[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 164 (Friday, August 23, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Page 54680]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-21524]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket Nos. 72-15 and 50-219]


AmerGen Energy Company, LLC, Oyster Creek Generating Station; 
Receipt of Request for Action Under 10 CFR 2.206

    Notice is hereby given that by petition dated June 21, 2002, Ms. 
Edith Gbur of the Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch, et al. (petitioners), 
have requested that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) take action 
with regard to AmerGen Energy Company's Oyster Creek Generating Station 
Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation.
    The petitioners requested the following NRC actions:
    (1) Suspend Certificate of Compliance (CoC) No. 1004 for the NUHOMS 
dry spent fuel storage system.
    (2) Halt transfer of spent fuel from wet pool storage to dry 
storage modules.
    (3) Conduct a site-specific public hearing before independent 
judges on the dry cask licensing proceeding for Oyster Creek Generating 
Station (Oyster Creek) and other nuclear issues identified in the 
petition.
    (4) Make a determination of the NUHOMS' capability to withstand 
terrorist attacks similar to those on September 11, 2001.
    (5) Develop criteria and regulations to empirically verify dry 
storage system capability and to apply those requirements to Oyster 
Creek.
    (6) Halt loading until a thorough inspection of the total system 
has been completed to verify that the NUHOMS modules were fabricated 
properly and will last the design life.
    As the basis for the request, the petitioners presented a number of 
safety concerns related to:
    (1) Location of the Oyster Creek independent spent fuel storage 
installation relative to local roads and communities;
    (2) Ability of the NUHOMS dry spent fuel storage system to survive 
a sabotage attack;
    (3) Adequacy of Oyster Creek security measures for fuel handling 
activities;
    (4) Adequacy of the Oyster Creek emergency evacuation plan; and
    (5) Quality of the NUHOMS systems planned for use at Oyster Creek.
    The request is being addressed pursuant to 10 CFR 2.206 of the 
Commission's regulations. The request has been referred to the Director 
of the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. As provided by 
Section 2.206, appropriate action will be taken on this petition within 
a reasonable time. The petitioner participated in a telephone call with 
the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards' Petition Review 
Board on July 18, 2002, to discuss the petition. The results of that 
discussion were considered in the Board's determination regarding the 
petitioner's request for immediate action and in establishing the 
schedule for review of the petition. By letter dated August 12, 2002, 
the Director denied the petitioner's request for immediate suspension 
of Certificate of Compliance No. 1004 for the NUHOMS dry spent fuel 
storage system and to halt transfer of spent fuel from wet pool storage 
to dry storage modules at the Oyster Creek Generating Station. A copy 
of the petition is available for inspection in the Agencywide Documents 
Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image 
files of NRC's public documents. These documents may be accessed 
through the NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. If you do not have access to 
ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in 
ADAMS, contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-
800-397-4209, 301-415-4737 or by e-mail to [email protected].

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 12th day of August, 2002.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Martin J. Virgilio,
Director, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 02-21524 Filed 8-22-02; 8:45 am]
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