[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 104 (Tuesday, May 31, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 34382-34383]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-12742]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket Nos. 50-280 and 50-281; NRC-2016-0105]


Virginia Electric and Power Company; Surry Power Station, Unit 
Nos. 1 and 2

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Draft environmental assessment and finding of no significant 
impact; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for 
public comment a draft environmental assessment and finding of no 
significant impact regarding the request for temporary exemption from 
specific requirements of acceptance criteria for emergency core cooling 
systems and evaluation models for Facility Operating License Nos. DPR-
32 and DPR-37, issued to Virginia Electric and Power Company (the 
licensee) for the Surry Power Station, Unit Nos. 1 and 2 (Surry).

DATES: Submit comments by June 30, 2016. Comments received after this 
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission 
is able to ensure consideration only for comments received before this 
date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods 
(unless this document describes a different method for submitting 
comments on a specific subject):
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2016-0105. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-
3463; email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact 
the individuals listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section 
of this document.
     Mail comments to: Cindy Bladey, Office of Administration, 
Mail Stop: OWFN-12-H08, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, 
DC 20555-0001.
    For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting 
comments, see ``Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments'' in the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Karen Cotton, telephone: 301-415-1438; 
email: [email protected]; or V. Sreenivas, telephone: 301-415-2597; 
email: [email protected]. Both are staff members of the Office of 
Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2016-0105 when contacting the NRC 
about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain 
publicly-available information related to this action by any of the 
following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Web site: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2016-0105.
     NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the 
ADAMS Public Documents collection at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select ``ADAMS Public Documents'' and 
then select ``Begin Web-based ADAMS Search.'' For problems with ADAMS, 
please contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 
1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by email to [email protected]. The 
ADAMS accession number for each document referenced (if it is available 
in ADAMS) is provided the first time that it is mentioned in the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.
     NRC's PDR: You may examine and purchase copies of public 
documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland.

B. Submitting Comments

    Please include Docket ID NRC-2016-0105 in your comment submission.
    The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact 
information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your 
comment submission. The NRC posts all comment submissions at http://www.regulations.gov as well as entering the comment submissions into 
ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to remove 
identifying or contact information.
    If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons 
for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to 
include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be 
publicly disclosed in their comment submission. Your request should 
state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to 
remove such information before making the comment submissions available 
to the public or entering the comment submissions into ADAMS.

II. Introduction

    The NRC is considering issuance of an exemption from Sec.  50.46 of 
title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Acceptance 
criteria for emergency core cooling systems [(ECCS)] for light-water 
nuclear power reactors,'' and appendix K to 10 CFR part 50, ``ECCS 
Evaluation Models,'' for Facility Operating License Nos. DPR-32 and 
DPR-37, issued to the licensee for operation of Surry, located in the 
southeastern part of Virginia, in Surry County, Virginia. In accordance 
with 10 CFR 51.21, the NRC prepared an environmental assessment 
documenting

[[Page 34383]]

its findings. The NRC concluded that the proposed actions will have no 
significant environmental impact.

III. Draft Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant 
Impact

Description of the Proposed Action

    The proposed action would exempt the licensee from certain 
requirements contained in 10 CFR 50.46 and appendix K to 10 CFR part 50 
to allow the use of up to eight AREVA AGORA[supreg] lead test 
assemblies (LTAs) containing fuel rods fabricated with M5[supreg] 
cladding material at Surry. The proposed action is in accordance with 
the licensee's application dated September 30, 2015 (ADAMS Accession 
No. ML15282A036).

The Need for the Proposed Action

    The proposed temporary exemption to 10 CFR 50.46 and appendix K to 
10 CFR part 50 is needed to allow Surry to use up to eight LTAs 
containing fuel rods fabricated with M5[supreg] advanced zirconium 
cladding. The requested exemption is required since Surry's technical 
specifications do not currently include the use of M5[supreg] advanced 
zirconium cladding material for use in its reactors.
    The regulations in 10 CFR 50.46(a)(1)(i) and appendix K to 10 CFR 
part 50 require the demonstration of adequate ECCS performance for 
light-water reactors that contain fuel consisting of uranium oxide 
pellets enclosed in Zircaloy or ZIRLO tubes. In addition, 10 CFR 
50.44(a) addresses requirements to control hydrogen generated by 
Zircaloy or ZIRLO fuel after a postulated loss-of-coolant accident. 
Each of these three regulations, either implicitly or explicitly, 
assume that either Zircaloy or ZIRLO is used as the fuel rod cladding 
material.
    The proposed temporary exemption is needed by Surry to allow the 
use of M5 alloy clad LTAs to evaluate cladding material for use in up 
to eight fuel assemblies and to provide a more robust design to 
eliminate grid to rod fretting fuel failures. The regulations specify 
standards and acceptance criteria only for fuel rods clad with Zircaloy 
or ZIRLO. Consistent with 10 CFR 50.46, a temporary exemption is 
required to use fuel rods clad with an advanced alloy that is not 
Zircaloy or ZIRLO. Therefore, the licensee needs a temporary exemption 
to insert up to eight LTAs containing new cladding material into the 
Surry, Unit Nos. 1 and 2, reactor cores.

Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action

    The NRC has completed its evaluation of the proposed action and 
concludes that the proposed action will not present any undue risk to 
public health and safety. The details of the NRC staff's safety 
evaluation will be provided in the exemption that, if approved by the 
NRC, will be issued as part of the letter to the licensee approving the 
exemption to the regulation.
    The proposed action does not exempt the licensee from complying 
with the acceptance and analytical criteria of 10 CFR 50.46 and 
appendix K to 10 CFR part 50 applicable to the M5 alloy cladding. The 
exemption solely allows the criteria set forth in these regulations to 
apply to the M5 cladding material, which is similar in design and 
function to the Zircaloy and ZIRLO cladding material required by NRC 
regulations. Consequently, no changes are being made in the types of 
effluents that may be released offsite and there is no significant 
increase in the amount of any effluent released offsite, nor a 
significant increase in occupational or public radiation exposure 
because this exemption will not change the criteria set forth in the 
present regulations, since the M5-clad fuel has been shown by the 
licensee to be capable of meeting this criteria. Therefore, there are 
no significant radiological environmental impacts associated with the 
proposed action.
    With regard to potential non-radiological impacts, the proposed 
action does not have any foreseeable impacts to historic properties, 
land, air, or water resources, including impacts to biota, because the 
exemption only allows the application of the acceptance criteria in the 
regulations to the new fuel assemblies, rather than fuel assemblies 
with Zircaloy or ZIRLO cladding material. The exemptions do not allow 
any changes that will impact any offsite or onsite resources. In 
addition, there are also no known socioeconomic or environmental 
justice impacts associated with such proposed action. Therefore, there 
are no significant non-radiological environmental impacts associated 
with the proposed action.
    Accordingly, the NRC concludes that there are no significant 
environmental impacts associated with the proposed action.

Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action

    As an alternative to the proposed actions, the NRC staff considered 
denial of the proposed action (i.e., the ``no-action'' alternative). 
Denial of the exemption request would result in no change in current 
environmental impacts. The environmental impacts of the proposed 
temporary exemption and the ``no action'' alternative are similar.

Alternative Use of Resources

    The action does not involve the use of any different resources than 
those previously considered in the ``Final Environmental Statement 
Related to Operation of Surry Power Station Unit 1''; ``Final 
Environmental Statement Related to Operation of Surry Power Station 
Unit 2,'' dated 1972; and NUREG-1437, ``Generic Environmental Impact 
Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants, Supplement 6, 
Regarding Surry Power Station Units 1 and 2, Final Report,'' dated 
November 2002 (ADAMS Accession No. ML023310717).

Agencies and Persons Consulted

    The staff did not enter into consultation with any other Federal 
agency or with the State of Virginia regarding the environmental impact 
of the proposed action.

IV. Finding of No Significant Impact

    The licensee has requested an exemption from certain requirements 
contained in 10 CFR 50.46 and appendix K to 10 CFR part 50 to allow the 
use of up to eight AREVA AGORA[supreg] LTAs containing fuel rods 
fabricated with M5[supreg] cladding material. On the basis of the 
environmental assessment, the NRC concludes that the proposed action 
will not have a significant effect on the quality of the human 
environment. Accordingly, the NRC has determined not to prepare an 
environmental impact statement for the proposed action.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 23rd day of May 2016.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Anne T Boland,
Director, Division of Operating Reactor Licensing, Office of Nuclear 
Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2016-12742 Filed 5-27-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7590-01-P