[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 110 (Wednesday, June 9, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31022-31023]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-14578]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket Nos. 50-275 and 50-323]


Pacific Gas and Electric Company; Diablo Canyon Power Plant, 
Units 1 and 2; Issuance of Amendments to Facility Operating Licenses

    The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (Commission) has 
issued Amendment No. 135 to Facility Operating License Nos. DPR-80 and 
DPR-82 issued to Pacific Gas and Electric Company (the licensee) for 
operation of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, Units 1 and 2 (DCPP) 
located in San Luis Obispo County, California.
    Because the ITS were being issued as a single document for the two 
units, the licensee requested that the ITS be issued with the same 
amendment number for both units. This was acceptable to the Commission 
and the next amendment number for DCPP Unit 1 was used. Therefore, 
Amendment Nos. 133 and 134 for DCPP Unit 2 will never be used.
    The amendments are effective as of the date of issuance and shall 
be implemented by May 31, 2000. The implementation of the amendments 
includes the two license conditions that are being added to Appendix D 
of the licenses as part of the amendments.
    The amendments replace, in its entirety, the current Technical 
Specifications (TS) with a set of improved TS based on NUREG-1431, 
``Standard Technical Specifications, Westinghouse Plants,'' Revision 1, 
dated April 1995, including all approved changes to the standard TS; 
the Commission's Final Policy Statement, ``NRC Final Policy Statement 
on Technical Specifications Improvements for Nuclear Power Reactors,'' 
published on July 22, 1993 (58 FR 39132); and 10 CFR 50.36, ``Technical 
Specifications,'' as amended July 19, 1995 (60 FR 36953). In addition, 
the amendments added two license conditions to Appendix D of the 
operating licenses that require (1) The relocation of current TS 
requirements into licensee-controlled documents, and (2) the first 
performance of new and revised surveillance requirements for the 
improved TS to be related to the implementation date for the improved 
TS. The implementation of the amendments and the license conditions 
will be completed by May 31, 2000, as stated in the amendments.
    The application for the amendments, as supplemented, complies with 
the standards and requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as 
amended (the Act), and the Commission's rules and regulations. The 
Commission has made appropriate findings as required by the Act and the 
Commission's rules and regulations in 10 CFR Chapter I.
    Notice of Consideration of Issuance of Amendments and Opportunity 
for Hearing in connection with this action was published in the Federal 
Register on March 29, 1999 (64 FR 14946). No request for a hearing or 
petition for leave to intervene was filed following this notice.
    The Commission has prepared an Environmental Assessment and has 
determined not to prepare an environmental impact statement related to 
the action to convert the current TS to the improved TS. Based on the 
Environmental Assessment, the Commission has concluded that the 
issuance of the amendments will not have a significant effect on the 
quality of the human environment beyond that described in the Final 
Environmental Statement (FES) related to the operation of DCPP dated 
May 1973, and in the addendum to the FES dated May 1976. The 
Environmental Assessment was published in the Federal Register on May 
26, 1999 (64 FR 28532).
    For CN 9-01-LG in CTS 3/4.4 (and associated CN 3-13-M in CTS 6.0), 
the licensee has proposed to relocate the pressure/temperature (P/T) 
limits and low-temperature overpressure protection (LTOP) system limits 
from the CTS to the pressure temperature limits report (PTLR) and 
proposed to reference WCAP-14040-NP-A, Revision 1, ``Methodology Used 
to Develop Cold Overpressure Mitigating System Setpoints and RCS Heatup 
and Cooldown Curves,'' as the methodology for calculating the P/T and 
LTOP limits. The staff approved the use of this WCAP report in its 
generic SE dated October 16, 1995. The licensee, however, has 
determined that it will operate DCPP for the near future with the 
existing approved P/T and LTOP limits in the CTS. Therefore, the limits 
addressed in the PTLR of ITS 5.6.6 are the limits that the staff has 
previously reviewed and approved in Amendments 133 and 131 for DCPP, 
respectively, dated May 3, 1999. The amendments approved P/T limit 
curves that are valid for 16 effective full power years. The licensee 
will use the methodology in WCAP-14040-NP-A to calculate the future 
P/T and LTOP limits before the time when the current values given in 
the amendments become invalid. The staff will review the licensee's 
future plant-specific application of the PTLR methodology to allow the 
licensee's future use of PTLR methodology to calculate new P/T and LTOP 
limits without prior staff approval. In the associated CN 3-13-M in CTS 
6.0, the licensee proposed to add a reference to the staff's letter 
providing this SE that addresses these amendments to the PTLR in ITS 
5.6.6. This letter explained that Amendments 133 and 131 for DCPP 
approved the limits that are listed in the PTLR and addressed the 
methodology used by licensee to calculate the limits. The staff 
believes that the staff's approval of the P/T and LTOP limits in 
Amendments 133 and 131 was not an approval for the licensee to make 
future changes to these limits using the methodology described in the 
amendments. Listing the staff's letter that addressed Amendments 133 
and 131 in ITS 5.6.6 may imply this is true and the staff is not ready 
at this time to

[[Page 31023]]

approve these amendments for that purpose. The review of these 
amendments, or any other licensee submittal, for the purpose of 
allowing the licensee to make future changes to the P/T and LTOP limits 
in ITS 5.6.6 without prior staff approval will the subject of a future 
letter.
    For further details with respect to the amendments see (1) The 
application for amendment dated June 2, 1997, as supplemented by 
letters in 1998 dated January 9, June 25, August 5, August 28, 
September 25, October 16, October 23, November 25, December 4, December 
17, and December 30, and letters in 1999 dated February 24, March 10, 
April 28, May 11, May 19, and May 27, and (2) the Commission's related 
Safety Evaluation and Environmental Assessment. All of 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 rooms located at the California Polytechnic 
State University, Robert E. Kennedy Library, Government Documents and 
Maps Department, San Luis Obispo, California 93407.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 28th day of May 1999.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Jack N. Donohew,
Senior Project Manager, Section 1, Project Directorate IV & 
Decommissioning Division of Licensing Project Management, Office of 
Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 99-14578 Filed 6-8-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P