[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 85 (Tuesday, May 4, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Page 23820]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-10398]



[[Page 23820]]

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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 72-10; NRC-2009-0534]


Notice of Docketing of Amendment Request for Materials License 
No. SNM-2506; Northern States Power Company, a Minnesota Corporation; 
Prairie Island Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation

AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of docketing of amendment request for materials license 
No. SNM-2506.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Pamela Longmire, Ph.D., Project 
Manager, Licensing Branch, Division of Spent Fuel Storage and 
Transportation, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Telephone: 
(301) 492-3562; fax number: (301) 492-3350; e-mail: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or Commission) is 
considering an application dated March 28, 2008, as supplemented by 
letter dated August 29, 2008, from Nuclear Management Company, LLC 
(NMC; now Northern States Power Company, a Minnesota Corporation) to 
amend its Special Nuclear Materials License No. SNM-2506, under the 
provisions of 10 CFR part 72, for the receipt, possession, storage and 
transfer of spent fuel, reactor-related Greater than Class C waste and 
other radioactive materials associated with spent fuel storage at the 
Prairie Island Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI), 
located at the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant (PINGP), Unit 
Nos. 1 and 2, site in Goodhue County, Minnesota.
    The TN-40 cask is currently used at the Prairie Island ISFSI for 
storage of spent fuel with characteristics defined in the existing 
technical specifications. The fuel characteristics limit the fuel that 
can be stored in the TN-40 cask to a maximum enrichment of 3.85 weight 
percent (w/o) U-235 and a maximum burnup of 45,000 MWd/MTU. Since the 
early 1990s, NMC has used fuel with initial enrichment up to 5.0 w/o U-
235. These higher enriched fuels received burnup up to 60,000 MWd/MTU 
while in the PINGP reactor. After being removed from the PINGP reactor, 
these higher enriched, higher burnup spent fuels must be placed in, and 
must remain in, the reactor's spent fuel pool (i.e., wet storage) as 
the TN-40 cask design does not allow for dry storage of such higher 
enriched, higher burnup spent fuel. If granted, the amendment will 
approve the NMC's proposed modification of the TN-40 cask design (to be 
known as the TN-40HT) for dry storage of the higher enriched, higher 
burnup spent fuel used in the PINGP reactor as well as associated 
changes to the ISFSI's technical specifications and the reformatting of 
those technical specifications. The TN-40HT casks, once loaded with the 
higher enriched, higher burnup spent fuel, will be placed in the 
Prairie Island ISFSI.
    There are currently 23 loaded TN-40 casks at the Prairie Island 
ISFSI. The ISFSI is licensed for a maximum of 48 casks. Roughly, 250 
spent fuel assemblies meeting the TN-40 parameters remain in wet 
storage, so an additional 6 casks of the TN-40 design could still be 
loaded and placed on the ISFSI pad. At that point (in 2013, when the 
Unit 1 license, and the ISFSI license, are scheduled to expire), NMC 
would need a new cask design to accommodate additional dry storage of 
the higher enriched, higher burnup fuels used at Prairie Island to 
support continued plant operation. The dry storage of higher enriched, 
higher burnup spent fuel in the modified TN-40HT cask is also necessary 
to support continued operation of the PINGP following plant license 
renewal, if granted.
    This application was docketed under 10 CFR 72.16; the ISFSI Docket 
No. is 72-10 and will remain the same for this action. The NRC 
inadvertently failed to promptly publish this notice of docketing in 
the Federal Register after the NRC's receipt of the NMC March 28, 2008, 
license amendment request. All other procedural requirements in Part 72 
will be met as the NRC continues to process this license amendment 
request (see section II of this notice, ``Opportunity to Request a 
Hearing'').
    On November 24, 2009, the Commission issued a ``Notice of 
Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant 
Impact,'' for this action. This notice was published in the Federal 
Register on December 4, 2009 (74 FR 63798). The Commission will approve 
the license amendment if it determines that the application meets the 
standards and requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended 
(the Act) and the Commission's regulations, and pursuant to 10 CFR 
72.58, the findings required by 10 CFR 72.40. These findings will be 
documented in a Safety Evaluation Report.

II. Opportunity To Request a Hearing

    The Commission may issue either a notice of hearing or a notice of 
proposed action and opportunity for hearing in accordance with 10 CFR 
72.46(b)(1) or, if a determination is made that the amendment does not 
present a genuine issue as to whether public health and safety will be 
significantly affected, take immediate action on the amendment in 
accordance with 10 CFR 72.46(b)(2) and provide notice of the action 
taken and an opportunity for interested persons to request a hearing on 
whether the action should be rescinded or modified.

III. Further Information

    Documents related to this action, including the application for 
amendment and supporting documentation, are available electronically at 
the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, you can access the NRC's Agencywide 
Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and 
image files of NRC's public documents. The ADAMS accession numbers for 
the documents related to this notice are ML081190039, ML081190040, 
ML081230257, ML101170260, ML101170254, ML082970575, ML090840025, 
ML090840028, ML101170235, ML093310293, ML093310303, and ML093080332. 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].
    These documents may also be viewed electronically on the public 
computers located at the NRC's PDR, O1 F21, One White Flint North, 
11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR reproduction 
contractor will copy documents for a fee.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 27th day of April 2010.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Pamela Longmire,
Project Manager, Licensing Branch, Division of Spent Fuel Storage and 
Transportation, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2010-10398 Filed 5-3-10; 8:45 am]
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