA.

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SDATS Number: SECY-201.1-0514 Source: SECY

%ssigned To: OEDO OEDO Due Date: 10/5/2011 11:00 PM

)ther Assignees: SECY Due Date: 10/7/2011 11:00 PM

ubject

Regulation Identification Number (RULE) Flexibility on Relicensing Terms - Indian Point

)escription:

XC Routing: NRR; Regionl; OGC; OCA kDAMS Accession Numbers - Incoming: NONE Response/Package: NONE S Ier r i 2ross Reference Number: G20110686, LTR-I 1-0482 Staff Initiated: NO Zelated Task: Recurring Item: NO H'ile Routing: EDATS Agency Lesson Learned: NO OEDO Monthly Report Item: NO

ý css Infr ato

%_ctionType: Letter Priority: Medium Sensitivity: None

'ignature Level: EDO Urgency: NC) tpproval Level: No Approval Required

)EDO Concurrence: NO

)CM Concurrence: NO

)CA Concurrence: NO

pecial Instructions

Note: Letter to Rep. Lowey fmn A. Vietti-Cook dated 9/16/11 (attached). Please prepare response n accordance with OEDO Notice 2009-0441-02 (ML093290179). NRR and Region I to provide input to Roger Rihm,

)EDO, if required. Roger Rihm will coordinate response with OGC and OCA.

II *en Infr aio

)riginator Name: Representative Nita M. Lowey Date of Incoming: 8/15/2011

)riginating Organization: Congress Document Received by SECY Date: 9/16/2011 Wddressee: Chairman Jaczko Date Response Requested by Originator: NONE

ncoming Task Received: Letter

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY CORRESPONDENCE CONTROL TICKET Date Printed: Sep 16, 2011 15:51 PAPER NUMBER: LTR-1 1-0482 LOGGING DATE: 08/16/2011 ACTION OFFICE: EDO AUTHOR: REP Nita Lowey AFFILIATION: CONG ADDRESSEE: Gregory Jaczko

SUBJECT:

Regulation Identification Number (RULE) provides more flexiblity on relicensing terms ACTION: Direct Reply DISTRIBUTION: RF, OCA to Ack LETTER DATE: 08/15/2011 ACKNOWLEDGED No SPECIAL HANDLING: SECY prepared exparte response referred to EDO. When EDO responds give copy to SECY to place on IP Docket.

NOTES:

FILE LOCATION: ADAMS DATE DUE: 10/07/2011 DATE SIGNED:

EDO -- G20110686

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS "ow'yhouJ gov RANKING aMEMBER, iA 2 A STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, AND RELATED PROGRAMS m MtA,,AO.CK A.,N,:

LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, tJAI4*-. ,*

AND EDUCATION I4. ANAYY HOMELAND SECURITY August 15, 2011 Chairman Gregory B. Jaczko U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Mail Stop 0-1604 Washington, DC 20555-0001

Dear Chairman Jaczko:

Regulation Identification Number (RIN) 3150-AD04 (Rule) provides the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) with the power to relicense nuclear facilities. This Rule-provides much more flexibility on relicensing terms than the NRC has been willing to utitize.

Specifically, the Rule states that a main concern in determining renewal terms was the ability to find replacement power. What the NRC believed to be a "10-to-15" year endeavor decades ago could be completed within a few years today. In, fact, New York is on course to have enough power to replace Indian Point by the time Indian Point Reactor 3 would be relicensed. I urge you to exercise the flexibility offered to the NRC, given the special circumstances facing Indian Point in Buchanan, New York, to consider a shorter license renewal term before an orderly decommissioning of thefacility.

R~eplacemepnt Power Regulations controlling the NRC's actions on relicensing are outdated, The Rule states that "Utilities contend that they will require 10 to 15. years to plan and build replacement power plants if the operating licenses for existing nuclear power plants are notirenewed"' This statement, issued in 1991, does not reflect modern standards. Replacement power can be zoned, permitted, and built in a fraction of that time.

The Governor of New York has made clear his plan to close Indian Point. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has rejected a required water permit for the facility to utilize water from the Hudson River to cool reactors. Rather than support relicensing, the State has enacted a new siting law to assist in the construction ofpower plants, and is already in the process of approving multiple projects that should be on-line and in production before Indian Point's licenses expire in 2013 and 2015.

New York has approved a Hudson Transmission Project to provide 660 MW, projected to be in service in 2013; an NRG Repowering Station in Astoria to provide 440 MW, projected to be in service in 2013; and a U.S. PowerGen South Pier Improvement Project in Brooklyn to provide 100 MW, projected to be 156 FR 64943; December 13, 1991

in service in 2012. Additional projects in the permitting process, including the Champlain Hudson Power Express project, which will provide over 1000 additional megawatts of power. These projects alone would meet the peak-demand provided by Indian Point within the next few years.

In the coming months, we will receive additional information from New York State on replacement power and expect New York to meet expected demand without Indian Point. Therefore, a full 20-year relicense term is not needed.

Special Circumstances You have stated that the NRC is obligated to determine relicensing based on a list of factors which do not include population density, risk of terror threat, evacuation difficulties, or seismic risk. Yet the Rule governing NRC relicensing is not exclusive. Rather, the Rule states that relicensing must take into account age degradation "but provides leeway 2 for the Commission to consider, on a case-by-case basis, other issues unique to extended operation."

The location and risks posed by Indian Point clearly warrant a careful, case-by-case relicensing review.

Indian Point, located 35-miles of Times Square, is. surrounded by 17 million people within a 50-mile radius. There is yet to be a credible evacuationiplan for a ten-mile radius, let alone one that would evacuate the entire population of New York City, Westchester and Rockland Counties, and portions of Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut. If ever issues of evacuation and population density should be addressed in relicensing, it is with the Indian Point facility.

In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, we have been forced to think about the unexpected and unimaginable potential dangers to nuclear facilities. Since that time, U.S. plants have also faced flood dangers, such as the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station in Nebraska.

I am deeply concerned that there is no workable plan to evacuate the population surrounding Indian Point safely in the event of a man-made or natural disaster and that Entergy officials continue to utilize antiquated seismic data that we know underestimates potential seismic events. Without basic evacuation procedures, it is nearly impossible to give first responders and the public confidence in plans for unexpected emergencies or for the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) to plan for threats. I do not see how they can best plan for the unexpected when basic evacuation procedures are not adequate.

Five-Year License The Rule states that "there is no minimum term for a renewed license" and that "the Commission may revisit this issue in-the future as experience with licensee performance.. .is gained."3 I believe that this Rule, along with the special circumstances surrounding Indian Point's location, security threat, and replacement power options, should encourage the NRC to support a short-term license renewal such as a five-year renewal.

2 56 FR 64946; December 13, 1991 56 FR 64964; December 13, 1991

Theire is precedent for the NRC to work with states and utilities to permit operations of an aging nuclear facility for a shorter time than the term of the license. The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey recently announced that it will close in 2019, tenii years before its renewal license is scheduled to expire. At Oyster Creek, the State Department of Environmental Protection required cooling towers and additional protections not required by the NRC. Rather than adhere to the State's requirements, Excelon agreed to decommission the plant in 2019, making way for adequate replacement power options and the safe closure of a plant that had become an environmental threat with a history of leaking tritium.

New York may be more willing to work with Entergy to sustain operations aimed at an orderly decommissioning of the plant. The NRC should take a realistic approach to relicensing that involves State concerns, work with New York and, if Indian Point is qualified, approve a shor-term extension while simultaneously begin the decommissioning process as N.ew York approves replacement power. A short-term relicensing, aloiig with an orderly decommissioning, would ensure that replacement power is available and affordable and would reduce the environmental and national security threat posed to the region by the plant's continued operation.

Sincerely, Nita M, Lowey Member of Congress

UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20555-0001

<r ,o,.* September 16, 2011 OFFICE CiF THE SECRETTARY The Honorable Nita M. Lowey United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congresswoman Lowey,

I am responding to your letter of August 15, 2011, sent to Chairman Jaczko of the U.S.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or Commission), in which you raised several concerns related to license renewal for Indian Point Nuclear Generating Units 2 and 3 (IP2 and IP3).

Due to the fact that relicensing for the Indian Point plants is currently the subject of adjudication before an NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, I must advise that under agency regulations, the Commission has an appellate role in the adjudicatory proceeding. Because of that role, I trust that you will understand that Chairman Jaczko and the other Commissioners must remain impartial during the pendency of a case, whether it is before a Licensing Board or on appeal to the Commission. I am therefore referring your letter to the NRC staff for response.

A copy of your letter and this response, as well as a response by the NRC staff, when issued, will be served on the participants in the Indian Point proceeding.

Sincerely, Annette L. Vietti-Cook Secretary of the Commission cc: Indian Point Service List