[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 93 (Wednesday, May 13, 2020)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 28521-28523]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-10088]


 ========================================================================
 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. 85, No. 93 / Wednesday, May 13, 2020 / 
Proposed Rules  

[[Page 28521]]



NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

10 CFR Part 72

[NRC-2020-0050]
RIN 3150-AK47


List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks: Holtec International 
HI-STORM Flood/Wind Multipurpose Canister Storage System, Certificate 
of Compliance No. 1032, Amendment No. 5

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Proposed rule.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing to 
amend its regulations by revising the Holtec International HI-STORM 
Flood/Wind Multipurpose Canister Storage System listing within the 
``List of approved spent fuel storage casks'' to include Amendment No. 
5 to Certificate of Compliance No. 1032. Amendment No. 5 revises the 
certificate of compliance to: Add new heat load patterns and revise the 
minimum required cooling time for multipurpose canisters MPC-89 and 
MPC-37; add new fuel types to the approved contents; allow an exception 
to a code to permit use of certain duplex stainless steels; use an 
analysis model to revise the calculation for evaluating effective fuel 
conductivities; add the use of the damaged fuel isolator; add two 
versions of the standard variable weight transfer cask; add the option 
of using cyclic vacuum drying; and make changes to the final safety 
analysis report to add new types of fuel assemblies, add a definition 
to it and to the certificate of compliance, and add the required 
shielding evaluation to Section 5.4.8. In addition, Amendment No. 5 
makes several clarifications and minor changes.

DATES: Submit comments by June 12, 2020. Comments received after this 
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is 
able to ensure 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-2020-0050. 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.
     Email comments to: [email protected]. If you do 
not receive an automatic email reply confirming receipt, then contact 
us at 301-415-1677.
     Mail comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and 
Adjudications Staff.
    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: Yen-Ju Chen, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards; telephone: 301-415-1018; email: [email protected] or Vanessa Cox, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and 
Safeguards; telephone: 301-415-8342; email: [email protected]. Both 
are staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Table of Contents

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
II. Rulemaking Procedure
III. Background
IV. Plain Writing
V. Availability of Documents

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2020-050 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-2020-050.
     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]. For the convenience of the reader, 
instructions about obtaining materials referenced in this document are 
provided in the ``Availability of Documents'' section.

B. Submitting Comments

    Please include Docket ID NRC-2020-0050 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. You should also inform 
those persons 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. Rulemaking Procedure

    Because the NRC considers this action to be non-controversial, the 
NRC is publishing this proposed rule concurrently with a direct final 
rule in the Rules and Regulations section of this issue of the Federal 
Register. The direct final rule will become effective on July 27, 2020. 
However, if the NRC receives any significant adverse comment by June 
12, 2020, then the NRC will publish a document that withdraws the 
direct final rule. If the direct final rule is withdrawn, the NRC will 
address the comments in a subsequent final rule. Absent significant 
modifications to the proposed revisions requiring

[[Page 28522]]

republication, the NRC will not initiate a second comment period on 
this action in the event the direct final rule is withdrawn.
    A significant adverse comment is a comment where the commenter 
explains why the rule would be inappropriate, including challenges to 
the rule's underlying premise or approach, or would be ineffective or 
unacceptable without a change. A comment is adverse and significant if:
    (1) The comment opposes the rule and provides a reason sufficient 
to require a substantive response in a notice-and-comment process. 
Responses are considered substantive when:
    (a) The comment causes the NRC to reevaluate (or reconsider) its 
position or conduct additional analysis;
    (b) The comment raises an issue serious enough to warrant a 
substantive response to clarify or complete the record;
    (c) The comment raises a relevant issue that was not previously 
addressed or considered by the NRC; or
    (2) The comment proposes a change or an addition to the rule, and 
it is apparent that the rule would be ineffective or unacceptable 
without incorporation of the change or addition.
    (3) The comment causes the NRC to make a change (other than 
editorial) to the rule.
    For a more detailed discussion of the proposed rule changes and 
associated analyses, see the direct final rule published in the Rules 
and Regulations section of this issue of the Federal Register.

III. Background

    Section 218(a) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended, 
requires that ``[t]he Secretary [of the Department of Energy] shall 
establish a demonstration program, in cooperation with the private 
sector, for the dry storage of spent nuclear fuel at civilian nuclear 
power reactor sites, with the objective of establishing one or more 
technologies that the [Nuclear Regulatory] Commission may, by rule, 
approve for use at the sites of civilian nuclear power reactors 
without, to the maximum extent practicable, the need for additional 
site-specific approvals by the Commission.'' Section 133 of the Nuclear 
Waste Policy Act states, in part, that ``[the Commission] shall, by 
rule, establish procedures for the licensing of any technology approved 
by the Commission under section 219(a) [sic: 218(a)] for use at the 
site of any civilian nuclear power reactor.''
    To implement this mandate, the Commission approved dry storage of 
spent nuclear fuel in NRC-approved casks under a general license by 
publishing a final rule which added a new subpart K in part 72 of title 
10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) entitled ``General 
License for Storage of Spent Fuel at Power Reactor Sites'' (55 FR 
29181; July 18, 1990). This rule also established a new subpart L in 10 
CFR part 72 entitled ``Approval of Spent Fuel Storage Casks,'' which 
contains procedures and criteria for obtaining NRC approval of spent 
fuel storage cask designs. The NRC subsequently issued a final rule on 
March 28, 2011 (76 FR 17019), that approved the Holtec International 
HI-STORM Flood/Wind Multipurpose Canister Storage System design and 
added it to the list of NRC-approved cask designs in Sec.  72.214 as 
Certificate of Compliance No. 1032.

IV. Plain Writing

    The Plain Writing Act of 2010 (Pub. L. 111-274) requires Federal 
agencies to write documents in a clear, concise, well-organized manner. 
The NRC has written this document to be consistent with the Plain 
Writing Act as well as the Presidential Memorandum, ``Plain Language in 
Government Writing,'' published June 10, 1998 (63 FR 31883). The NRC 
requests comment on the proposed rule with respect to clarity and 
effectiveness of the language used.

V. Availability of Documents

    The documents identified in the following table are available to 
interested persons through one or more of the following methods, as 
indicated.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                   Adams Accession No./
                    Document                        Web link/  Federal
                                                     Register Citation
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Holtec International HI-STORM Flood/Wind          ML18179A100 (package).
 Multipurpose Canister Storage System, Amendment
 5 Resubmittal dated June 15, 2018.
Holtec International Modification to Requested    ML18268A139.
 Changes on HI-STORM Flood/Wind Multipurpose
 Canister Storage System, Amendment 5 Request
 dated September 20, 2018.
Holtec International HI-STORM Flood/Wind          ML19108A081 (package)
 Multipurpose Canister Storage System, Amendment
 5 Response to Request for Supplemental
 Information dated April 1, 2019.
Holtec International HI-STORM Flood/Wind          ML19127A267 (package).
 Multipurpose Canister Storage System, Amendment
 5 Request for Supplemental Information 6-1 for
 Certificate of Compliance No. 1032 dated April
 30, 2019.
Submittal of Holtec International Certificate of  ML19177A239 (package).
 Compliance No. 1032 dated June 14, 2019.
Holtec International HI-STORM Flood/Wind          ML19289A626 (package).
 Multipurpose Canister Storage System, Amendment
 5 Response to Request for Additional
 Information--Batch 1 dated October 4, 2019.
Holtec International HI-STORM Flood/Wind          ML19317D392 (package).
 Multipurpose Canister Storage System, Amendment
 5 Response to Request for Additional
 Information--Batch 2 dated October 21, 2019.
Holtec International HI-STORM Flood/Wind          ML20002A643 (package).
 Multipurpose Canister Storage System, Amendment
 5 Consolidated Changed Pages dated December 18,
 2019.
Memo re User Need for Rulemaking for the Holtec   ML20014E617.
 International HI-STORM Flood/Wind Multipurpose
 Canister Storage System, Amendment No. 5 dated
 February 14, 2020.
Draft Proposed Certificate of Compliance No.      ML20014E618.
 1032, Amendment 5.
Proposed Certificate of Compliance No. 1032,      ML20014E619.
 Amendment 5--Appendix A, Technical
 Specifications.
Proposed Certificate of Compliance No. 1032,      ML20014E620.
 Amendment 5--Appendix B.
Preliminary Certificate of Compliance No. 1032,   ML20014E621.
 Amendment 5--Safety Evaluation Report.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The NRC may post materials related to this document, including 
public comments, on the Federal Rulemaking website at https://www.regulations.gov under Docket ID NRC-2020-0050. The Federal 
Rulemaking website allows you to receive alerts when changes or 
additions occur in a docket folder. To subscribe: (1) Navigate to the 
docket folder (NRC-2020-0050); (2) click the ``Sign up for Email 
Alerts'' link; and (3) enter your email address and select how 
frequently you would like to receive emails (daily, weekly, or 
monthly).

    Dated this 29th day of April, 2020.


[[Page 28523]]


    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Margaret M. Doane,
Executive Director for Operations.
[FR Doc. 2020-10088 Filed 5-12-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P