[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]
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