ML24141A285

FRN - Northern States Power Company, Prairie Island Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation License Amendment Application

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.

7