ML24141A285
| ML24141A285 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Prairie Island  |
| Issue date: | 05/21/2024 |
| From: | Yoira Diaz-Sanabria Storage and Transportation Licensing Branch |
| To: | Northern States Power Co |
| References | |
| NRC-2024-0086, 89 FR 46176 | |
| Download: ML24141A285 (1) | |
Text
[7590- 01-P]
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 72-10; NRC-2024- 0086]
Northern States Power Company;
Prairie Island Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation;
License Amendment Application
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Opportunity to request a hearing and to petition for leave to intervene.
SUMMARY
- The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received a license
amendment application from Northern States Power Company (NSPM) for an
amendment to Special Nuclear Materials License No. SNM -2506 for the Prairie Island
Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (PI ISFSI) located in Welch, Minnesota. The
amendment request seeks to change License Conditions 23(a), 24(A)(2), and 24(B)(2).
The subject license conditions are management activities with specified inspection
intervals of three months or one quarter. The inspection intervals are not to exceed
every quarter for license condition 23 and not to exceed three months for license
condition 24. This is inconsistent with similar i ndependent spent fuel storage installation
(ISFSI) technical specifications (TS) surveillance requirements (SRs), for example, SR 3.1.4.1 and SR 3.1.4.2, which give the frequency as 92 days, and ISFSI TS SR 3.0.2,
which allows up to 1.25 times the interval specified in the frequency. NSPM proposes to
revise the license conditions to describe the inspection intervals similar to TS
Surveillance Requirement Frequency, allowing up to 1.25 times the specified intervals to
account for scheduling challenges, including but not limited to periods of extreme cold
weather or other high-priority plant activities.
DATES: A request for a hearing or petition for leave to intervene must be filed by July
29, 2024.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2024-0086 when contacting the NRC
about the availability of information regarding this document. You may obtain publicly
available information related to this document using any of the following methods:
- Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and
search for Docket ID NRC-2024 -0086. Address questions about Docket IDs in
Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann; telephone: 301-415- 0624; email:
Stacy.Schumann@nrc.gov. For technical questions, contact the individual listed in the
For Further Information Contact section of this document.
- NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the ADAMS Public
Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the
search, select Begin Web-based ADAMS Search. For problems with 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 accession number
for each document referenced (if it is available in ADAMS) is provided the first time that it
is mentioned in this document.
- NRCs PDR: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies of publicly
available documents, is open by appointment. To make an appointment 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. eastern time (ET), Monday through Friday, except
Federal holidays.
2 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John-Chau Nguyen, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555- 0001; telephone: 301-415 -0262; email: John-Chau.Nguyen@nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
The NRC received, by letter dated April 2, 202 4 (ADAMS Accession No.
ML24095A075), a license amendment application from NSPM, to amend Special
Nuclear Materials License No. SNM -2506, which authorizes the storage of spent fuel at
the PI ISFSI located in Welch, Minnesota. Specifically, the proposed amendment, if
approved, would allow NSPM to perfor m inspections with intervals similar to TS
Surveillance Requirement Frequency, allowing up to 1.25 times the specified intervals.
An interval extension period will provide flexibility to schedule the inspections around
typical challenges, including but not limited to inclement weather, security drills, and
refueling outages. The proposed changes to the inspection intervals in the subject
license conditions also make them more consistent with the ISFSI TS.
An NRC administrative completeness review, documented in a letter to NSPM
dated May 16, 2024 (ADAMS Accession No. ML24128A257), found the application
acceptable to begin a technical review.
Before any issuance of the proposed amendment, the NRC will need to make the
findings required by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (the Act), and the
NRC s regulations. The NRCs findings will be documented in a safety evaluation report.
In the amendment request, NSPM asserted that the proposed amendment satisfies the
categorical exclusion criteria of paragraph 51.22(c)(11) of title 10 of the Code of Federal
Regulations (10 CFR). The NRC will evaluate this assertion and make findings
consistent with the National Environmental Policy Act and 10 CFR p art 51.
3 II. Opportunity to Request a Hearing and Petition for Leave to Intervene
Within 60 days after the date of publication of this notice, any person (petitioner)
whose interest may be affected by this action may file a request for a hearing and
petition for leave to intervene (petition) with respect to the action. Petitions shall be filed
in accordance with the NRCs Agency Rules of Practice and 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.
Petitions must be filed no later than 60 days from the date of publication of this
notice in accordance with the filing instructions in the Electronic Submissions (E-Filing)
section of this document. Petitions and motions for leave to file new or amended
contentions that are filed after the deadline will not be entertained absent a
determination by the presiding officer that the filing demonstrates 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 Tribe, or
designated agency thereof, may submit a petition to the Commission to participate as a
party under 10 CFR 2.309(h) no later than 60 days from the date of publication of this
notice. Alternatively, a State, local governmental body, Federally recognized Indian
Tribe, or agency thereof may participate as a non-party under 10 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?AccessionNumber=ML20340A
053) and on the NRCs public website at
https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/regulatory/adjudicatory/hearing.html#participate.
4 III. Electronic Submissions (E-Filing)
All documents filed in NRC adjudicatory proceedings, including documents filed
by an interested State, local governmental body, Federally recognized 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 requires 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 permitting an alternative filing
method, as further discussed, is granted. Detailed guidance on electronic submissions is
located in the Guidance for Electronic Submissions to the NRC (ADAMS Accession
No. 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 least 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 Secretary that the participant
will be submitting a petition or other adjudicatory document (even in instances in which
the participant, or its counsel or representative, already holds an NRC-issued digital ID
certificate). Based upon this information, the Secretary will establish 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 available on the NRCs
public website at https://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/getting-started.html. After a
digital ID certificate is obtained and a docket created, the participant must submit
adjudicatory documents in Portable Document Format. Guidance on submissions is 5
available on the NRCs public website at https://www.nrc.gov/site-help/electronic-sub-ref-
mat.html. A filing is considered complete at the time the document is submitted through
the NRCs E-Filing system. To be timely, an electronic filing must be submitted to the
E-Filing system no later than 11:59 p.m. ET on the due date. Upon receipt of a
transmission, the E-Filing system time-stamps the document and sends the submitter an
email confirming receipt of the document. The E-Filing system also 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 they wish to participate in
the proceeding, so that the filer need not serve the document on those participants
separately. Therefore, applicants and other participants (or their 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 using 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 available 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 submitting documents
electronically must file an exemption request, in accordance with 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 paper format. Such filings
must be submitted in accordance with 10 CFR 2.302(b)-(d). Participants filing
adjudicatory documents in this manner are responsible for serving their documents on all
other participants. Participants granted an exemption under 10 CFR 2.302(g)(2) must 6
still meet the electronic formatting requirement in 10 CFR 2.302(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, click cancel when the link
requests certificates and you will be automatically directed to the NRCs electronic
hearing docket where you will be able to access any publicly available documents in a
particular hearing docket. Participants are requested not to include personal privacy
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 constitute a Fair Use application,
participants should not include copyrighted materials in their submission.
Dated: May 21, 2024.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
/RA/
Yoira Diaz-Sanabria, Chief, Storage and Transportation Licensing Branch, Division of Fuel Management,
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
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