ML20134B644

Financial Protection Requirements & Indemnity Agreements, 10CFR140 Info Notice.Commission Has Decided to Exercise Discretionary Authority Under Price-Anderson Act & Extend Govt Indemnity to Spent Reactor Fuel Stored on Site

ML20134B644
Person / Time
Issue date:	07/22/1985
From:	Dircks W NRC OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR OPERATIONS (EDO)
To:
References
FRN-50FR30415, RULE-PR-140 TAC-66970, TAC-66971, NUDOCS 8508160011
Download: ML20134B644 (5)

Text

_.

l. ,

JOCAU mmco nuaM8EH )R-Ho N $04/S)~

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMISSION

[10 CFR Part 140]

BSCMETED USN F.C FINANCIAL PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS AND INDEMNITY AGREEMENTS Indemnification of Spent Reactor Fuel Stored at a Reactor Site Jtt 23 PS:25 Different Than the One Where It was Generated.

OFFICE OF SECat.iAis'r AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 00CKETING & SERVICf:

BRANCH ACTION: Information notice.

SUWARY: The Commission has decided to exercise its discretionary statutory authority under the Price-Anderson Act and again extend Government indemnity to spent reactor fuel stored at a particular reactor site different than the one where it was generated. Absent this action by the Conunission, this spent reactor fuel would not have been covered by Government indemnity in the event i

of a tuclear incident at the site where this spent fuel was stored and where the reactors involved have the same licensee.

i FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Ira Dinitz, Office of State Programs, U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555, telephone (301) i 492-9884.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Most operating reactor licensees have increased, or are planning to increase, the capacity of their onsite spent fuel storage .

pools. In some instances where the capacity of the storage pools at the  ;

reactor site cannot be increased sufficiently to meet the licensee's needs, fuel storage may be sought at another location. One method of storing spent fuel away from the reactor from which it is discharged is to store it in the spent fuel pool of another of the same licensee's reactors but at a different f site.

q p

B508160011 850722 TM b b c '"y'lp' '! $ 0 3 ]

' gfj[ PDR -

ho50hR30415

u 2 o_-

The Commission has received a request from Duke Power Company to authorize and indemnify this type of activity. The Duke Power request is for Comission authorization permitting Duke to store spent fuel discharged from its Oconee i Units'1, 2, and 3 at its McGuire Unit 2 reactor. Duke is seeking Price-Anderson indemnity protection for all such storage of spent fuel at the distant reactor location. The Commission considered and approved similar requests by Carolina Power and Light Company in August 1977 and Duke Power Company in November 1982 (See Federal Register Notice 42 FR 44615 and 46 FR 55024).

Under the Price-Anderson Act (5170 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (the Act)), financial protection and government indemnity are mandatory for production and utilization facilities, such as reactors, licensed l under 5 103 and % 104 of the Act. This financial protection and indemnity covers the " licensed activity" which encompasses not only possession and operation of the reactor facility itself but also certain ancillary activities including (1) possession of the new fuel (containing special

• nuclear material) being stored on-site for use in the reactor and (2) on-site storage of spent fuel following irradiation at that reactor. Mandatory '

indemnification does not extend to the fuel when it is stored at another i reactor site, j Possession of spent fuel away from the facility where it was generated, i.e.,

at a location where it is not used in connection with the operation of the 9 facility, is not a part of the ancillary activity of possession and operation j-of the facility where the spent fuel is to be stored. As a result, after  ;

being transferred from the reactor site where it was generated to some other i

~

site, possession of such spent fuel must be licensed under other provisions of the Act which authorize licenses for possession and use of the special nuclear and byproduct material and would not be subject to the mandatory indemnity requirements of the Act providing that the Comission require financial protection of and indemnify reactor (and other production and utilization facility) licensees. Accordingly, no indemnity protection automatically would be afforded spent fuel stored away from the facility where it is produced or used. To indemnify this spent fuel, the Comission must require the licensee at whose facility the spent fuel will be stored to maintain financial protection and to be indemnified by exercising its discretionary authority under 9170 of the Act. For the purposes of Price-Anderson coverage, this exercise of discretionary authority would result in treating spent fuel produced at one reactor site but stored at a different site the same as spent fuel stored at the site of the reactor where it was produced. Thus, irradiated fuel generated by a reactor at one site whether stored by itself in 4 the spent fuel pool of a reactor at a different site or comingled with the second reactor's irradiated fuel in that reactor's spent fuel pool would be {

covered by financial protection and indemnity.

The NRC believes that it would not be desirable to have a situation where ,

spent fuel generated by one reactor and stored in the spent fuel pools of a second reactor at a different site would be unindemnified while the spent fuel produced by the second reactor and stored at the same site would be indemni-fied. If indemnity coverage were not extended to the spent fuel generated by the first reactor but stored at the site of a second reactor and if an accident occurred involving the fuel storage pool it would be virtually impossible to determine whether indemnified or unindemnified spent fuel caused the accident.

r r

i. -

In view of the foregoing, the Comission has decided to exercise its discretionary authority under Section 170 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and will modify Duke's indemnity agreement at the McGuire's facility to pennit the storage of Oconee's irradiated fuel at McGuire. As required in 10 CFR 140.9, the Comission is publishing this amendment, which would redefine the tenn "the radioactive material" in Article I, paragraph 9 in the McGuire Indemnity Agreement B-83, to read as follows:

The radioactive material means source, special nuclear and byproduct material which (1) is used, was used or will be used in, or is irradiated, was irradiated or will be irradiated by, the nuclear reactors licensed under NPF-9 and NPF-17 or (2) was used in, or was irradiated in the nuclear reactors licensed under DPR-38, DPR-47,and DPR-55 and subsequently is transported to the site of the nuclear reactors licensed under NPF-9 and NPF-17 for the purpose of storage or (3) which is produced as a result of operation of the nuclear reactors licensed under NPF-9 and NPF-17.

This amendment relates to changes in an indemnity agreement incorporated into a 10 CFR Part 50 license. Accordingly, this amendment meets the eligibility criteria for categorical exclusion set forth in 10 CFR $51.22(c)(10)(i).

Pursuant to 10 CFR 651.22(b), no environmental impact statement nor environment assessment need be prepared in connection with the issuance of this amendment.

(5 U.S.C. 552; Pub. L.83-703, 68 Stat. 919, as amended by Pub. L.85-256, 71 Stat. 576, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2210).

~~

f

+

Dated at Bethesda, Maryland, this pl day of ,, , 1985.

i i FOR THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION "Q l }

William J. Dircks Executive Director for Operations i.

t 9i I

f:

i

_ . . _ . - . - - _