[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 28 (Thursday, February 10, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7592-7593]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-3026]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 50-271; License No. DPR-28; NRC-2010-0191]


Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC and Entergy Nuclear 
Operations, Inc.; Notice of Issuance of Director's Decision

    Notice is hereby given that the Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor 
Regulation, has issued a Director's Decision with regard to a petition 
dated April 19, 2010, filed by Congressman Paul W. Hodes, U.S. House of 
Representatives, hereinafter referred to as the ``Petitioner.'' The 
petition was supplemented by letters dated May 14 and June 16, 2010. 
The petition concerns the operation of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power 
Station (Vermont Yankee).
    The petition requested that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 
not allow Vermont Yankee, operated by Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. 
(Entergy or the licensee), to restart in May 2010, after its scheduled 
refueling outage, until the completion of all environmental remediation 
work and relevant reports on leaking tritium at the plant. 
Specifically, the petition asked the NRC to prevent Vermont Yankee from 
resuming power production until the following efforts have been 
completed to the Commission's satisfaction: (1) The tritiated 
groundwater remediation process; (2) the soil remediation process 
scheduled to take place during the refueling outage, to remove soil 
containing tritium and radioactive isotopes of cesium, manganese, zinc, 
and cobalt; (3) Entergy's root cause analysis; and (4) the Commission's 
review of the documents presented by Entergy as a result of the 
Commission's demand for information imposed on the licensee on March 1, 
2010.

[[Page 7593]]

    The petition raises concerns originating from the licensee's report 
to the NRC on January 7, 2010, that water samples taken from a 
monitoring well on site at Vermont Yankee showed tritium levels above 
background. Tritium is another name for the radioactive nuclide 
hydrogen-3. Tritium occurs naturally in the environment because of 
cosmic ray interactions and is also produced by nuclear reactor 
operations. Tritium is chemically identical to normal hydrogen 
(hydrogen-1), and like normal hydrogen tends to combine with oxygen to 
form water, which is referred to as tritiated water. The detection of 
tritiated water in the monitoring well indicated there was abnormal 
leakage from the nuclear plant. The licensee later identified a leak 
from underground pipe in the Advanced Off-Gas system as the source of 
the leak.
    This petition was assigned to the NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor 
Regulation (NRR) for review. NRR's Petition Review Board (PRB) met on 
May 3, 2010, and made an initial recommendation to accept this petition 
for review. The NRC communicated this decision to the Petitioner's 
staff, who told the PRB that the Petitioner did not desire to address 
the PRB. The PRB's final recommendation was to accept the petition for 
review. By letter dated May 20, 2010, Agencywide Documents Access and 
Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML101310049, the NRC informed 
the Petitioner of the PRB's recommendation and also stated that the NRC 
did not find cause to prohibit the restart of Vermont Yankee.
    The NRC sent a copy of the proposed Director's Decision to the 
Petitioner for comment on November 18, 2010, and to the licensee for 
comment on November 29, 2010. The Petitioner did not provide any 
comments and the licensee provided minor comments. The licensee's 
comments have been addressed in the Director's Decision.
    The NRR staff has determined that the activities requested by the 
Petitioner have been completed, with the exception of preventing the 
restart of Vermont Yankee. Therefore, the Director of NRR concludes 
that the petition has been granted in part and denied in part. The 
reasons for this decision are explained in the Director's Decision (DD-
11-01) pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 
2.206, ``Requests for action under this subpart.''
    Copies of the petition, ADAMS Accession No. ML101120663, and the 
Director's Decision, ADAMS Accession No. ML110060072, are available for 
inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room (PDR) at One White 
Flint North, Public File Area O1 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first 
floor), Rockville, Maryland, and from the NRC's ADAMS Public Electronic 
Reading Room on the NRC Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. The supplemental letters are under ADAMS Accession Nos. 
ML101370031 and ML101720485. NRC Management Directive 8.11, ``Review 
Process for 10 CFR 2.206 Petitions,'' ADAMS Accession No. ML041770328, 
describes the petition review process. Persons who do not have access 
to ADAMS or who have problems in accessing the documents 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].
    A copy of the Director's Decision will be filed with the Secretary 
of the Commission for the Commission's review in accordance with 10 CFR 
2.206 of the Commission's regulations. As provided for by this 
regulation, the Director's Decision will constitute the final action of 
the Commission 25 days after the date of the decision, unless the 
Commission, on its own motion, institutes a review of the Director's 
Decision in that time.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 27th day of January 2011.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Eric J. Leeds,
Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2011-3026 Filed 2-9-11; 8:45 am]
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