ML23167C132
| ML23167C132 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Vallecitos Nuclear Center, 07000754, 07001113, 07200001, 07001220, 11005081, 11006278, Vallecitos, 11005086, 11001076, 11005555, 11005186 |
| Issue date: | 07/13/2023 |
| From: | Shana Helton Division of Fuel Management |
| To: | |
| References | |
| 88 FRN 46197, NRC-2023-0119 | |
| Download: ML23167C132 (11) | |
Text
[7590-01-P]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket Nos. 50-18, 50-70, 50-73, 50-183,70-754, 70-1113, 70-1 220, 72-1,
11001075, 11001076, 11005081, 11005086,11005186, 11005555, and 11006278;
NRC-2023-0119]
General Electric Company, GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, L LC,
and Global Nuclear Fuel-Americas, LLC
Consideration of Approval of Indirect Transfer of Licenses
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Application for indirect transfer of licenses; opportunity to comment, request a
hearing, and petition for leave to intervene.
SUMMARY
- The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC, the Commission) re ceived
and is considering approval of an application filed by General Electric Company (GE),
GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, LLC (GEHA), and Global Nucl ear Fuel-Americas,
LLC (GNF-A) (together, the Applicants) on May 30, 2023, as supp lemented by letters
dated June 20 and June 26, 2023. The application seeks NRC appr oval of the indirect
transfer of Facility Operating License No. R-33 for the Nuclear Test Reactor at the
Vallecitos Nuclear Center (VNC) in Sunol, California; Possessio n Only License No.
DPR-1 for the Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor at the VNC; Poss ession Only License
No. DR-10 for the Empire State Atomic Development Associates Va llecitos Experimental
Superheat Reactor at the VNC; Possession Only License No. TR-1 for the GE Test
Reactor at the VNC; Special Nuclear Material License Nos. SNM-9 60 and SNM-1270 for
the VNC; Special Nuclear Material License No. SNM-1097 for the Wilmington Fuel
Manufacturing Facility in Wilmington, North Carolina; Special N uclear Material License
No. SNM-2500 for the Morris Operation Independent Spent Fuel St orage Facility in Grundy County, Illinois, near Mo rris, Illinois; and Export Lice nse Nos. XR135,
XSNM1662, XSNM03135, XSNM3398, XCOM1124, XSNM3785, and XSNM3066 from
GE, the parent company of the license holders, GEHA and GNF-A, to a recently created
wholly-owned subsidiary of GE named GE Vernova, LLC that will t hen be spun-off and
will no longer be part of GE. The application contains sensitiv e unclassified non-
safeguards information (SUNSI).
DATES: Submit comments by August 18, 2023. A request for a hearing or petition for
leave to intervene must be filed by August 8, 2023. Any potenti al party as defined in
§ 2.4 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), who believes access to
SUNSI is necessary to respond to this notice must follow the in structions in Section VI of
the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this notice.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods; howev er,
the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the Federal rulemaking
website:
- Federal rulemaking website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search
for Docket ID NRC-2023-0119. Address questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov
to Stacy Schumann; telephone: 301-415-0624; email: Stacy.Schuma nn@nrc.gov. For
technical questions, contact the individual listed in the For Further Information Contact
section of this document.
- Email comments to: Hearing.Docket@nrc.gov. If you do not receive an
automatic email reply confirming receipt, then contact us at 30 1-415-1677.
- Fax comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at
301-415-1101.
- Mail comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff.
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- Hand deliver comments to: 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland
20852, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. eastern time (ET) Federa l workdays;
telephone: 301-415-1677.
For additional direction on obtaining information and submittin g comments, see
Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments in the SUPPLEME NTARY
INFORMATION section of this document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Osiris Siurano-Pérez, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commiss ion, Washington, DC
20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-7827; email: Osiris.Siurano-Pere z@nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2023-0119 when contacting the NRC about the
availability of information for this action. You may obtain pub licly available information
related to this action by any of the following methods:
- Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and
search for Docket ID NRC-2023-0119.
- NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the ADAM S Public
Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.ht ml. To begin the
search, select Begin Web-based ADAMS Search. For problems wit h ADAMS, please
contact the NRCs Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, at
301-415-4737, or by email to PDR.Resource@nrc.gov. The ADAMS ac cession number
for each document referenced (if it is available in ADAMS) is p rovided the first time that it
is mentioned in this document.
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- NRCs PDR: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies of publicly
available documents, is open by appointment. To make an appoint ment to visit the PDR,
please send an email to PDR.Resource@nrc.gov or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-
4737, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, exce pt Federal holidays.
B. Submitting Comments
The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the Federal
rulemaking website (https://www.regulations.gov). Please include Docket ID
NRC-2023-0119 in your comment submission.
The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact info rmation that you
do not want to be publicly disclosed in your comment submission. The NRC will post all
comment submissions at https://www.regulations.gov as well as e nter the comment
submissions into ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to
remove identifying or contact information.
If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other person s for
submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to include identifying
or contact information that they do not want to be publicly dis closed in their comment
submission. Your request should state that the NRC does not rou tinely edit comment
submissions to remove such information before making the commen t submissions
available to the public or entering the comment into ADAMS.
II. Introduction
The NRC is considering the issuance of an order under 10 CFR 50.80, Transfer
of licenses, 10 CFR 70.36, Inalienability of licenses, 10 CF R 72.50, Transfer of
license, and 10 CFR 110.50, Terms, approving the indirect tr ansfer of control of the
NRC licenses held by GEHA and GNF-A.
4 According to the application dated May 30, 2023, as supplemente d by letters
dated June 20 and June 26, 2023, the application and request fo r NRC approval are
necessitated by a proposed transaction implementing the publicl y announced separation
of GE into three separate companies. The application involves t he second phase of this
transaction in which GE will transfer its various energy-relate d businesses, including its
ownership interests in GEHA and GNF-A, into a recently created wholly-owned
subsidiary named GE Vernova, LLC. GE Vernova, LLC will later co nvert to a corporation
(GE Vernova Corp.), will then be spun-off to GE shareholders as a publicly traded
corporation, and will no longer be part of GE. With respect to the licenses held by GEHA
and GNF-A, the proposed transaction will occur in two steps. Fi rst, GE Vernova, LLC will
become an intermediate holding company and an indirect corporat e parent of both
GEHA and GNF-A. Second, after GE Vernova, LLC has been converte d to a
corporation, GE will distribute the shares of GE Vernova Corp. to its shareholders, as a
result of which GE Vernova Corp. will become the new ultimate p arent company for both
GEHA and GNF-A, which, in turn, will continue to operate the fa cilities and hold the NRC
licenses.
No physical changes or operational changes associated with the licensed
activities are being proposed in the application.
Section 184, Inalienability of Licenses, of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as
amended, states that [n]o license granted hereunder and no rig ht to utilize or produce
special nuclear material granted hereby shall be transferred, a ssigned or in any manner
disposed of, either voluntarily or involuntarily, directly or i ndirectly, through transfer of
control of any license to any person, unless the Commission sha ll, after securing full
information, find that the transfer is in accordance with the p rovisions of this Act, and
shall give its consent in writing. The NRCs regulations at 10 CFR 50.80, 70.36, and
5 72.50 provide that no license, or any right thereunder, shall b e transferred, assigned, or
in any manner disposed of, either voluntarily or involuntarily, directly or indirectly,
through transfer of control of the license to any person, unles s the Commission gives its
consent in writing. The NRCs regulation at 10 CFR 110.50(d) st ates that a specific
export license may be transferr ed only with the approval of the Commission by license
amendment. The Commission will approve an application for the i ndirect transfer of a
license if the Commission determines that the proposed transfer of control will not affect
the qualifications of the licensee to hold the license, and tha t the transfer is otherwise
consistent with applicable provisions of law, regulations, and orders issued by the
Commission.
III. Opportunity to Comment
Within 30 days from the date of publication of this notice, per sons may submit
written comments regarding the license transfer application, as provided for
in 10 CFR 2.1305 and 10 CFR 110.81. The Commission will conside r and, if appropriate,
respond to these comments, but such comments will not otherwise constitute part of the
decisional record. Comments shoul d be submitted as described in the ADDRESSES
section of this document.
IV. Opportunity to Request a Hearing and Petition for Leave to Intervene
Within 20 days after the date of publication of this notice, an y person (petitioner)
whose interest may be affected by this action may file a reques t for a hearing and
petition for leave to intervene (petition) with respect to the action. Petitions shall be filed
in accordance with the Commissions Agency Rules of Practice a nd Procedure in
10 CFR part 2. Interested persons should consult 10 CFR 2.309. If a petition is filed, the
presiding officer will rule on the petition and, if appropriate, a notice of a hearing will be
issued.
6 Petitions must be filed no later than 20 days from the date of publication of this
notice in accordance with the filing instructions in the Elect ronic Submissions (E-Filing)
section of this document. Petitions and motions for leave to fi le new or amended
contentions that are filed after the deadline will not be enter tained absent a
determination by the presiding officer that the filing demonstr ates good cause by
satisfying the three factors in 10 CFR 2.309(c)(1)(i) through ( iii).
A State, local governmental body, Federally recognized Indian T ribe, or
designated agency thereof, may submit a petition to the Commiss ion to participate as a
party under 10 CFR 2.309(h) no later than 20 days from the date of publication of this
notice. Alternatively, a State, local governmental body, Federa lly recognized Indian
Tribe, or agency thereof may participate as a non-party under 1 0 CFR 2.315(c).
For information about filing a petition and about participation by a person not a
party under 10 CFR 2.315, see ADAMS Accession No. ML20340A053
(https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionN umber=ML20340A
053) and on the NRCs public website at
https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/regulatory/adjudicatory/hearing.h tml#participate.
V. Electronic Submissions (E-Filing)
All documents filed in NRC adjudicatory proceedings including d ocuments filed
by an interested State, local governmental body, federally reco gnized Indian Tribe, or
designated agency thereof that requests to participate under 10 CFR 2.315(c), must be
filed in accordance with 10 CFR 2.302. The E-Filing process req uires participants to
submit and serve all adjudicatory documents over the internet, or in some cases, to mail
copies on electronic storage media, unless an exemption permitt ing an alternative filing
method, as further discussed, is granted. Detailed guidance on electronic submissions is
in the Guidance for Electronic Submissions to the NRC (ADAMS Accession No.
7 ML13031A056) and on the NRCs public website at https://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-
submittals.html.
To comply with the procedural requirements of E-Filing, at leas t 10 days prior to
the filing deadline, the participant should contact the Office of the Secretary by email at
Hearing.Docket@nrc.gov, or by telephone at 301-415-1677, to (1) request a digital
identification (ID) certificate, which allows the participant ( or its counsel or
representative) to digitally sign submissions and access the E-Filing system for any
proceeding in which it is participating; and (2) advise the Sec retary that the participant
will be submitting a petition or other adjudicatory document (e ven in instances in which
the participant, or its counsel or representative, already hold s an NRC-issued digital ID
certificate). Based upon this information, the Secretary will e stablish an electronic docket
for the proceeding if the Secretary has not already established an electronic docket.
Information about applying for a digital ID certificate is avai lable on the NRCs
public website at https://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/ge tting-started.html. After a
digital ID certificate is obtained and a docket created, the pa rticipant must submit
adjudicatory documents in Portable Document Format. Guidance on submissions is
available on the NRCs public website at https://www.nrc.gov/si te-help/electronic-sub-ref-
mat.html. A filing is considered complete at the time the docum ent is submitted through
the NRCs E-Filing system. To be timely, an electronic filing m ust be submitted to the
E-Filing system no later than 11:59 p.m. ET on the due date. Up on receipt of a
transmission, the E-Filing system timestamps the document and s ends the submitter an
email confirming receipt of the document. The E-Filing system a lso distributes an email
that provides access to the document to the NRCs Office of the General Counsel and
any others who have advised the Office of the Secretary that th ey wish to participate in
the proceeding, so that the filer need not serve the document o n those participants
8 separately. Therefore, applicants and other participants (or th eir counsel or
representative) must apply for and receive a digital ID certificate before adjudicatory
documents are filed to obtain access to the documents via the E -Filing system.
A person filing electronically u sing the NRCs adjudicatory E-Filing system may
seek assistance by contacting the NRCs Electronic Filing Help Desk through the
Contact Us link located on the NRCs public website at https: //www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-
submittals.html, by email to MSHD.Resource@nrc.gov, or by a toll-free call at
1-866-672-7640. The NRC Electronic Filing Help Desk is availabl e between 9 a.m. and
6 p.m., ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
Participants who believe that they have good cause for not subm itting documents
electronically must file an exemption request, in accordance wi th 10 CFR 2.302(g), with
their initial paper filing stating why there is good cause for not filing electronically and
requesting authorization to continue to submit documents in pap er format. Such filings
must be submitted in accordance with 10 CFR 2.302(b)-(d). Parti cipants filing
adjudicatory documents in this manner are responsible for servi ng their documents on all
other participants. Participants granted an exemption under 10 CFR 2.302(g)(2) must
still meet the electronic formatting requirement in 10 CFR 2.30 2(g)(1), unless the
participant also seeks and is granted an exemption from 10 CFR 2.302(g)(1).
Documents submitted in adjudicatory proceedings will appear in the NRCs
electronic hearing docket, which is publicly available at https ://adams.nrc.gov/ehd,
unless excluded pursuant to an order of the presiding officer. If you do not have an
NRC-issued digital ID certificate as previously described, clic k cancel when the link
requests certificates and you will be automatically directed to the NRCs electronic
hearing dockets where you will be able to access any publicly a vailable documents in
a particular hearing docket. Participants are requested not to include personal privacy
9 information such as social security numbers, home addresses, or personal phone
numbers in their filings unless an NRC regulation or other law requires submission of
such information. With respect to copyrighted works, except for limited excerpts that
serve the purpose of the adjudicatory filings and would constit ute a Fair Use application,
participants should not include copyrighted materials in their submission.
The Commission will issue a notice or order granting or denying a hearing
request or intervention petition, designating the issues for an y hearing that will be held
and designating the Presiding Officer. A notice granting a hear ing will be published in the
Federal Register and served on the parties to the hearing.
For further details with respect to this application, see the a pplication dated
May 30, 2023, as supplement by letters dated June 20 and June 2 6, 2023
(ML23152A116, ML23171A976, and ML23177A089, respectively).
VI. Access to Sensitive Unclassified Non-Safeguards Informatio n for Contention
Preparation
Any person who desires access to proprietary, confidential comm ercial
information that has been redacted from the application should contact the Applicants by
emailing Michelle P. Catts, Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, GE, at
Michelle.Catts@GE.com for the purpose of negotiating a confiden tiality agreement or a
proposed protective order with the Applicants. If no agreement can be reached, persons
who desire access to this information may file a motion with th e Secretary and
10 addressed to the Commission that requests the issuance of a pro tective order.
Dated: July 13, 2023.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
/RA/
Shana R. Helton, Director, Division of Fuel Management, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
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