[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 3, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Page 143]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-33649]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[NRC-2011-0291]
Receipt of Request for Action
Notice is hereby given that by petition dated April 13, 2011, Paul
Gunter and Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear requested that the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) take action to immediately suspend
the operating licenses of General Electric boiling water reactors with
Mark I containments. More than 8,000 copetitioners submitted emails
stating that they shared the concerns raised by Beyond Nuclear. Beyond
Nuclear and the copetitioners will be referred to collectively as the
``petitioners.''
In their petition, the petitioners request:
enforcement action to ensure that the public health and safety is
not unduly being jeopardized by the unsafe operations at twenty one
(21) General Electric [GE] Boiling Water Reactors [BWRs] Mark I
units that rely upon a fundamentally flawed combination of free
standing steel primary containments for their pressure suppression
containment system, the installation of the ``hardened vent
system,'' or not, and an additional three (3) Mark I units for a
total of twenty four (24) units which rely upon used radioactive
fuel storage pools (also known as ``spent fuel pools'' elevated to
the top [of] the reactor building outside and above the rated
containment structure without safety-related back-up electric power
(Class 1 E) systems to cool high-density storage of thermally hot
and highly radioactive nuclear waste in the event of loss of grid
power.
This request is being reviewed pursuant to the NRC's regulation at
Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) 2.206. The request
has been referred to the Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation. As provided by 10 CFR 2.206, appropriate action will be
taken on this petition within a reasonable time. An NRC Petition Review
Board (PRB) held public meetings with the petitioners on June 8, 2011,
and October 7, 2011, during which the petitioners supplemented and
clarified the requested actions and bases for their petition. The
results of those discussions were considered in the PRB's determination
regarding the petitioners' request for immediate action and in
establishing the schedule for the review of the petition.
By letter dated December 13, 2011, the Director of the NRC's Office
of Nuclear Reactor Regulation denied the petitioners' request to
immediately suspend the operating licenses of General Electric boiling
water reactors with Mark I containments. Although the Director denied
the petitioners' request for immediate action, the Director nonetheless
accepted their petition for review in part. The Director's findings
regarding each of the requested actions and bases for the petition can
be found in the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS) at Accession No. ML11339A078, ``Table Summarizing Each Issue
for 2.206 Criteria,'' included in his December 13, 2011 letter. ADAMS
may be accessed through the NRC Library at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html.
Copies of the petition and the transcripts from the June 8, 2011
and October 7, 2011 public meetings can be found in ADAMS at Accession
Nos. ML11104A058 (petition), ML11167A114 (June 8, 2011 meeting) and
ML11292A162 (October 7, 2011 meeting). Copies of these documents are
also available for inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room
(PDR). The PDR is located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1
F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland.
Any additional publicly available documents created or received at
the NRC will be accessible electronically through ADAMS. Persons who do
not have access to ADAMS or who have difficulty accessing documents in
ADAMS should contact the NRC's PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-
(800) 397-4209 or (301) 415-4737, or by email to [email protected].
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 27th day of December 2011.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Bruce A. Boger,
Deputy Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2011-33649 Filed 12-30-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P