[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 114 (Wednesday, June 14, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31331-31332]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-14503]



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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 50-267; License No. DPR-34]


Public Service Company of Colorado, (Fort St. Vrain Nuclear 
Generating Station); Exemption

I

    The Public Service Company of Colorado (PSC or the licensee) is the 
holder of Possession-Only License (POL) No. DPR-34, which authorized 
possessions and maintenance of the Fort St. Vrain Nuclear Generating 
Station (FSV). The license provides, among other things, that the plant 
is subject to all rules, regulations, and Orders of the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission (NRC) now or hereafter in effect.
    FSV is a high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor that is located at 
the licensee's site in Weld County, Colorado. FSV operated from January 
31, 1974, to August 18, 1989. PSC shut down FSV because of control rod 
drive failures and subsequently made the shutdown permanent because of 
a discovery of degradation of the steam generator ring headers. On 
November 5, 1990, PSC submitted a Decommissioning Plan (DP) pursuant to 
Sec. 50.82 of title 10, Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR 50.82) that 
proposed the dismantling of FSV. On May 21, 1991, the NRC revised 
License No. DPR-34 to a POL, which allows possession but not operation 
of FSV. The DP was approved by NRC Order dated, November 23, 1993. PSC 
is actively dismantling FSV and decommissioning is approximately 65 
percent complete. In addition, FSV has been defueled and all fuel was 
transferred to the PSC independent spent fuel storage installation 
(ISFSI). The ISFSI (Materials License No. SNM-2504) is licensed under 
10 CFR part 72.

II

    By letter dated February 16, 1995, PSC requested an exemption in 
accordance with 10 CFR 50.12 from the requirements of 10 CFR 50.54(w) 
to maintain onsite property damage insurance. This rule states the 
following:

    * * * Each electric utility licensee under this part for a 
production or utilization facility of the type described in 10 CFR 
50.21(b) and 10 CFR 50.22 shall take reasonable steps to obtain 
insurance available at reasonable costs and on reasonable terms from 
private sources or to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the 
Commission that it possesses an equivalent amount of protection 
covering the licensee's obligation in the event of an accident at 
the licensee's reactor, to stabilize and decontaminate the reactor 
and the reactor station site at which the reactor experiencing the 
accident is located, provided that: * * *.

III

    The justification presented by the licensee for the exemption 
request is that FSV is not authorized to operate, all nuclear fuel has 
been removed from the reactor facility and transferred to the ISFSI, 
decommissioning of FSV is approximately 65 percent complete, and the 
risk of accident resulting in a radiological release is now 
considerably less than during plant operation. The licensee contends 
that with all nuclear fuel removed from the reactor facility, and with 
the activated graphite blocks removed from the reactor building and 
disposed of at an authorized low-level waste disposal facility, the 
potential accidents as evaluated in the FSV DP only involve events such 
as fires, electrical power outages, and the dropping of activated or 
contaminated materials during dismantling. PSC concludes that any 
events at the facility would only result in doses to individuals 
located at the emergency planning zone boundary. In addition, PSC 
concludes these doses would be orders of magnitude below 10 CFR part 

[[Page 31332]]
100 guidelines and are a small fraction of the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency's (EPA) ``Protection Action Guidelines'' (PAG). The 
NRC staff's Safety Evaluation of the FSV DP (NRC Decommissioning Order 
dated November 23, 1992) confirmed PSC's conclusion. Because the risk 
of an accident requiring reactor stabilization or extensive 
decontamination of the reactor facility does not exist at FSV, the 
annual cost of $250,000 per year for insurance is unwarranted and poses 
an undue hardship on FSV.
    The NRC will not consider granting an exemption unless special 
circumstances warrant it. In the licensee's letter of August 2, 1993, 
these special circumstances were addressed as follows:

    * * * (ii) Application of the regulation in the particular 
circumstances would not serve the underlying purpose of the rule; or 
(iii) Compliance would result in undue hardship or other costs that 
are significantly in excess of those incurred by others similarly 
situated * * *.

    In addition, for the FSV worst-case accident previously analyzed in 
Section 3.4.10 of the NRC approved Decommissioning Plan, the 
radiological release from the accident would result in a whole-body 
dose to an individual of 8.30 mrem. This dose is considerably less than 
1 percent of the EPA PAG dose of 1000 mrem that requires protective 
action.

IV

    The staff has reviewed the licensee's requests and finds that 
sufficient bases have been presented for NRC's approval of the request 
for exemption from 10 CFR 50.54(w) requirements to continue to maintain 
onsite property insurance.
    The staff finds that the special circumstances presented by PSC 
satisfy the requirements of 10 CFR 50.12(a)(2) (ii) and (iii), and it 
would serve no purpose to meet a requirement that relates primarily to 
an operating reactor, where costs to stabilize and decontaminate a 
facility are significant in contrast to a defueled reactor such as FSV 
that is 65 percent decommissioned. To continue to maintain onsite 
property insurance would result in undue hardship to the licensee and 
costs in excess of those contemplated when the regulation was adopted.
    Based on the above evaluation, the NRC has determined that pursuant 
to 10 CFR 50.12(a)(1), this exemption is authorized by law, will not 
present an undue risk to the public health and safety, and is 
consistent with the common defense and security.
    Accordingly, NRC hereby grants an exemption from 10 CFR 50.54(w). 
The exemption deletes the requirement to continue to maintain onsite 
property damage insurance.
    Pursuant to 10 CFR 51.32, NRC has determined that the granting of 
this exemption will not have a significant effect on the quality of the 
human environment (May 22, 1995, 60 FR 27140).
    A copy of the licensee's request for the exemption and supporting 
documentation dated February 16, 1995, and the NRC staff's Safety 
Evaluation, included in the exemption, are available for public 
inspection at the NRC's Public Document Room, 2120 L Street, NW., 
Washington, DC 20037, and at the Weld Library District--Downtown 
Branch, 919 7th Street, Greeley, CO 80631.
    This exemption will become effective on issuance.

    Dated at Rockville, MD, this 7th day of June, 1995.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
John T. Greeves,
Director, Division of Waste Management, Office of Nuclear Material 
Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 95-14503 Filed 6-13-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-M