[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 250 (Thursday, December 28, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Page 82405]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-33152]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 50-400]


Carolina Power & Light Company; Notice of Issuance of Amendment 
to Facility Operating License and Final Determination of No Significant 
Hazards Consideration

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (Commission) has issued 
Amendment No. 103 to Facility Operating License No. NPF-63 issued to 
Carolina Power & Light Company (CP&L, the licensee), which revised the 
Technical Specifications (TS) for operation of the Shearon Harris 
Nuclear Power Plant, Unit 1 (HNP), located in Wake and Chatham 
Counties, North Carolina. The amendment is effective as of the date of 
issuance.
    The amendment modified the TS to support a modification to HNP to 
increase the spent fuel storage capacity by adding rack modules to 
spent fuel pools (SFPs) C and D and placing the pools in service. 
Specifically, the amendment consists of: (1) A revision to TS 5.6 to 
identify pressurized water reactor fuel burnup restrictions, boiling 
water reactor fuel enrichment limits, pool capacities, heat load 
limitations, and nominal center-to-center distances between fuel 
assemblies in the racks to be installed in SFPs C and D; (2) an 
alternative plan in accordance with the requirements of 10 CFR 50.55a 
to demonstrate an acceptable level of quality and safety in completion 
of the component cooling water (CCW) and SFPs C and D cooling and 
cleanup system piping; and (3) an unreviewed safety question for 
additional heat load on the CCW system.
    The application for the amendment 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, which are set forth in the license 
amendment. Notice of Consideration of Issuance of Amendment to Facility 
Operating License and Opportunity for a Hearing in connection with this 
action was published in the Federal Register on January 13, 1999 (64 FR 
2237). A request for a hearing was filed on February 12, 1999, by the 
Board of Commissioners of Orange County, North Carolina (BCOC).
    On July 12, 1999, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) 
ruled that BCOC had standing and had submitted two admissible 
contentions. The two contentions related to (1) whether General Design 
Criterion 62 allows the use of administrative controls to prevent 
criticality (TC-2); and (2) the adequacy of the licensee's proposed 
alternative plan for the cooling system piping (TC-3). On July 29, 
1999, the ASLB granted CP&L's request to hold the hearing in accordance 
with the hybrid hearing procedures of 10 CFR Part 2, Subpart K. On 
January 4, 2000, all parties filed written summaries and on January 21, 
2000, the ASLB heard oral arguments related to the two admitted 
contentions. On May 5, 2000, the ASLB issued a decision in favor of 
CP&L, stating that ``(1) there is no genuine and substantial dispute of 
fact or law that can only be resolved with sufficient accuracy by the 
introduction of evidence in an evidentiary hearing; and (2) contentions 
TC-2 and TC-3 are disposed of as being resolved in favor of CP&L.''
    On January 31, 2000, BCOC filed four late-filed environmental 
contentions that challenged the adequacy of the staff's December 21, 
1999, environmental assessment related to CP&L's amendment request. On 
March 3, 2000, the NRC and CP&L responded to the late-filed 
contentions, and on March 13, 2000, BCOC submitted its reply to the 
responses. On August 7, 2000, the ASLB issued its Ruling on Late-filed 
Environmental Contentions. In its ruling, the ASLB admitted one 
environmental contention (EC-6) regarding the probability of occurrence 
of BCOC's postulated accident scenario. On November 20, 2000, all 
parties filed written summaries and on December 7, 2000, the ASLB heard 
oral arguments related to EC-6.
    Under its regulations, the Commission may issue and make an 
amendment immediately effective, notwithstanding the pendency before it 
of a request for a hearing from any person, in advance of the holding 
or completion of any required hearing, where it has determined that no 
significant hazards considerations are involved.
    The Commission has applied the standards of 10 CFR 50.92 and has 
made a final determination that the amendment involves no significant 
hazards considerations. The basis for this determination is contained 
in the Safety Evaluation related to this action. Accordingly, as 
described above, the amendment has been issued and made immediately 
effective and any hearing will be held after issuance.
    The Commission has prepared an Environmental Assessment related to 
the action and has determined not to prepare an environmental impact 
statement. Based upon the environmental assessment, the Commission has 
concluded that the issuance of the amendment will not have a 
significant effect on the quality of the human environment (64 FR 
71514).
    For further details with respect to the action see (1) the 
application for amendment dated December 23, 1998, as supplemented on 
March 15, April 5, April 30, June 14, July 23, September 3, October 15, 
and October 29, 1999, and April 14, and July 19, 2000, (2) Amendment 
No. 103 to License No. NPF-63, (3) the Commission's related Safety 
Evaluation, and (4) the Commission's Environmental Assessment. All of 
these items are available for public inspection at the Commission's 
Public Document Room, located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville 
Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland, and accessible electronically 
through the ADAMS Public Electronic Reading Room link at the NRC Web 
site (http://www.nrc.gov).

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 21st day of December 2000.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Richard P. Correia,
Chief, Section 2, Project Directorate II, Division of Licensing Project 
Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 00-33152 Filed 12-27-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P