ML20077N971

Requests NRC Position Re Need for License Amend to Allow Return of 114 Spent Fuel Assemblies Originally Removed from Facilities

ML20077N971
Person / Time
Site:	Point Beach
Issue date:	09/09/1983
From:	Patricia Anderson WISCONSIN'S ENVIRONMENTAL DECADE
To:	NRC OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY (SECY)
References
TAC-52693, TAC-52694, NUDOCS 8309130262
Download: ML20077N971 (2)

Text

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00CKEijiggR s. .omust nw .ss,staur September 9, 1983 Docketing & Service U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington, D. C. 20555 Re: Wisconsin Electric Power Company' Dockets 50-266 and 50-301 (Shipment of Spent Fuel)

Gentlemen:

According to the Commission's Weekly Inf ormation Report, Wisconsin Electric Power Company is proposing to return to Point Beach Nuclear Plant from the Nuclear Fuel' Services reprocessing facility in West Valley, New York, the 114 spent f uel assemblies

that were originally removed f rom the Point Beach reactor.

This is to state our position that, unlike the original shipments to West Valley, a return shipment is not covered by the present Point Beach license, and a license amendment would be required before the return shipments could commence for three reasons, virst, the general license conditions set forth in the regulations to permit transfer to a carrier, 10 C.F.R. S71.12, and receipt f rom a carrier,10 C.F.R. S70.41, apply, by their stated terms, to the outgoing transit to an approved respository, and not.to a return trip f rom an approved repository to a .

commercial reactor.

Second, this interpretation of the regulations is consistent with the past Commission practice. In Rg North Anna Power _

Station, Dockets 50-338 and 50-339, 4 7 F.R. 41892 (September 22, 1982), the Commission noticed a license amendment proceeding to permit shipment of high-level radioactive waste from the licensee's Surry Power Station.

Third, this is not merely a technical interpretation.

Major issues not considered in the original license permitting shipments from a reactor to a reprocessing facility are involved witti return shipments that are not related to reprocessing or permanent disposal needs. One example is S135 of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 which mandates minimization of spent fuel transportation, a Congressional policy which would be violated by the kind of shipments proposed here.

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, Please advise us at the earliest time as to the position of the Commission with regard to the need for a license amendment before spent fuel may be returned from West Valley to Point Beach. We strongly urge the Commission to resolve its position in this matter sufficiently before the shipments take place so that legal remedies may be pursued if necessary.

Sincerely, WISCON I 'S ENVIRONMENTAL DECADE, INC.

By 5r 4

\' ETER DERSON President PA/mt-2B:50266NRC.L01 cc: Gerald Charnoff, Esq.

Cong. Les Aspin i

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