[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 63 (Monday, April 1, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22463-22465]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-06772]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket Nos. 72-37, 50-237, and 50-249; NRC-2024-0054]


Constellation Energy Generation, LLC; Dresden Nuclear Power 
Station, Unit 2 and Unit 3; Independent Spent Fuel Storage 
Installation; Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant 
Impact

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice; issuance.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing an 
environmental assessment (EA) and a finding of no significant impact 
(FONSI) for an exemption request submitted by Constellation Energy 
Generation, LLC (Constellation) that would permit Dresden Nuclear Power 
Station (Dresden) to maintain loaded and to load 68M multi-purpose 
canister (MPC) with continuous basket shims (CBS) in the HI-STORM 100 
Cask System at its Dresden Unit 2 and Unit 3 independent spent fuel 
storage installation (ISFSI) in a storage condition where the terms, 
conditions, and specifications in the Certificate of Compliance (CoC) 
No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1 are not met.

DATES: The EA and FONSI referenced in this document are available on 
April 1, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2024-0054 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-2024-0054. Address 
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann; 
telephone: 301-415-0624; 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, at 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.
     NRC's PDR: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies 
of publicly available documents, is open by appointment. To make an 
appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to 
[email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between 8 
a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time (ET), Monday through Friday, except 
Federal holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Yen-Ju Chen, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555; telephone: 301-415-1018; email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Introduction

    The NRC is reviewing an exemption request from Constellation, dated 
February 23, 2024, and supplemented on February 28, 2024, and March 8, 
2024. Constellation is requesting an exemption, pursuant to section 
72.7 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), in 
sections 72.212(a)(2), 72.212(b)(3), 72.212(b)(5)(i), 72.212(b)(11), 
and 72.214 that require Constellation to comply with the terms, 
conditions, and specifications of the CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, 
Revision No. 1. If approved, the exemption would allow Constellation to 
maintain loaded and to load MPC-68-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System 
at the Dresden ISFSI in a storage condition where the terms, 
conditions, and specifications in the CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, 
Revision No. 1, are not met.

II. Environmental Assessment

Background

    Dresden is located on the south bank of the Illinois River at the 
confluence of the Des Plaines and the Kankakee Rivers in Goose Lake 
Township, Grundy County, near the city of Morris, Illinois. Unit 2 
began operating in 1970 and Unit 3 began operating in 1971. 
Constellation has been storing spent fuel in an ISFSI at Dresden under 
a general license as authorized by 10 CFR part 72, subpart K, ``General 
License for Storage of Spent Fuel at Power Reactor Sites.'' 
Constellation currently uses the HI-STORM 100 Cask System under CoC No. 
72-1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1 for dry storage of spent 
nuclear fuel in a specific MPC (i.e., MPC-68M) at the Dresden ISFSI.

Description of the Proposed Action

    The CoC is the NRC approved design for each dry cask storage 
system. The proposed action would exempt the applicant from the 
requirements of 10 CFR 72.212(a)(2), 72.212(b)(3), 72.212(b)(5)(i), 
72.212(b)(11), and 72.214 only as these requirements pertain to the use 
of the MPC-68-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System for the already 
loaded systems and the near-term planned loadings of the systems. The 
exemption would allow Constellation to maintain loaded and to load MPC-
68-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System at the Dresden ISFSI, despite 
the MPC-68-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System not being in compliance 
with the terms, conditions, and specifications in the CoC No. 1014, 
Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1.
    The HI-STORM 100 Cask System CoC provides the requirements, 
conditions, and operating limits necessary for use of the system to 
store spent fuel. Holtec International (Holtec), the designer and 
manufacturer of the HI-STORM 100 Cask System, developed a variant of 
the design with continuous basket shims (CBS) for the MPC-68M, known as 
MPC-68M-CBS. Holtec originally implemented the CBS variant design under 
the provisions of 10 CFR 72.48, which allows licensees to make changes 
to cask designs without a CoC amendment under certain conditions 
(listed in 10 CFR 72.48(c)). After evaluating the specific changes to 
the cask designs, the NRC determined that Holtec erred when it 
implemented the CBS variant design under 10 CFR 72.48, as this was not 
the type of change allowed without a CoC amendment. For this reason, 
the NRC issued three Severity Level IV violations to Holtec. Prior to 
the issuance of the violations, Constellation had already loaded four

[[Page 22464]]

MPC-68M-CBS in a HI-STORM 100 Cask System, which are safely in storage 
on the Dresden ISFSI pad. Additionally, Constellation plans to load one 
MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System in May 2024 and four MPC-
68M-CBS in March 2025. This exemption considers the loading of the 
already loaded systems and the near-term planned loadings of the 
systems with the CBS variant basket design.

Need for the Proposed Action

    Constellation requested this exemption because Constellation is 
currently out of compliance with NRC requirements, resulting from the 
previous loading of spent fuel into a storage system with the CBS 
variant basket design. This exemption would allow four already loaded 
MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System to remain in storage at the 
Dresden ISFSI. The applicant also requested the exemption in order to 
allow Dresden to load MPC-68M-CBS in HI-STORM 100 Cask System at the 
Dresden ISFSI for the future loading campaigns scheduled in May 2024 
and in March 2025.
    Approval of the exemption request would allow Constellation to 
effectively manage the spent fuel pool margin and capacity to enable 
refueling and offloading fuel from the reactor. It would also allow 
Constellation to effectively manage the availability of the specialized 
workforce and equipment needed to support competing fuel loading and 
operational activities at Dresden and other Constellation sites.

Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action

    This EA evaluates the potential environmental impacts of granting 
an exemption from the terms, conditions, and specifications in CoC No. 
1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1. The exemption would allow four 
loaded MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System to remain loaded at 
the Dresden ISFSI. The exemption also would allow five additional MPC-
68M-CBS to be loaded in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System in near-term 
loading campaigns and maintained in storage at the Dresden ISFSI.
    The potential environmental impacts of storing spent nuclear fuel 
in NRC-approved storage systems have been documented in previous 
assessments. On July 18, 1990 (55 FR 29181), the NRC amended 10 CFR 
part 72 to provide for the storage of spent fuel under a general 
license in cask designs approved by the NRC. The EA for the 1990 final 
rule analyzed the potential environmental impacts of using NRC-approved 
storage casks. The EA for the HI-STORM 100 Cask System, CoC No. 1014, 
Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1, (80 FR 49887), published in 2015, 
tiers off of the EA issued for the July 18, 1990, final rule. 
``Tiering'' off earlier EAs is a standard process encouraged by the 
regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 
(NEPA) that entails the use of impact analyses of previous EAs to bound 
the impacts of a proposed action where appropriate. The Holtec HI-STORM 
100 Cask System is designed to mitigate the effects of design basis 
accidents that could occur during storage. Considering the specific 
design requirements for the accident conditions, the design of the cask 
would prevent loss of containment, shielding, and criticality control. 
If there is no loss of containment, shielding, or criticality control, 
the environmental impacts would not be significant.
    The exemptions requested by Constellation at the Dresden site as 
they relate to CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1, for the 
HI-STORM 100 Cask System are limited to the use of the CBS variant 
basket design only for the already loaded four systems and near-term 
planned loadings of five systems utilizing the CBS variant basket 
design. The staff has determined that this change in the basket will 
not result in either radiological or non-radiological environmental 
impacts that significantly differ from the environmental impacts 
evaluated in the environmental assessment supporting the issuance of 
CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1. If the exemption is 
granted, there will be no significant change in the types or amounts of 
any effluents released, no significant increase in individual or 
cumulative public or occupational radiation exposure, and no 
significant increase in the potential for or consequences from 
radiological accidents. Accordingly, the Commission concludes that 
there would be no significant environmental impacts associated with the 
proposed action.

Alternative to the Proposed Action

    The staff considered the no-action alternative. The no-action 
alternative (denial of the exemption request) would require 
Constellation to unload spent fuel from the MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 
100 Cask System to bring it in compliance with the CoC terms, 
conditions, and specifications in the CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, 
Revision No. 1. Unloading the cask would subject station personnel to 
additional radiation exposure, generate additional contaminated waste, 
increase the risk of a possible fuel handling accident, and increase 
the risk of a possible heavy load handling accident. Furthermore, the 
removed spent fuel would need to be placed in the spent fuel pool, 
where it would remain until it could be loaded into an approved storage 
cask. Delay in the loading of this spent fuel into other casks could 
affect Constellation's ability to effectively manage the spent fuel 
pool capacity and reactor fuel offloading. Not allowing the two planned 
future loading campaigns could also affect Constellation's ability to 
manage pool capacity, reactor fuel offloading, and refueling. It could 
also pose challenges to spent fuel heat removal and impact the 
availability of the specialized workforce and equipment needed to 
support competing fuel loading and operational activities at Dresden 
and other Constellation sites. The NRC has determined that the no-
action alternative would result in undue potential human health and 
safety impacts that could be avoided by proceeding with the proposed 
exemption, especially given that the staff has concluded in NRC's 
Safety Determination Memorandum, issued with respect to the enforcement 
action against Holtec regarding these violations, that fuel can be 
stored safety in the MPC-68M-CBS casks.

Agencies Consulted

    The NRC provided the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and 
Office of Homeland Security (IL IEMA-OHS) a copy of this draft EA for 
review by an email dated March 15, 2024. On March 22, 2024, IL-IEMA-OHS 
provided its concurrence by email.

III. Finding of No Significant Impact

    The environmental impacts of the proposed action have been reviewed 
in accordance with the requirements in 10 CFR part 51, which implement 
NEPA. Based upon the foregoing environmental assessment, the NRC finds 
that the proposed action of granting the exemption from the regulations 
in 10 CFR 72.212(a)(2), 72.212(b)(3), 72.212(b)(5)(i), 72.212(b)(11) 
and 72.214, which require the licensee to comply with the terms, 
conditions, and specifications of the CoC, in this case limited to past 
and specific future loadings of baskets with the CBS variant design, 
would not significantly impact the quality of the human environment. 
Accordingly, the NRC has determined that a finding of no significant 
impact (FONSI) is appropriate, and an environmental impact statement is 
not warranted.

IV. Availability of Documents

    The documents identified in the following table are available to

[[Page 22465]]

interested persons through ADAMS, as indicated.

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                                                ADAMS accession No. or
            Document description               Federal Register notice
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Constellation's request for exemption,       ML24054A031.
 dated February 23, 2024.
Supplements to request for exemption, dated  ML24065A292.
 February 28, 2024, and March 8, 2024.       ML24068A069.
Certificate of Compliance No. 1014,          ML16041A233 (Package).
 Amendment 8, Revision 1, dated February
 10, 2016.
Notice of Violation to Holtec                ML24016A190.
 International, Inc., The U.S. Nuclear
 Regulatory Commission Inspection Report
 No. 07201014/2022-201, EA-23-044, dated
 January 30, 2024.
10 CFR part 72 amendment to allow spent      55 FR 29181.
 fuel storage in NRC-approved casks, dated
 July 18, 1990.
EA for part 72 amendment to allow spent      ML051230231.
 fuel storage in NRC-approved casks, dated
 March 8, 1989.
Final rule for List of Approved Spent Fuel   80 FR 49887.
 Storage Casks: HI-STORM 100 Cask System,
 CoC No. 1014, Amendment 8, Revision 1,
 dated August 18, 2015.
Safety Determination of a Potential          ML24018A085.
 Structural Failure of the Fuel Basket
 During Accident Conditions for the HI-
 STORM 100 and HI-STORM Flood/Wind Dry Cask
 Storage Systems, dated January 31, 2024.
NRC email to IL IEMA-OHS, ``Request: State   ML24078A377.
 review of the Dresden exemption request
 environmental assessment,'' dated March
 15, 2024.
IL IEMA-OHS email response, ``IEMA-OHS       ML24083A002.
 review of Draft Environmental Assessment
 and Finding of No Significant Impact
 Related to Constellation's Exemption
 Request for Dresden Nuclear Power Station,
 Units 2 and 3, from Certain Requirements
 in 10 CFR 72.212 and 10 CFR 72.214,''
 dated March 22, 2024.
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    Dated: March 26, 2024.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Yoira K. Diaz-Sanabria,
Chief, Storage and Transportation Branch, Division of Fuel Management, 
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2024-06772 Filed 3-29-24; 8:45 am]
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