[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 205 (Wednesday, October 27, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 59432-59434]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-23346]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket Nos. STN 50-528, STN 50-529, and 72-44; NRC-2021-0126]
In the Matter of Arizona Public Service Company; Salt River
Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District; Public Service
Company of New Mexico; Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, Units 1
and 2; and Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Transfers of control of licenses; order.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing an
Order approving the application dated May 19, 2021, as supplemented by
letter dated September 14, 2021, filed by Arizona Public Service
Company (APS), on behalf of Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement
and Power District (SRP) and Public Service Company of New Mexico
(PNM). The application sought NRC consent to the partial transfers of
Renewed Facility Operating License Nos. NPF-41 and NPF-51 for Palo
Verde Nuclear Generating Station (Palo Verde), Units 1 and 2,
respectively, and the general license for the Palo Verde Independent
Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI). Specifically, it
[[Page 59433]]
sought NRC consent to the transfers from PNM to SRP of a 7.9333330
percent share of the undivided interests in Palo Verde, Unit 1, and of
a 0.7933333 percent share of the undivided interests in Palo Verde Unit
2. No physical changes or operational changes were proposed in the
application.
DATES: The Order was issued on October 21, 2021, and is effective for 1
year.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2021-0126 when contacting the
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You
may obtain publicly available information related to this document
using any of the following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2021-0126. Address
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann;
telephone: 301-287-0624; email: [email protected]. For technical
questions, contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT section of this document.
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 license transfer order and the
NRC staff safety evaluation supporting the order are available in ADAMS
under ADAMS Package Accession No. ML21245A072.
Attention: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies
of public documents, is currently closed. You may submit your request
to the PDR via email at [email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 or
301-415-4737, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (ET), Monday through
Friday, except Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Siva P. Lingam, Office of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-1564, email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The text of the Order is attached.
Dated: October 21, 2021.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Siva P. Lingam,
Project Manager, Plant Licensing Branch IV, Division of Operating
Reactor Licensing, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
Attachment--Order Approving Transfers of Control of Licenses
United States of America
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
In the Matter of: Arizona Public Service Company, Salt River
Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District, Public Service
Company of New Mexico, Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, Units
1 and 2, and Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation.
Docket Nos. STN 50-528, STN 50-529, and 72-44.
License Nos. NPF-41 and NPF-51.
Order Approving Transfers of Control of Licenses
I
Arizona Public Service Company (APS) is the licensed operator and a
licensed co-owner of Renewed Facility Operating License Nos. NPF-41,
NPF-51, and NPF-74 for the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station (Palo
Verde), Units 1, 2, and 3, respectively, and the general license for
the Palo Verde Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI).
Palo Verde is located in Maricopa County, Arizona. The other licensed
co-owners (tenants-in-common), Salt River Project Agricultural
Improvement and Power District (SRP); Southern California Edison
Company; El Paso Electric Company; Public Service Company of New Mexico
(PNM); Southern California Public Power Authority; and Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power, hold possession-only rights for these
licenses (i.e., they are not licensed to operate the facility).
II
By application dated May 19, 2021, as supplemented by letter dated
September 14, 2021 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System
(ADAMS) Accession Nos. ML21139A330 and ML21257A399, respectively), APS,
on behalf of SRP and PNM (together, the Applicants), requested,
pursuant to Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR)
Sections 50.80, ``Transfer of licenses,'' and 72.50, ``Transfer of
license,'' that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC, the
Commission) consent to the partial license transfers from PNM to SRP of
a 7.9333330 percent share of the undivided interests in Palo Verde,
Unit 1, and of a 0.7933333 percent share of the undivided interests in
Palo Verde, Unit 2.
According to the application, PNM currently has a 10.2 percent
possession-only interest in Palo Verde, Units 1, 2, and 3. While most
of this interest is directly owned by PNM, the remainder, specifically
the Unit 1 interests and Unit 2 interests, is leased from financial
institutions pursuant to sale-leaseback transactions PNM executed in
1985 and 1986 with investment and banking firms. As the lessee, PNM
retained all the leasehold and control rights and responsibility
associated therewith. The NRC consented to these sale-leaseback
transactions (ADAMS Accession No. ML021680489). Under the terms of
these past transactions, the Unit 1 interests and the Unit 2 interests
are currently held in trust and leased to PNM pursuant to the NRC's
prior orders, license amendments, and creditor regulations in
accordance with 10 CFR 50.81, ``Creditor regulations.'' The sale-
leaseback transactions were structured so that although the investment
and banking firms own the Unit 1 interests and the Unit 2 interests,
none has direct or indirect controlling interest in Palo Verde.
Instead, under the leases, PNM retains leasehold and control rights and
responsibility under the NRC licenses for these interests.
According to the application, PNM entered into a total of 11 sale-
leaseback transactions refinancing portions of its interests in Palo
Verde, Units 1 and 2. Six leases have since expired, leaving five
remaining. The application concerns those remaining five leases, which
are approaching their expiration dates and cannot be renewed, with four
leases expiring in 2023 and one in 2024. The financial institutions
have agreed to sell and transfer these interests to SRP starting from
2021 and SRP has agreed to purchase these interests, provided that SRP
and PNM have secured the requisite approval from the NRC for SRP
ownership of the incremental interests once the leases expire.
After the proposed partial license transfers, SRP would own a total
of 25.423333 percent of the shares in Unit 1, and 18.2833333 percent of
the shares in Unit 2, and PNM would own a total of 2.266667 percent of
the shares in Unit 1, and 9.4066667 percent of the shares in Unit 2.
APS owns a 29.1 percent tenant-in-common interest and holds both
operating and possession rights in the NRC licenses. Further, APS
operates, and would continue to operate, each of the Palo Verde units
and the ISFSI pursuant to the operating rights granted to it under the
license of each Palo Verde unit. The remaining tenant-in-common co-
owners that hold
[[Page 59434]]
possession-only rights in the NRC licenses are: Southern California
Edison Company (15.8 percent); El Paso Electric Company (15.8 percent);
Southern California Public Power Authority (5.91 percent); and Los
Angeles Department of Water and Power (5.7 percent). Although the
ownership interests in Palo Verde would change, significant actions
involving operation of the Palo Verde units require unanimity of all
owners of Palo Verde. Currently, no entity owns 50 percent or more of
the voting interests. The same would be true following the proposed
transfers of the leased interests. Accordingly, after the effective
date of the transactions, there would be no change in the control of
operation of Palo Verde; APS would continue to make all technical
decisions that do not require approval from all owners of Palo Verde.
No physical changes or operational changes are proposed in the
application.
A notice of the application and opportunity to comment, request a
hearing, and petition for leave to intervene on the application was
published in the Federal Register (FR) on June 29, 2021 (86 FR 34282).
The NRC did not receive any comments or hearing requests on the
application.
Under 10 CFR 50.80 and 10 CFR 72.50, no license for a production or
utilization facility or ISFSI, or any right thereunder, shall be
transferred, either voluntarily or involuntarily, directly or
indirectly, through transfer of control of the license to any person,
unless the Commission gives its consent in writing. Upon review of the
information in the application, and other information before the
Commission, the NRC staff has determined that PNM can transfer a
7.9333330 percent share of the undivided interests in Palo Verde, Unit
1, and a 0.7933333 percent share of the undivided interest in Palo
Verde, Unit 2, to SRP. The proposed transferee is qualified to be the
holder of the licenses and transfer of the licenses is otherwise
consistent with applicable provisions of law, regulations, and orders
issued by the Commission pursuant thereto.
The findings set forth above are supported by an NRC staff safety
evaluation dated the same date as this Order, which is available at
ADAMS Accession No. ML21245A064.
III
Accordingly, pursuant to Sections 161b, 161i, and 184 of the Atomic
Energy Act of 1954, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 2201(b), 2201(i), and 2234;
and 10 CFR 50.80 and 10 CFR 72.50, it is hereby ordered that the
application regarding the proposed partial license transfers is
approved for Palo Verde Units 1 and 2 and the Palo Verde ISFSI.
It is further ordered that after receipt of all required regulatory
approvals of the proposed partial license transfers, the Applicants
shall inform the Director of the NRC Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation in writing of such receipt, and of the date of the closing
of the transfers, no later than 2 business days prior to the date of
the closing of the transfers. Should the transfers not be completed
within 1 year of the date of this Order, this Order shall become null
and void, provided, however, that upon written application and for good
cause shown, such date may be extended by order.
This Order is effective upon issuance.
For further details with respect to this Order, see the application
dated May 19, 2021, as supplemented by letter dated September 14, 2021,
and the NRC staff's safety evaluation dated the same date as this
Order, which are available for public inspection electronically through
ADAMS in the NRC Library at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html.
Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems
accessing the documents located in ADAMS should contact the NRC Public
Document Room reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-
415-4737 or by email to [email protected].
Dated: October 21, 2021.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
/RA/
Bo M. Pham,
Director, Division of Operating Reactor Licensing, Office of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2021-23346 Filed 10-26-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P