[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 61 (Friday, March 29, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15254-15256]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-7607]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket Nos. 50-338 and 50-339]


Virginia Electric and Power Company, North Anna Power Station, 
Units 1 and 2; Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant 
Impact

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering 
issuance of amendments to Facility Operating License Nos. NPF-4 and 
NPF-7, issued to Virginia Electric and Power Company (the licensee) for 
operation of the North Anna Power Station, Units 1 and 2, located in 
Louisa County, Virginia. Pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations (10 CFR) Sections 51.21 and 51.32, the NRC is issuing this 
environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact.

Environmental Assessment

Identification of the Proposed Action

    The proposed action would be a full conversion from the current 
technical specifications (CTS) to a set of improved technical 
specifications (ITS) based on NUREG-1431, ``Standard Technical 
Specifications, Westinghouse Plants,'' Revision 1, dated April 1995. 
The proposed action is in accordance with the licensee's application 
dated December 11, 2000, as supplemented by letters dated May 30, June 
18, July 16, July 20, August 13, August 27, September 27, October 10, 
October 17, November 8, November 19, November 29, December 3, December 
7, December 12, and December 13, 2001, and January 2, January 25, 
January 31, February 11, February 18, February 22, February 27, and 
March 7, 2002.

The Need for the Proposed Action

    The Commission's ``Proposed Policy Statement on Technical 
Specifications Improvements for Nuclear Power Reactors'' (52 FR 3788), 
dated February 6, 1987, contained an Interim Policy Statement that set 
forth objective criteria for determining which regulatory requirements 
and operating restrictions should be included in the TS. When it issued 
the Interim Policy Statement, the Commission also requested comments on 
it. Subsequently, to implement the Interim Policy Statement, each 
reactor vendor owners group and the NRC staff began developing standard 
TS (STS) for reactors supplied by each vendor. The Commission then 
published its ``Final Policy Statement on Technical Specifications 
Improvements for Nuclear Power Reactors'' (58 FR 39132), dated July 22, 
1993, in which it addressed comments received on the Interim Policy 
Statement, and incorporated experience in developing the STS. The Final 
Policy Statement formed the basis for a revision to 10 CFR 50.36 (60 FR 
36953), dated July 19, 1995, that codified the criteria for determining 
the content of TS. The NRC Committee to Review Generic Requirements 
reviewed the STS, made note of their safety merits, and indicated its 
support of conversion by operating plants to the STS. For the North 
Anna Power Station, Units 1 and 2, the STS are NUREG-1431, Revision 1, 
``Standard Technical Specifications, Westinghouse Plants,'' Revision 1, 
dated April 1995. This document formed the basis for the North Anna 
Power Station, Units 1 and 2, conversion.
    The proposed changes to the CTS are based on NUREG-1431 and 
guidance provided in the Final Policy Statement. The objective of this 
action is to completely rewrite, reformat, and streamline the CTS 
(i.e., to convert the CTS to ITS). Emphasis was placed on human factors 
principles to improve clarity and understanding. The Bases section has 
been significantly expanded to clarify and better explain the purpose 
and foundation of each specification. In addition to NUREG-1431, 
portions of the CTS were also used as the basis for the development of 
the North Anna Power Station, Units 1 and 2 ITS. Plant-specific issues 
(i.e., unique design features, requirements, and operating practices) 
were discussed at length with the licensee.
    The proposed changes from the CTS can be grouped into four general 
categories. These groupings are characterized as administrative 
changes, relocated changes, more restrictive changes, and less 
restrictive changes. They are described as follows:
    Administrative changes are those that involve restructuring, 
renumbering, rewording, complex rearranging of requirements, and other 
changes not affecting technical content or substantially revising an 
operating requirement. The reformatting, renumbering, and rewording 
processes reflect the attributes of NUREG-1431 and do not involve 
technical changes to the existing TS. The proposed changes include: (a) 
Identifying plant-specific wording for system names, etc.; (b)

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changing the wording of specification titles in the CTS to conform to 
the STS; (c) splitting up requirements that are currently grouped, or 
combining requirements that are currently in separate specifications; 
(d) deleting specifications whose applicability has expired; and (e) 
changing to wording that is consistent with the CTS but that more 
clearly or explicitly states existing requirements. Such changes are 
administrative in nature and do not impact initiators of analyzed 
events or assumed mitigation of accident or transient events.
    Relocated changes are those involving relocation of requirements 
and surveillances for structures, systems, components, or variables 
that do not meet the criteria for inclusion in the TS. Relocated 
changes are those CTS requirements that do not satisfy or fall within 
any of the four criteria specified in 10 CFR 50.36(c)(2)(ii) and may be 
relocated to appropriate licensee-controlled documents.
    The licensee's application of the screening criteria to North Anna 
Power Station, Units 1 and 2, is described in the December 11, 2000, 
application. The affected structures, systems, components, or variables 
are not assumed to be initiators of analyzed events and are not assumed 
to mitigate accident or transient events. The requirements and 
surveillances for these affected structures, systems, components, or 
variables will be relocated from the TS to administratively controlled 
documents such as the quality assurance program, the ITS Bases, the 
Technical Requirements Manual, the Core Operating Limits Report, the 
Offsite Dose Calculation Manual, or other licensee-controlled 
documents. Changes made to these documents will be made pursuant to 10 
CFR 50.59 or other NRC-approved control mechanisms which provide 
appropriate procedural means to control changes by the licensee.
    More restrictive changes are those involving more stringent 
requirements compared to the CTS for operation of the plant. These more 
stringent requirements do not result in operation that will alter 
assumptions relative to the mitigation of an accident or transient 
event. The more restrictive requirements will not alter the operation 
of process variables, structures, systems, and components described in 
the safety analyses.
    Less restrictive changes are those where CTS requirements are 
relaxed, relocated, eliminated, or where new plant operational 
flexibility has been provided. When requirements have been shown to 
provide little or no safety benefit, their removal from the TS may be 
appropriate. In most cases, relaxations previously granted to 
individual plants on a plant-specific basis were the result of (a) 
generic NRC actions, (b) new staff positions that have evolved from 
technological advancements and operating experience, or (c) resolution 
of the owners groups' comments on the ITS. Generic relaxations 
contained in NUREG-1431 were reviewed by the staff and found to be 
acceptable because they were consistent with current licensing 
practices and NRC regulations. The licensee's design was reviewed to 
determine if the specific design basis and licensing basis were 
consistent with the technical basis for the model requirements in 
NUREG-1431, thus providing a basis for these revised TS, or if 
relaxation of the requirements in the CTS is warranted based on the 
justification provided by the licensee.
    These administrative, relocated, more restrictive, and less 
restrictive changes to the requirements of the CTS do not result in 
operations that will alter assumptions relative to mitigation of an 
analyzed accident or transient event.
    In addition, there are 18 changes that are different from the 
requirements in both the CTS and NUREG-1431 or that are beyond the 
scope of the changes that are needed to meet the overall purpose of the 
conversion. These changes are as follows:
    1. Change the Allowable Value for engineered safety feature 
actuation system (ESFAS) interlock P-12 from  545 degrees F and 
 541 degrees F to  545 degrees F and  
542 degrees F. (ITS 3.3.2)
    2. Remove the trip setpoints and change the Allowable Values for 
the ESFAS Instrumentation. (ITS 3.3.2)
    3. Add a note to Action C to indicate that the accumulator 
isolation is only applicable when accumulator pressure is greater than 
the power-operated relief valve (PORV) setting, add REQUIRED ACTION C.2 
to state ``Remove power from affected accumulator isolation valve 
operators,'' and add a note in the Limiting Condition for Operation 
(LCO) section that states ``Accumulator isolation with power removed 
from the isolation valve operators is only required when accumulator 
pressure is greater than the PORV lift setting.'' (ITS 3.4.12)
    4. Revise required Actions A.2, B.2, C.2, and D.2 to allow 
verification by administrative controls to ensure the Main Feedwater 
Isolation Valves, Main Feedwater Regulating Valves, Main Feedwater Pump 
Discharge Valves, and Main Feedwater Regulating Bypass Valves are 
closed. (ITS 3.7.3)
    5. Remove Component Cooling Water System from ITS LCO 3.7.7. (ITS 
3.7.7)
    6. Revise the definition of the Ultimate Heat Sink (UHS), which 
includes the North Anna and Service Water Reservoirs, to only include 
the Service Water Reservoir. Delete surveillance requirements (SRs) on 
the North Anna Reservoir. ( ITS 3.7.9)
    7. Revise the SR frequency from ``18 months'' to ``18 months on a 
staggered test basis'' for the Main Control Room (MCR)/Emergency 
Switchgear Room (ESGR) Air Conditioning System. (ITS 3.7.11.1)
    8. Add a note to allow the emergency core cooling system (ECCS) 
pump room boundary openings, which were not open by design, to be 
opened intermittently under administrative control. (ITS 3.7.12)
    9. Add an SR to actuate each ECCS pump room exhaust air cleanup 
system train by aligning the safeguards area exhaust flow and auxiliary 
building central exhaust flow through the auxiliary building high-
efficiency particulate air filter and charcoal adsorber assembly. 
Change current SRs to verify each safeguards area exhaust flow is 
diverted and each auxiliary building filter bank is actuated on an 
actual or simulated actuation signal. (ITS 3.7.12.2 and 3.7.12.4)
    10. Delete testing requirements for the fuel building filtration 
system. (ITS 3.7.15)
    11. Delete the requirements to obtain NRC approval prior to plant 
operations whenever a steam generator is found to be in Category C-3. 
(ITS Table 5.5.8-2)
    12. Implement plant-specific equations for the overtemperature and 
overpower delta T equations. (ITS 3.3.1)
    13. Change SR 3.3.1.2 and the CTS by only requiring an adjustment 
of the power range channel if the indicated power of the nuclear 
instrumentation channel is more than 2% lower than the calculated power 
of the calorimetric. (ITS 3.3.1)
    14. Revise the allowable values of the setpoint for the P-7 low 
power reactor trips block interlock to a value that differs from the 
CTS. (ITS 3.3.1, Table 3.3.1-1)
    15. Revise the ITS to require entry into ACTION if less than 100% 
of MCR/ESGR air conditioning system is available. (ITS 3.7.11)
    16. Add a function to Table 3.3.2-1 for automatic switchover to 
containment sump to occur when the refueling water storage tank level 
is at low--low level. (ITS 3.3.2)
    17. Revise the CTS values for reactor trip system instrumentation 
interlocks by not requiring these specific

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interlocks to state the reset values for the allowable values. (ITS 
3.3.1)
    18. Implement Technical Report EE-0116, Revision 1, ``Allowable 
Values for Surry and North Anna Improved Technical Specifications (ITS) 
Tables 3.3.1-1 and 3.3.2-1.''

Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action

    The NRC staff has completed its evaluation of the proposed action 
and concludes that the proposed TS conversion would not increase the 
probability or consequences of accidents previously analyzed and would 
not affect facility radiation levels or facility radiological 
effluents. Specifically, the proposed TS changes will not increase the 
probability or consequences of accidents, no changes are being made in 
the types or amounts of any effluent that may be released offsite, and 
there is no significant increase in the allowable individual or 
cumulative occupational radiation exposure. Therefore, there are no 
significant radiological environmental impacts associated with the 
proposed action.
    With regard to potential nonradiological impacts, the proposed 
action does not have a potential to affect any historic sites because 
no previously undisturbed area will be affected by the proposed TS 
changes. It does not affect nonradiological plant effluents and has no 
other environmental impact. Therefore, there are no significant 
nonradiological environmental impacts associated with the proposed 
action.
    Accordingly, the NRC concludes that there are no significant 
environmental impacts associated with the proposed action.

Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action

    As an alternative to the proposed action, the staff considered 
denial of the proposed action (i.e., the ``no-action'' alternative). 
Denial of the application would result in no change in current 
environmental impacts. The environmental impacts of the proposed action 
and the alternative action are similar.

Alternative Use of Resources

    The action does not involve the use of any different resource than 
those previously considered in the Final Environmental Statement for 
the North Anna Power Station, Units 1 and 2, dated April 1973.

Agencies and Persons Consulted

    On February 27, 2002, the staff consulted with the Virginia State 
Official, Mr. Les Foldesi of the Virginia Department of Health, Bureau 
of Radiological Health, regarding the environmental impact of the 
proposed action. The State official had no comments.

Finding of No Significant Impact

    On the basis of the environmental assessment, the NRC concludes 
that the proposed action will not have a significant effect on the 
quality of the human environment. Accordingly, the NRC has determined 
not to prepare an environmental impact statement for the proposed 
action.
    For further details with respect to the proposed action, see the 
licensee's letter dated December 11, 2000, as supplemented by letters 
dated May 30, June 18, July 16, July 20, August 13, August 27, 
September 27, October 10, October 17, November 8, November 19, November 
29, December 3, December 7, December 12, and December 13, 2001, and 
January 2, January 25, January 31, February 11, February 18, February 
22, February 27, and March 7, 2002. Documents may be examined, and/or 
copied for a fee, at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), located at 
One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, 
Maryland. Publicly available records will be accessible electronically 
from the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) 
Public Electronic Reading Room on the internet at the NRC Web site, 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html. Persons who do not have access to 
ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in 
ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-
800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to [email protected].

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 25th day of March 2002.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Stephen R. Monarque,
Project Manager, Section 1, Project Directorate II, Division of 
Licensing Project Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 02-7607 Filed 3-28-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P