[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 3, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 134-135]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-33648]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket Nos. 50-029, 72-31; NRC-2011-0159; License No. DPR-3]
In the Matter of Yankee Atomic Electric Company; Northeast
Utilities; NSTAR (Yankee Nuclear Power Station); Order Approving
Application Regarding Proposed Merger
I
Yankee Atomic Electric Company (Yankee Atomic or the licensee) is
the holder of Facility Operating License No. DPR-3, which authorizes
possession, use, and operation of the Independent Spent Fuel Storage
Installation at the Yankee Nuclear Power Station. The facility is
located at the licensee's site in Rowe, Massachusetts.
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
[[Page 135]]
``application''), Yankee Atomic notified the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC or the Commission) of the pending merger of Northeast
Utilities and NSTAR (each current indirect minority co-owners of 38.5
percent and 14 percent, respectively, of Yankee Atomic) 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-3 for the Yankee Nuclear Power Station, to the extent effected
by the pending merger of Northeast Utilities and NSTAR.
The increase in ownership by Northeast Utilities of Yankee Atomic
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 52.5 percent of Yankee
Atomic through its subsidiaries, The Connecticut Light and Power
Company, Public Service Company of New Hampshire, Western Massachusetts
Electric Company, and NSTAR Electric Company. Yankee Atomic will
continue to operate the facility and hold the license.
No physical changes to the Yankee Nuclear Power Station 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 41532).
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 Yankee Atomic 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 Yankee Atomic 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].
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 20th day of December, 2011.
Daniel H. Dorman,
Acting Director, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2011-33648 Filed 12-30-11; 8:45 am]
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