[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 3, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 133-134]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-33647]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket Nos. 50-213, 72-39; License No. DPR-61; NRC-2011-0158]
In the Matter of Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company;
Northeast Utilities; NSTAR (Haddam Neck Plant); Order Approving
Application Regarding Proposed Merger
I
Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company (Connecticut Yankee or the
licensee) is the holder of Facility Operating License No. DPR-61, which
authorizes possession, use, and operation of the Independent Spent Fuel
Storage Installation at the Haddam Neck Plant. The facility is located
at the licensee's site in Haddam, Connecticut.
II
By application dated December 6, 2010, as supplemented on March 16,
May 16, June 8, August 16, August 24, and August 25, 2011 (together,
the ``application''), Connecticut Yankee notified the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) of the pending merger of
Northeast Utilities and NSTAR (each current
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indirect minority co-owners of 49 percent and 14 percent, respectively,
of Connecticut Yankee) and requested that, pursuant to Section 184 of
the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (AEA), and Title 10 of the
Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 50.80, the NRC consent to the
indirect transfer of control of License No. DPR-61 for the Haddam Neck
Plant, to the extent effected by the pending merger of Northeast
Utilities and NSTAR.
The increase in ownership by Northeast Utilities of Connecticut
Yankee would be the result of several transactions to be executed
pursuant to a Merger Agreement, dated October 16, 2010, as amended on
November 1, 2010, among Northeast Utilities, NSTAR and certain
subsidiaries of Northeast Utilities. The transactions involve mergers
of NSTAR and special-purpose subsidiaries of Northeast Utilities, which
will result in NSTAR merging into a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities
and becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northeast Utilities. This
subsidiary will be renamed ``NSTAR LLC.'' The corporate organizational
and ownership structure of all the other subsidiaries of Northeast
Utilities and NSTAR will not be affected by the merger--those
subsidiaries that are currently owned by Northeast Utilities will
continue to be owned by Northeast Utilities and in the same ownership
percentage after the merger, and those that are currently owned by
NSTAR will be owned by the renamed entity, NSTAR LLC, and in the same
ownership percentage after the merger as before the merger.
Following the proposed merger, Northeast Utilities, the surviving
company, will have an indirect ownership of 63 percent of Connecticut
Yankee through its subsidiaries, The Connecticut Light and Power
Company, Public Service Company of New Hampshire, Western Massachusetts
Electric Company, and NSTAR Electric Company. Connecticut Yankee will
continue to operate the facility and hold the license.
No physical changes to the Haddam Neck Plant facility or
operational changes are being proposed in the application.
Approval of the transfer of the license is requested by the
applicant pursuant to 10 CFR 50.80. Notice of the request for license
transfer, opportunity to comment, and opportunity to request a hearing
was published in the Federal Register on July 14, 2011 (76 FR 41530).
No comments or hearing requests were received.
Pursuant to 10 CFR 50.80, no license, or any right thereunder,
shall be transferred, directly or indirectly, through transfer of
control of the license, unless the Commission shall give its consent in
writing. Upon review of the information in the application and other
information before the Commission, and relying upon the representations
contained in the application, the NRC staff has determined that the
proposed indirect transfer of control of the subject license, to the
extent which will result from the proposed merger of Northeast
Utilities and NSTAR, will not affect the technical or financial
qualifications of the licensee and is otherwise consistent with
applicable provisions of law, regulations, and Orders issued by the
NRC, pursuant thereto, subject to the condition set forth below.
The findings set forth above are supported by the NRC staff's
safety evaluation (SE) dated December 20, 2011.
III
Accordingly, pursuant to Sections 161b, 161i, 161o, and 184 of the
AEA, 42 U.S.C. Sections 2201(b), 2201(i), 2201(o), and 2234; and 10 CFR
50.80, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the application regarding the indirect
license transfer related to the proposed merger of Northeast Utilities
and NSTAR, as described herein, is approved, subject to the following
condition:
Within thirty (30) days following consummation of the proposed
merger, Northeast Utilities, via its post-merger subsidiaries, The
Connecticut Light and Power Company, Western Massachusetts Electric
Company, Public Service Company of New Hampshire, and NSTAR Electric
Company, who together will exercise majority control, will call for
votes directing that Connecticut Yankee approve a negation action
plan consistent with the requirements of 10 CFR 50.38 and implement
said plan within 30 days of the vote, and directing that records of
the votes, reflecting the vote of each representative and the stock
holder company represented, be forwarded to the NRC within seven (7)
days of the vote, and be made available to the public.
It is further ordered that Connecticut Yankee shall inform the
Director of the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, in
writing, of the date of closing of the merger between Northeast
Utilities and NSTAR at least one business day before the closing.
Should the transfer of the license not be completed within one year of
this Order's date of issuance, this Order shall become null and void,
provided, however, that upon written application and for good cause
shown, such date may be extended by Order.
This Order is effective upon issuance.
For further details with respect to this Order, see the initial
application dated December 6, 2010 (Agencywide Documents Access and
Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML103490133), as supplemented
by letters dated on March 16 (ML110770022), May 16 (ML11139A088), June
8 (ML11166A124), August 16 (ML11235A723), August 24 (ML11243A087), and
August 25, 2011 (ML112490526), and the SE dated December 20, 2011
(ML113270127), which are available for public inspection at the
Commission's Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint
North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Room O-1 F21 (First Floor), Rockville,
Maryland, and accessible electronically from the ADAMS Public
Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site, http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.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 email at [email protected].
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 20th day of December, 2011.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Daniel H. Dorman,
Acting Director, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2011-33647 Filed 12-30-11; 8:45 am]
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