[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 69 (Wednesday, April 9, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19265-19267]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-7589]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 50-243; EA-08-099]
In the Matter of Oregon State University (Oregon State University
TRIGA Reactor); Order Modifying Amended Facility Operating License No.
R-106
I
Oregon State University (the licensee) is the holder of Amended
Facility Operating License No. R-106 (the license), originally issued
on March 7, 1967, by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. The license
authorizes operation of the Oregon State University TRIGA Reactor (the
facility) at a power level up to 1100 kilowatts thermal and in the
pulse mode, with reactivity insertions not to exceed 2.55$, and to
receive, possess, and use special nuclear material associated with
facility operation. The facility is a research reactor located on the
campus of Oregon State University, in the city of Corvallis, Benton
County, Oregon. The mailing address is Radiation Center, Oregon State
University, 100 Radiation Center, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-5903.
II
Title 10, Section 50.64, ``Limitations on the Use of Highly
Enriched Uranium (HEU) in Domestic Non-Power Reactors,'' of the Code of
Federal Regulations (10 CFR 50.64), limits the use of high-enriched
uranium (HEU) fuel in domestic non-power reactors (research and test
reactors) (see 51 FR 6514). The regulation, which became effective on
March 27, 1986, requires that if Federal Government funding for
conversion-related costs is available, each licensee of a non-power
reactor authorized to use HEU fuel shall replace it with low-enriched
uranium (LEU) fuel acceptable to the Commission unless the Commission
has determined that the reactor has a unique purpose. The Commission's
stated purpose for these requirements was to reduce, to the maximum
extent possible, the use of HEU fuel in order to reduce the risk of
theft and diversion of HEU fuel used in non-power reactors.
Paragraphs 50.64(b)(2)(i) and (ii) require that a licensee of a
non-power reactor (1) not acquire more HEU fuel if LEU fuel that is
acceptable to the Commission for that reactor is available when the
licensee proposes to acquire HEU fuel and (2) replace all HEU fuel in
its possession with available LEU fuel acceptable to the Commission for
that reactor in accordance with a schedule determined pursuant to 10
CFR 50.64(c)(2).
Paragraph 50.64(c)(2)(i) requires, among other things, that each
licensee of a non-power reactor authorized to possess and use HEU fuel
develop and submit to the Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation (the Director) by March 27, 1987, and at 12-month intervals
thereafter, a written proposal for meeting the requirements of the
rule. The licensee shall include in its proposal a certification that
Federal Government funding for conversion is available through the U.S.
Department of Energy or other appropriate Federal agency. The proposal
should also provide a schedule for conversion, based upon the
availability of replacement fuel acceptable to the Commission for that
reactor and upon consideration of other factors such as the
availability of shipping casks, implementation of arrangements for
available financial support, and reactor usage.
Paragraph 50.64(c)(2)(iii) requires the licensee to include in the
proposal, to the extent required to effect conversion, all necessary
changes to the license, the facility, and licensee procedures. This
paragraph also requires the licensee to submit supporting safety
analyses in time to meet the conversion schedule.
Paragraph 50.64(c)(2)(iii) also requires the Director to review the
licensee proposal, to confirm the status of Federal Government funding,
and to determine a final schedule, if the licensee has submitted a
schedule for conversion.
Paragraph 50.64(c)(3) requires the Director to review the
supporting safety analyses and to issue an appropriate enforcement
order directing both the conversion and, to the extent consistent with
the protection of public health and safety, any necessary changes to
the license, the facility, and licensee procedures. In the Federal
Register notice of the final rule (51 FR 6514), the Commission
explained that in most, if not all, cases, the enforcement order would
be an order to modify the license under 10 CFR 2.204 (now 10 CFR 2.202,
``Orders'').
Any person, other than the licensee, whose interest may be affected
by this proceeding and who desires to participate as a party must file
a written request for hearing or petition for leave to intervene
meeting the requirements of 10 CFR 2.309, ``Hearing Requests, Petitions
to Intervene, Requirements for Standing, and Contentions.''
III
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) maintains the
Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), which
provides text and image files of the NRC's public documents. On
November 6, 2007, the licensee submitted its conversion proposal (ADAMS
Accession No. ML080420546), which was supplemented on February 11, 2008
(ADAMS Accession No. ML080730057). The NRC staff is in the process of
reviewing the conversion proposal. The licensee indicated that an
order, separate from the order for converting the reactor to LEU fuel,
is needed that increases the uranium-235 possession limit because of a
constraint on the timing of the shipment of replacement LEU fuel. The
certification of the shipping containers used to transfer the LEU fuel
from the manufacturer in France to the licensee will expire in June
2008, before the NRC can issue the order for reactor conversion.
Therefore, the licensee requires the receipt and possession, but not
use in the reactor, of the LEU fuel at this time to allow the fuel to
be received before the shipping container loses its certification. The
LEU fuel contains the uranium-235 isotope at an enrichment of less than
20 percent. The NRC staff reviewed the licensee's proposal and the
[[Page 19266]]
requirements of 10 CFR 50.64 and has determined that public health and
safety and the common defense and security require the licensee to
receive and possess the LEU fuel before conversion. This is necessary
so that the manufacturer can ship the LEU fuel to the licensee before
the shipping container certification expires, to support conversion in
accordance with the schedules planned by the U.S. Department of Energy
to support U.S. nonproliferation policies and by the licensee to
support its academic mission.
IV
Accordingly, pursuant to Sections 51, 53, 57, 101, 104, 161b, 161i,
and 161o of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and to
Commission regulations in 10 CFR 2.202 and 10 CFR 50.64, It is hereby
ordered that:
Amended Facility Operating License No. R-106 is modified by adding
the following license condition:
2.B.(5) Pursuant to the Act and 10 CFR Part 70, ``Domestic
Licensing of Special Nuclear Material,'' to receive and possess but
not use up to 16.30 kilograms of contained uranium-235 at enrichment
less than 20 percent in the form of non-power reactor fuel.
This Order will be effective 20 days after the date of publication
of this Order in the Federal Register.
V
Pursuant to 10 CFR 2.309, any person(s) whose interest may be
affected by this proceeding, other than the licensee, and who wishes to
participate as a party in the proceeding must file a written request
within 20 days after the date of publication of this Order, setting
forth with particularity the manner in which this Order adversely
affects his or her interest and addressing the criteria set forth in 10
CFR 2.309. If a hearing is held, the issue to be considered at such
hearing shall be whether this Order should be sustained.
A request for a hearing must be filed in accordance with the NRC E-
Filing rule, which became effective on October 15, 2007. The NRC issued
the E-Filing final rule on August 28, 2007 (72 FR 49139) and codified
it in pertinent part at 10 CFR Part 2, ``Rules of Practice for Domestic
Licensing Proceedings and Issuance of Orders,'' Subpart B. The E-Filing
process requires participants to submit and serve documents over the
Internet or, in some cases, to mail copies on electronic optical
storage media. Participants may not submit paper copies of their
filings unless they seek a waiver in accordance with the procedures
described below.
To comply with the procedural requirements associated with E-
Filing, at least 5 days before the filing deadline, the requestor must
contact the Office of the Secretary by e-mail at [email protected],
or by calling (301) 415-1677, to request (1) a digital identification
(ID) certificate, which allows the participant (or its counsel or
representative) to digitally sign documents and access the E-Submittal
server for any NRC proceeding in which it is participating, and/or (2)
creation of an electronic docket for the proceeding (even in instances
when the requestor (or its counsel or representative) already holds an
NRC-issued digital ID certificate). Each requestor will need to
download the Workplace Forms ViewerTM to access the
Electronic Information Exchange (EIE), a component of the E-Filing
system. The Workplace Forms ViewerTM is free and is
available at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/install-viewer.html. Information about applying for a digital ID certificate
also is available on the NRC's public Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals/apply-certificates.html.
Once a requestor has obtained a digital ID certificate, had a
docket created, and downloaded the EIE viewer, he or she can then
submit a request for a hearing through EIE. Submissions should be in
portable document format (PDF) in accordance with NRC guidance
available on the NRC public Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html. A filing is considered complete at the time the filer
submits the document through EIE. To be timely, electronic filings must
be submitted to the EIE system no later than 11:59 p.m. eastern time on
the due date. Upon receipt of a transmission, the E-Filing system time-
stamps the document and sends the submitter an e-mail notice confirming
receipt of the document. The EIE system also distributes an e-mail
notice that provides access to the document to the NRC Office of the
General Counsel and any others who have advised the Office of the
Secretary that they wish to participate in the proceeding, so that the
filer need not serve the document on those participants separately.
Therefore, any others who wish to participate in the proceeding (or
their counsel or representative) must apply for and receive a digital
ID certificate before a hearing request is filed so that they may
obtain access to the document via the E-Filing system.
A person filing electronically may seek assistance through the
``Contact Us'' link located on the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/e-submittals.html or by calling the NRC technical help line,
which is available between 8:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m., eastern time,
Monday through Friday. The help line number is (800) 397-4209 or,
locally, (301) 415-4737.
Participants who believe that they have good cause for not
submitting documents electronically must file a motion, in accordance
with 10 CFR 2.302(g), with their initial paper filing requesting
authorization to continue to submit documents in paper format. Such
filings must be submitted by (1) first-class mail addressed to the
Office of the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Rulemaking and
Adjudications Staff; or (2) courier, express mail, or expedited
delivery service to the Office of the Secretary, Sixteenth Floor, One
White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, 20852,
Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff. Participants filing a
document in this manner are responsible for serving the document on all
other participants. Filing is considered complete by first-class mail
as of the time of deposit in the mail, or by courier, express mail, or
expedited delivery service upon depositing the document with the
provider of the service.
Documents submitted in adjudicatory proceedings will appear in the
NRC's electronic hearing docket at http://ehd.nrc.gov/EHD_Proceeding/home.asp, unless excluded pursuant to an order of the Commission, an
Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, or a Presiding Officer. Participants
are requested not to include personal privacy information, such as
social security numbers, home addresses, or home phone numbers, in
their filings. With respect to copyrighted works, except for limited
excerpts that serve the purpose of the adjudicatory filings and would
constitute a fair use application, participants are requested not to
include copyrighted materials in their works.
If a hearing is requested, the NRC will issue an order designating
the time and place of any hearing.
In the absence of any request for hearing, the provisions as
specified in Section IV shall be final 20 days after the date of
publication of this Order in the Federal Register.
In accordance with 10 CFR 51.10(d), this Order is not subject to
Section 102(2) of the National Environmental Policy Act, as amended.
The NRC staff notes, however, that with respect to the environmental
impacts associated with the changes imposed by this Order as described
in the safety evaluation, the
[[Page 19267]]
changes would, if imposed by other than an order, meet the definition
of a categorical exclusion in accordance with 10 CFR 51.22(c)(9). Thus,
pursuant to either 10 CFR 51.10(d) or 10 CFR 51.22(c)(9), no
environmental assessment or environmental impact statement is required.
Detailed guidance that the NRC uses to review applications from
research reactor licensees appears in NUREG-1537, ``Guidelines for
Preparing and Reviewing Applications for the Licensing of Non-Power
Reactors,'' February 1996, which can be obtained from the Commission's
Public Document Room (PDR). The public may also access NUREG-1537
through the NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html under ADAMS Accession Nos.
ML042430055 for part 1 and ML042430048 for part 2.
For further information, see the application from the licensee
dated November 6, 2007 (ADAMS Accession No. ML080420546), as
supplemented on February 11, 2008 (ADAMS Accession No. ML080730057);
the NRC staff's request for additional information (ADAMS Accession No.
ML080090308); and the cover letter to the licensee and the staff's
safety evaluation dated April 4, 2008 (ADAMS Accession No.
ML080730395), available for public inspection at the Commission's PDR,
located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1 F21, 11555
Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available
records will be accessible electronically from the Public Electronic
Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Persons who
do not have access to ADAMS or who have problems accessing the
documents in ADAMS should contact the NRC PDR reference staff by
telephone at (800) 397-4209 or (301) 415-4737 or by e-mail to
[email protected].
Dated this 4th day of April, 2008.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
James T. Wiggins,
Deputy Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. E8-7589 Filed 4-8-08; 8:45 am]
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