[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 144 (Friday, July 26, 2019)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 36036-36037]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-15934]


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 Proposed Rules
                                                 Federal Register
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of 
 the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these 
 notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in 
 the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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  Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 144 / Friday, July 26, 2019 / 
Proposed Rules  

[[Page 36036]]



NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Parts 50 and 52

[Docket No. PRM-50-117; NRC-2019-0063]


Criteria To Return Retired Nuclear Power Reactors to Operations

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Petition for rulemaking; notice of docketing and request for 
comment.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) received a 
petition for rulemaking from Mr. George Berka (the petitioner), dated 
December 26, 2018, requesting that the NRC amend its regulations to 
establish criteria to return retired nuclear power reactors to 
operations. The petition was docketed by the NRC on February 19, 2019 
and has been assigned Docket No. PRM-50-117. The NRC is examining the 
merits of the issues raised in PRM-50-117 to determine whether the 
issues should be considered in rulemaking. The NRC is requesting public 
comment on this petition at this time.

DATES: Submit comments by October 9, 2019. Comments received after this 
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is 
able to assure consideration only for comments received on or before 
this date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0063. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher; telephone: 301-415-
3463; email: [email protected]. For technical questions contact 
the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of 
this document.
     Email comments to: [email protected]. If you do 
not receive an automatic email reply confirming receipt, then contact 
us at 301-415-1677.
     Fax comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission at 301-415-1101.
     Mail comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and 
Adjudications Staff.
     Hand deliver comments to: 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 
Maryland 20852, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. (Eastern Time) Federal 
workdays; telephone: 301-415-1677.
    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: Ilka Berrios, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-2404, email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2019-0063 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 Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2019-0063.
     NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly-available documents online in the 
ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, 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 this document.
     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 20852.

B. Submitting Comments

    Please include Docket ID NRC-2019-0063 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 will post all comment submissions at 
https://www.regulations.gov as well as enter 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 into ADAMS.

II. The Petitioner and Petition

    The petition for rulemaking (PRM) was filed by George Berka, a 
private citizen. The petitioner is requesting that the NRC revise part 
52 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) to establish 
criteria that would allow retired nuclear power reactors return to 
operation after the licensee has permanently ceased operations and 
permanently removed fuel from the reactor vessel, or when a final 
legally effective order to permanently cease operations has come into 
effect. In sum, the petitioner requests ``a fair, reasonable, and 
unobstructed opportunity to return a retired facility to full 
operational status, even if the operating license for the facility had 
previously been surrendered.'' The petitioner requests that the 
facility ``only have to meet the safety the standards that had been in 
place at the time the facility had last operated, and not the latest 
license standards.'' The petition may be found in ADAMS under Accession 
No. ML19050A507.

III. Discussion of the Petition

    The petitioner requests that the NRC revise its regulations in 10 
CFR part 52 to establish criteria to allow a retired nuclear power 
reactor to return to operations without meeting the latest

[[Page 36037]]

safety standards, but rather those standards in place at the time the 
facility had last operated. The petitioner requests that a nuclear 
power reactor be allowed to return to operational status if ``the 
facility had been in an operational condition at the time of 
retirement, had last operated no more than twenty-one (21) calendar 
years prior to the date of retirement,'' the facility ``remains 
intact,'' and the facility passes a ``general safety inspection.'' 
Alternatively, if the nuclear power reactor ``had not been in an 
operational condition at the time of retirement, had last operated more 
than twenty-one (21) calendar years prior to the retirement date, is 
not intact, and/or has had significant decommissioning and/or 
dismantling activities commence,'' then the nuclear power reactor must 
be repaired or rebuilt ``to the safety in standards that had been in 
place at the time the facility had last operated,'' and pass a safety 
inspection ``appropriate to the degree of repairs or reconstruction 
that had been performed,'' which would be, ``[a]t the very least . . . 
a general safety inspection.''
    The petitioner states that this proposal would be `` `pennies on 
the dollar,' compared to building new nuclear, or trying to replace the 
same capacity with wind or solar sources.'' The petitioner also states 
that through this proposal, ``several gigawatts of ultra-clean, and 
very low-carbon, electrical generating capacity could be restored to 
the electrical grid, which would help to reduce carbon dioxide levels 
in the atmosphere.'' The petitioner provides a calculation comparing 
the cost and time of the proposal to the cost and time required for 
replacing similar electrical generating capacity with renewables or new 
nuclear builds. The petitioner references the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. 
7401 et seq., and the National Environmental Policy Act, 42 U.S.C. 4321 
et seq., to support the petitioner's climate change statements 
regarding reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

IV. Conclusion

    The NRC has determined that the petition meets the threshold 
sufficiency requirements for docketing a petition for rulemaking under 
10 CFR 2.803. The NRC is examining the merits of the issues raised in 
PRM-50-117 to determine whether these issues should be considered in 
rulemaking.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 23rd day of July 2019.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Richard J. Laufer,
Acting Secretary of the Commission.
[FR Doc. 2019-15934 Filed 7-25-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7590-01-P