[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 75 (Monday, April 20, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Page 19538]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-10333]



[[Page 19538]]

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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket 70-7002]


Notice of Amendment to Certificate of Compliance GDP-2 for the 
U.S. Enrichment Corporation, Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, 
Portsmouth, OH

    The Commission made a determination that the following amendment 
request is significant in accordance with 10 CFR 76.45. Notice of 
Receipt of Amendment Request appeared in the Federal Register on 
January 5, 1998, allowing a 30-day public comment period on the 
application. No public comments were received.
    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff has reviewed the 
certificate amendment application and concluded that it provides 
reasonable assurance of adequate safety, safeguards, and security, and 
compliance with NRC requirements. Therefore, the Director, Office of 
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, is prepared to issue an 
amendment to the Certificate of Compliance for the Portsmouth Gaseous 
Diffusion Plant. The staff has prepared a Compliance Evaluation Report 
which provides details of the staff's evaluation.
    The Commission has determined that this amendment satisfies the 
criteria for a categorical exclusion in accordance with 10 CFR 51.22. 
Therefore, pursuant to 10 CFR 51.22(b), no environmental impact 
statement or environmental assessment need be prepared for this 
amendment.
    United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) or any person whose 
interest may be affected, and who submitted written comments in 
response to the Notice on the amendment application, under Sec. 76.37, 
may file a petition, not exceeding 30 pages, requesting review of the 
Director's Decision. The petition must be filed with the Commission not 
later than 15 days after publication of this Federal Register Notice. A 
petition for review of the Director's Decision shall set forth with 
particularity the interest of the petitioner and how that interest may 
be affected by the results of the decision. The petition should 
specifically explain the reasons why review of the Decision should be 
permitted with particular reference to the following factors: (1) the 
interest of the petitioner; (2) how that interest may be affected by 
the Decision, including the reasons why the petitioner should be 
permitted a review of the Decision; and (3) the petitioner's areas of 
concern about the activity that is the subject matter of the Decision. 
Any person described in this paragraph may file a response to any 
petition for review, not to exceed 30 pages, within 10 days after 
filing of the petition. If no petition is received within the 
designated 15-day period, the Director will issue the final amendment 
to the Certificate of Compliance without further delay. If a petition 
for review is received, the decision on the amendment application will 
become final in 60 days, unless the Commission grants the petition for 
review or otherwise acts within 60 days after publication of this 
Federal Register Notice.
    A petition for review must be filed with the Secretary of the 
Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001, Attention: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff, or may be 
delivered to the Commission's Public Document Room, the Gelman 
Building, 2120 L Street, NW, Washington, DC, by the above date.
    For further details with respect to the action see (1) the 
application for amendment and (2) the Commission's Compliance 
Evaluation Report. These items are available for public inspection at 
the Commission's Public Document Room, the Gelman Building, 2120 L 
Street, NW, Washington, DC, and at the Local Public Document Room.
    Date of amendment request: February 25, 1997.
    Brief description of amendment: On February 25, 1997, USEC 
submitted a request to provide for an additional identified criticality 
accident case for the X-333 cascade building related to the previously 
approved increase in assay limit to 3 percent. The operation at 
increased assay creates conditions where the location of an inadvertent 
nuclear criticality event might be closer to the X-333 Area Control 
Room (ACR-1), thus producing higher potential doses to personnel at 
that location. It should be noted that this hypothetical accident case 
was identified by USEC after the NRC approved USEC's initial 
certificate application in November 1996. It should also be noted that 
the increase in the X-333 assay limit was approved by the NRC as part 
of the initial certification of PORTS. For this hypothetical accident 
case, an estimate is made that personnel in ACR-1 could, under the 
conservative assumption that they remained in ACR-1 for 50 minutes 
despite the likely criticality alarm, receive a dose of 49 rem and not 
0.005 rem as is currently indicated in the Accident Analysis section of 
the PORTS Safety Analysis Report (SAR). Based on an initial review of 
the amendment request, the NRC staff feels that sufficiently adequate 
safety controls are currently in place at PORTS to prevent and mitigate 
this accident. Therefore, other than the proposed modification to the 
PORTS SAR, this amendment would likely not require any other changes to 
plant operations.
    Effective date: The amendment to Certificate of Compliance GDP-2 
will become effective 60 days after issuance.
    Certificate of Compliance No. GDP-2: Amendment will revise the 
consequences of a criticality accident in the X-333 cascade building in 
the Safety Analysis Report.
    Local Public Document Room location: Portsmouth Public Library, 
1220 Gallia Street, Portsmouth, Ohio 45662.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 9 day of April 1998.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Carl J. Paperiello,
Director, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 98-10333 Filed 4-17-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P