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General Electric Hitatchi Nuclear Energy - Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor License Termination Plan Public Meeting Presentation
	ML24158A390
Person / Time
Site:	Vallecitos Nuclear Center, Vallecitos
Issue date:	05/21/2024
From:	Jack Parrott; Reactor Decommissioning Branch
To:	;
References
	Download: ML24158A390 (1)
	v • d • e

NRC PUBLIC MEETING ON THE VALLECITOS BOILING WATER REACTOR LICENSE TERMINATION PLAN May 21, 2024 Jack Parrott, Senior Project Manager 1

2 Meeting Purpose & Agenda Meeting

Purpose:

To discuss the License Termination Plan (LTP) for the decommissioning of the Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor (VBWR), to take verbal comments and questions on the VBWR LTP, and to describe how to submit comments related to the review of the LTP.

Introductions and Meeting Procedures NRC Presentation:

- Background on the VBWR

- Description of the VBWR LTP

- Description of the review process for the VBWR LTP Public Comments/Questions Close Meeting by 8:00 p.m.

Meeting Procedures

This meeting is being transcribed; the transcription will be made publicly available with the meeting summary

This is an NRC meeting with the public

Public comment process 3

Introductions

US Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Jack Parrott, Senior Project Manager

Chris Allen, Project Manager

Nate Fuguet, Health Physicist

NRC staff on the webinar 4

NRC Mission 5

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licenses and regulates the Nations civilian use of radioactive materials to provide reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety, to promote the common defense and security, and to protect the environment.

Among other things, the NRC fulfills its responsibilities by licensing the design and overseeing construction, operation, and decommissioning* of commercial nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities.

Decommission means to remove a facility or site safely from service and reduce residual radioactivity to a level that permits: release of the property for unrestricted use and termination of the license; or release of the property under restricted conditions and termination of the license.

Decommissioning Experience 6

0 2

4 6

8 10 12 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Completion of Decommissioning by Facility Type (1998-2023)

Materials Sites Research Reactors Power Reactors

Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor (VBWR)

Located at the Vallecitos Nuclear Center (VNC)

Licensee - GE Hitachi (previously the General Electric Company)

Other NRC licensed facilities on the VNC

-EVESR Empire State Atomic Development Agency (ESADA)

Vallecitos Experimental Superheat Reactor

-GETR General Electric Test Reactor

-NTR Nuclear Test Reactor

-SNM-960 Special Nuclear Material license 7

Location of Vallecitos Nuclear Center

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Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor

The first privately owned and operated nuclear power plant to deliver significant quantities of electricity to a public utility grid. AEC Demonstration Power Reactor (DRP) license # 1.

It was a prototype for the General Electric Boiling Water Reactor design and was mainly used for testing in anticipation of larger commercial plants.

Construction began in 1956. The VBWR operated from October 1957 to December 1963. It ran at a thermal capacity of 50 MW.

After shut down the authorization to operate the reactor was permanently removed by changing the license to a possession-only license in September 1965.

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Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor

The VBWR was put into a safe storage configuration and the VBWR nuclear fuel was removed from the VNC by the late 1970s.

Major dismantlement activities at the VBWR did not occur until 2007-2008 with the removal of most of the contaminated equipment and components.

The reactor vessel was the last remaining component of the VBWR reactor. The reactor vessel was removed and disposed of offsite in 2023.

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Removal of the VBWR reactor vessel 15

Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor

What remains of the VBWR is the empty reactor building with residual structural contamination and some contaminated embedded piping.

The VBWR LTP states that the total activity of the residual contamination remaining in the VBWR is estimated to be 10.8 millicuries.

The VBWR LTP was submitted to the NRC on September 7, 2023, with supplemental information submitted on September 15, 2023, October 31, 2023, and March 25, 2024.

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Status of the Vallecitos Nuclear Center

Last month NRC issued an order approving the transfer of the VNC NRC licenses from GE Hitachi to NorthStar Vallecitos, LLC (NorthStar Vallecitos).

The stated license transfer purpose is for the prompt nuclear decontamination, decommissioning, and remediation and removal of all hazardous substances from the site as required by applicable law.

NorthStar Vallecitos plans to complete radiological decommissioning and decontamination of all portions of the VNC by the end of 2030 except for the areas where spent nuclear fuel will remain stored on the site.

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License Termination Plan Requirements

The License Termination Plan must include:

1.

Site Characterization 2.

Identification of Remaining Dismantlement Activities 3.

Plans for Site Remediation 4.

Plans for the Final Radiation Survey 5.

Updated Site-Specific Decommissioning Costs 6.

Supplement to the Environmental Report 18

VBWR License Termination Strategy

The VBWR LTP describes a strategy for terminating the VBWR license by transferring the residual contamination of the VBWR to the NRC license for the EVESR rather than fully remediating the residual contamination to the criteria for license termination.

This strategy will require approval of an exemption to the NRC requirement for license termination that a facility and site meet the residual contamination criteria in 10 CFR 20, subpart E, Radiological Criteria for License Termination.

Radiological Criteria for Unrestricted Release 25 millirem per year (0.25 millisievert per year)

Includes all exposure pathways (e.g. drinking water, land use, soil, etc.)

Residual radioactivity levels that are as low as reasonably achievable, or ALARA 19

VBWR License Termination Strategy

The strategy would be pursued by transferring the residual contamination in the VBWR building to the EVESR license by amendment of the EVESR license and the termination of the VBWR license. The VBWR residual contamination would then be controlled under the EVESR license.

The VBWR LTP describes that under the EVESR LTP the residual contamination of the VBWR and the EVESR will be done together to meet the NRC criteria for license termination.

This needs to be done by April 15, 2030, which by regulation is when the EVESR license must be terminated.

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NRC Review of the VBWR LTP

Given this strategy, the NRC has been reviewing the VBWR LTP for:

- Adequate characterization to understand the scope of the VBWR residual contamination that would be transferred to the EVESR license

- Reasonable assurance that adequate funds will be available for decommissioning the revised EVESR license

- Any significant environmental impacts that were not previously reviewed By letter dated March 25, 2024, the licensee responded to an NRC request for additional characterization information on the VBWR and indicated that the LTP would be revised after the license transfer to include that information.

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Process for public comments on the VBWR LTP

The opportunity to comment on the VBWR LTP was announced in the Federal Register on May 15, 2024 (89 FR 42510).

The 60-day comment period will close on July 15, 2024.

NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the Federal rulemaking website - https://www.regulations.gov.

Please include Docket ID NRC-2024-0092 in your comment submission.

Verbal comments can be made in the public comment &

question portion of this meeting and will be recorded in the transcript.

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Questions/Comments?

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ML24158A390

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