ML14251A352
| ML14251A352 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Callaway  |
| Issue date: | 09/08/2014 |
| From: | Bollwerk G, William Froehlich, Nicholas Trikouros Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel |
| To: | |
| SECY RAS | |
| References | |
| 50-483-LR, ASLBP 12-919-06-LR-BD01, LBP-14-12, RAS 26456 | |
| Download: ML14251A352 (7) | |
Text
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA LBP-14-12 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD PANEL Before the Licensing Board:
G. Paul Bollwerk, III, Chair William J. Froehlich Nicholas G. Trikouros In the Matter of Docket No. 50-483-LR Union Electric Company ASLBP No. 12-919-06-LR-BD01 (Callaway Plant, Unit 1) September 8, 2014 MEMORANDUM AND ORDER (Dismissing Contention and Terminating Proceeding)
In this proceeding, applicant Union Electric Company, d/b/a Ameren Missouri (Ameren),
seeks a twenty-year extension of the October 18, 2024 expiration date for the 10 C.F.R. Part 50 operating license for its Callaway Plant, Unit 1. In a July 17, 2012 ruling this Licensing Board found inadmissible all three of the contentions proffered in the April 2012 hearing petition of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment (MCE) challenging various aspects of the Ameren environmental report (ER) submitted in support of the Callaway license renewal application.
See LBP-12-15, 76 NRC 14, 41 (2012). Nonetheless, this proceeding has remained open because of the pendency of another contention, submitted by MCE on July 9, 2012, claiming the Ameren ER fails to comply with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Specifically, MCEs pending issue statement asserts that the Ameren ER must include a discussion of the environmental impacts of spent fuel pool (SFP) leakage, SFP fires, and the lack of a spent fuel repository, as required by the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in New York v. NRC, 681 F.3d 471 (D.C. Cir. 2012). See
Intervenors Motion for Leave to File a New Contention Concerning Temporary Storage and Ultimate Disposal of Nuclear Waste at Callaway Nuclear Power Plant (July 9, 2014) at 4.
By order dated August 7, 2012, ruling on the status of similar contentions filed in various power reactor licensing proceedings, the Commission directed the licensing boards presiding over the cases in which such contentions were pending, including this Board, to hold those contentions in abeyance pending further Commission order, which would be issued in conjunction with a then to-be-determined agency response to the District of Columbia Circuits ruling. See CLI-12-16, 76 NRC 63, 68S69 (2012). Subsequently, the Commission decided to act with regard to the issues raised by the District of Columbia Circuits ruling by instituting a rulemaking to revise the agencys generic determination on the environmental impacts of continued storage of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) found in 10 C.F.R. § 51.23. See Memorandum to R. W. Borchardt, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Executive Director for Operations (EDO), from Rochelle C. Bavol, NRC Acting Secretary,
Subject:
Staff Requirements -
SECY-13-0061 - Proposed Rule: Waste Confidence - Continued Storage of [SNF]
(RIN 3150-AJ20) at 1S2 (Aug. 5, 2013) (ADAMS Accession No. ML13217A358). As a consequence, on September 13, 2013, the NRC published a proposed rule and a draft generic environmental impact statement (GEIS), NUREG-2157, intended to provide a regulatory basis for the rulemaking changes being proposed. See Waste Confidence Continued Storage of
[SNF], 78 Fed. Reg. 56,776 (Sept. 13, 2013); Draft Waste Confidence [GEIS], 78 id. 56,621 (Sept. 13, 2013).
After receiving public comment on both the proposed rule and the draft GEIS, on August 26, 2014, the Commission adopted a final rule that (1) revises its generic determination regarding the environmental impacts of the continued storage of SNF beyond a reactors licensed life for operation and prior to ultimate disposal; and (2) concludes that the GEIS,
NUREG-2157, generically determines the environmental impacts of continued storage of SNF beyond the licensed life for operation of a reactor.1 And contemporaneous with its approval of the final rule on the impacts of continued storage, the Commission entered an order applicable to the various reactor licensing proceedings, including this one, in which a contention was pending that challenged the adequacy of an applicants ER or the staffs environmental document based on the District of Columbia Circuits New York v. NRC ruling. In its order, after reviewing the background regarding the continued storage rule that we have synopsized above, the Commission directed the Atomic Safety and Licensing Boards to reject the contentions pending before them, consistent with our decision today. CLI-14-08, 80 NRC , (slip op.
at 10) (Aug. 26, 2014) (footnote omitted).
1 See Memorandum to Mark A. Satorius, NRC EDO, from Annette L. Vietti-Cook, NRC Secretary,
Subject:
Staff Requirements - Affirmation Session, 10:00 a.m., Tues., Aug. 26, 2014, Commissioners' Conference Room, One White Flint North, Rockville, Maryland (Open to Public Attendance) at 2 (Aug. 26, 2014) (ADAMS Accession No. ML14237A092); see also Memorandum for the Commissioners from Mark A. Satorius,
Subject:
Final Rule: Continued Storage of SNF (RIN 3150-AJ20), SECY-14-0072 (July 21, 2014) encls. 1S2 (draft Final Rule, Continued Storage of [SNF], and Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, NRC,
[GEIS] for Continued Storage of [SNF], NUREG-2157 (Aug. 2014)) (ADAMS Accession No. ML14177A482 (package)).
Thus, acting in accord with that Commission direction, we conclude MCEs July 9, 2012 contention is inadmissable and dismiss it from this proceeding.2 Further, there being no other admitted or pending contentions in this proceeding, we close this case.
For the foregoing reasons, it is this eighth day of September 2014, ORDERED, that:
- 1. The July 9, 2012 request of petitioner MCE to admit a contention challenging the adequacy of applicant Amerens ER in light of the June 8, 2012 ruling of the District of Columbia Circuit in New York v. NRC is denied.
- 2. As a consequence of the foregoing action, and there being no other admitted or pending contentions in this case, this proceeding is terminated.
2 Given this determination, we need not reach the question whether, with the February 2014 issuance of the NRC staffs draft supplement to the agencys GEIS for nuclear power plant license renewal, see Office of Nuclear Regulation, NRC, [GEIS] for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants, Supp. 51, Regarding Callaway Plant, Unit 1, Draft Report for Comment, NUREG-1437 (Feb. 2014) (ADAMS Accession No. ML14041A373), MCEs July 9, 2012 contention challenging the adequacy of the Ameren ER would, consistent with the so-called migration tenet, become a challenge to the staffs draft GEIS supplement in the absence of a new or amended contention.
- 3. As this decision rules upon the only pending unresolved contention in this case and has the effect of closing this proceeding, under the provisions of 10 C.F.R. § 2.341 any appeal to the Commission from this memorandum and order must be taken within twenty-five (25) days after this issuance is served.3 THE ATOMIC SAFETY AND LICENSING BOARD
5$
G. Paul Bollwerk, III, Chair ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE
5$
William J. Froehlich ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE
5$
Nicholas G. Trikouros ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE Rockville, Maryland September 8, 2014 3
In its July 2012 decision denying the admission of all the contentions proffered with MCEs April 24, 2012 initial hearing request/intervention petition, noting the pendency of MCEs July 9 new contention, the Board advised the parties of the opportunity to take any appeal under section 2.311 from that issuance that may be appropriate. LBP-12-15, 76 NRC at 41S42 &
n.15. The degree to which the pendency of that new contention at the time of the Boards ruling on MCEs initial hearing petition tolled the time for filing any appeals from that decision regarding the admissibility of the contentions submitted with MCEs petition would be a matter for Commission determination. See Tenn. Valley Auth. (Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2), CLI-14-03, 79 NRC 31, 36S37 (2014).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION In the Matter of )
)
UNION ELECTRIC COMPANY D/B/A AmerenUE )
)
) Docket No. 50-483-LR (Callaway Nuclear Power Plant, Unit 1) )
)
(License Renewal) )
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that copies of the foregoing MEMORANDUM AND ORDER (Dismissing Contention and Terminating Proceeding) (LBP-14-12) have been served upon the following persons by Electronic Information Exchange or via Electronic Mail as indicated by an asterisk.
Office of Commission Appellate U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Adjudication Office of the Secretary of the Commission U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Mail Stop O-16C1 Washington, DC 20555-0001 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: ocaamail@nrc.gov Hearing Docket Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel E-mail: hearingdocket@nrc.gov U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Mail Stop - T-3 F23 Union Electric Company Washington, DC 20555-0001 Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP 2300 N. Street, NW G. Paul Bollwerk, III, Chair Washington, DC 20037-1122 Administrative Judge E-mail: paul.bollwerk@nrc.gov David R. Lewis, Esq.
Counsel for the Applicant William J. Froehlich E-mail: david.lewis@pillsburylaw.com Administrative Judge E-mail: william.froehlich@nrc.gov Missouri Coalition for the Environment Dr. Nicholas G. Trikouros Edward Smith, Safe Energy Director Administrative Judge Diane Curran, Esq.
E-mail: nicholas.trikouros@nrc.gov Henry B. Robertson, Esq.
Email: showmenocwip@gmail.com Matthew Flyntz, Law Clerk dcurran@harmoncurran.com Email: matthew.flyntz@nrc.gov hrobertson@greatriverslaw.org
Callaway Power Plant, Unit 1, Docket No. 50-483-LR MEMORANDUM AND ORDER (Dismissing Contention and Terminating Proceeding)
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Office of the General Counsel Mail Stop - O-15 D21 Washington, DC 20555-0001 Edward Williamson, Esq.
Mary Spencer, Esq.
Catherine Kanatas, Esq.
Anita Ghosh, Esq.
Beth N. Mizuno, Esq.
David Cylkowski, Esq.
Email: edward.williamson@nrc.gov mary.spencer@nrc.gov catherine.kanatas@nrc.gov anita.ghosh@nrc.gov beth.mizuno@nrc.gov david.cylkowski@nrc.gov OGG Mail Center: ogcmailcenter@nrc.gov
[Original signed by Herald M. Speiser]
Office of the Secretary of the Commission Dated at Rockville, Maryland this 9th day of September, 2014 2