[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 37 (Thursday, February 24, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Page 9303]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-4355]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket Nos. 50-245, 50-336, and 50-423]


Northeast Nuclear Energy Company, et al., Millstone Nuclear Power 
Station, Units 1, 2, and 3; Issuance of Final Director's Decision Under 
10 CFR 2.206

    Notice is hereby given that the Director of the Office of Nuclear 
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), has 
issued a Final Director's Decision with regard to a Petition, dated 
November 25, 1996, as amended on December 23, 1996, filed by Ms. 
Deborah Katz and Mr. Paul Gunter on behalf of the Citizens Awareness 
Network and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, respectively, 
hereafter referred to as ``Petitioners.'' The Petition pertains to the 
Millstone Nuclear Power Station, Units 1, 2, and 3.
    The Petitioners requested that the NRC take the following actions: 
(1) Immediate suspension or revocation of Northeast Utilities' (NU's or 
the licensee's) licenses to operate its nuclear facilities in 
Connecticut; (2) investigation of possible NU material 
misrepresentations to the NRC; (3) [a] revoke the operating licenses 
for NU's nuclear facilities if an investigation determines that NU 
deliberately provided insufficient and/or misleading information to the 
NRC and, [b] if NRC chose not to revoke NU's licenses, continued 
shutdown of NU facilities until the Department of Justice completes its 
investigation and the results are reviewed by the NRC; (4) continued 
listing of the NU facilities on the NRC's Watch List should any 
facility resume operation; (5) continued shutdown of the NU facilities 
until the NRC evaluates and approves NU's remedial actions; (6) 
prohibition of any predecommissioning or decommissioning activities at 
any NU nuclear facility in Connecticut until NU and the NRC take 
certain identified steps to assure that such activities can be safely 
conducted; (7) initiation of an investigation into how the NRC allowed 
the asserted illegal situation at NU's nuclear facilities in 
Connecticut to exist and continue for more than a decade; and (8) an 
immediate investigation of the need for enforcement action for alleged 
violation of 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix B.
    The bases for the Petitioners' assertions were NU and NRC 
inspection findings and NU documents referred to in the Petition and a 
VHS videotape, Exhibit A, which accompanied the Petition. Specifically, 
the Petitioners identified areas that included inadequate surveillance 
testing, operation outside the design basis, inadequate radiological 
controls, failed corrective action processes, and degraded material 
conditions.
    The NRC issued a Partial Director's Decision (DD-97-21) dated 
September 12, 1997, which addressed all of the Petitioners' requests, 
with one exception. Specifically, with respect to Request 3a of the 
petitioners' request, the NRC deferred a decision on the request that 
the NU operating licenses for the Millstone units be revoked if an 
investigation determined that NU deliberately provided insufficient 
and/or false or misleading information to the NRC. The decision on that 
request was deferred at the time the Partial Director's Decision was 
issued because several NRC investigations were underway. The 
investigations of NU have been completed and for the reasons given in 
the Final Director's Decision, DD-00-01, dated February 15, 2000, the 
NRC was not able to grant Request 3a of the Petition. Request 3b of the 
Petition, regarding the continued shutdown of NU facilities until the 
Department of Justice completed its investigation and the results are 
reviewed by the NRC, was denied in the Partial Director's Decision. 
Notwithstanding the NRC's 1997 denial of Request 3b, the NRC concludes 
that, through the actions the NRC required the Millstone facilities to 
complete prior to restart, the intent of request 3b was met.
    Additional information is contained in the ``Final Director's 
Decision Pursuant to 10 CFR 2.206'' (DD-00-01), the complete text of 
which is available for public inspection at the Commission's Public 
Document Room, the Gelman Building, 2120 L Street, NW., Washington, 
D.C., and will be accessible from the Agencywide Documents Access and 
Management System (ADAMS) Public Library component on the NRC Web site, 
http://www.nrc.gov> (the electronic reading room).
    As provided in 10 CFR 2.206(c), a copy of this Final Director's 
Decision will be filed with the Secretary of the Commission for the 
Commission's review. This Final Director's Decision will constitute the 
final action of the Commission (for Petitioners' Request 3a) 25 days 
after its issuance, unless the Commission, on its own motion, 
institutes review of the Decision within that time.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 15th day of February 2000.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Samuel J. Collins,
Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 00-4355 Filed 2-23-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P