[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 90 (Wednesday, May 8, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38926-38928]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-10043]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket Nos. 72-69 and 50-440; NRC-2024-0082]
Vistra Operations Company LLC.; Perry Nuclear Power Plant, Unit
1; 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 Energy Harbor Nuclear
Corporation \1\ that would permit Perry Nuclear Power Plant (Perry) to
load two Holtec 89-assembly multi-purpose canisters (MPC) with
continuous basket shims (CBS) in the HI-STORM Flood/Wind (FW) MPC
Storage System at its Perry Unit 1 Independent Spent Fuel Storage
Installation (ISFSI) in a storage condition where the terms,
conditions, and specifications in the Certificate of Compliance (CoC)
No. 1032, Amendment No. 5 are not met.
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\1\ Effective March 1, 2024, the facility operating license for
Perry Nuclear Power Plant was transferred from Energy Harbor Nuclear
Generation LLC (owner) and Energy Harbor Nuclear Corp. (operator) to
Energy Harbor Nuclear Generation LLC (owner) and Vistra Operations
Company LLC. Upon completion of this license transfer, Vistra
Operations Company LLC (VistraOps) assumed the responsibility for
all licensing actions under NRC review at the time of the transfer
and requested that the NRC continue its review of these actions.
DATES: The EA and FONSI referenced in this document are available on
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May 8, 2024.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2024-0082 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-2024-0082. 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: Bernard White, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555; telephone: 301-415-6577; email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
The NRC is reviewing an exemption request from Energy Harbor
Nuclear Corporation, dated February 27, 2024, and supplemented by
VistraOps on March 22, 2024. VistraOps is requesting an exemption,
pursuant to section 72.7 of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations
(10 CFR), in paragraphs 72.212(a)(2), 72.212(b)(3), 72.212(b)(5)(i),
72.212(b)(11), and 72.214 that require VistraOps to comply with the
terms, conditions, and specifications of the CoC No. 1032, Amendment
No. 5. If approved, the exemption would allow VistraOps to load two
MPCs which contain the 89-assembly CBS basket (MPC-89-CBS) beginning in
August 2024 in the HI-STORM FW Storage System at the Perry ISFSI in a
storage condition where the terms, conditions, and specifications in
the CoC No. 1032, Amendment No. 5 are not met.
II. Environmental Assessment
Background
Perry is located on a 1,100 acre site on Lake Erie, 40 miles
northeast of Cleveland in North Perry, Ohio. Unit 1 began operating in
1987. VistraOps has been storing spent fuel in an ISFSI at Perry under
a general license as authorized by 10 CFR part 72, subpart K, ``General
License for Storage of Spent Fuel at Power Reactor Sites.'' VistraOps
[[Page 38927]]
currently uses the HI-STORM FW Storage System under CoC No. 1032,
Amendment No. 5 for dry storage of spent nuclear fuel in a specific MPC
(i.e., MPC-89) at the Perry 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-89-CBS in the HI-STORM FW Storage System for near-term
planned cask loadings. The exemption would allow VistraOps to load two
MPC-89-CBS in the HI-STORM FW Storage System at the Perry ISFSI,
despite the MPC-89-CBS in the HI-STORM FW Storage System not being in
compliance with the terms, conditions, and specifications in the CoC
No. 1032, Amendment No. 5.
The CoC for the HI-STORM FW Storage System 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 FW Storage System, developed a variant
of the design with CBS for the MPC-89, known as MPC-89-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. Perry plans to load two MPC-89-
CBS canisters in the HI-STORM FW overpacks beginning in August 2024.
This exemption considers the near-term planned loading of the two
canisters with the CBS variant basket design.
Need for the Proposed Action
VistraOps requested this exemption in order to allow loading of two
MPC-89-CBS in HI-STORM FW Storage System at the Perry ISFSI for the
future loading campaign scheduled in August 2024.
Approval of the exemption request would allow VistraOps to
effectively manage the spent fuel pool margin and capacity to maintain
full core offload capability until its next storage cask loading
campaign in 2028. Otherwise, after the refueling outages in 2025 and
2027, Perry would have an insufficient number of open fuel cells (a
deficit of 25 open cells) in the spent fuel pool. It would also allow
VistraOps to effectively manage the availability of the specialized
workforce and equipment needed to support competing fuel loading and
operational activities at the Perry ISFSI.
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.
1032, Amendment No. 5. The exemption would allow two MPC-89-CBS
canisters to be loaded in the HI-STORM FW Storage System in the near-
term loading campaign scheduled for August 2024.
The potential environmental impacts of storing spent nuclear fuel
in NRC-approved storage systems have been documented in previous
assessments. On July 18, 1990, 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 FW Storage System, CoC No. 1032,
Amendment No. 5, published in 2020, 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 FW Storage 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 VistraOps at the Perry site as they
relate to CoC No. 1032, Amendment No. 5 for the HI-STORM FW Storage
System are limited to the near-term planned loading of two storage
systems utilizing the CBS variant basket design. The staff determined
that this change in the basket would 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. 1032, Amendment No. 5. If
the exemption is granted, there would 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 VistraOps
to delay the near-term planned loading of spent fuel in the MPC-89-CBS
in the HI-STORM FW Storage System at the Perry ISFSI. Delaying the
loading of spent fuel into the two casks in August 2024 could affect
VistraOps's ability to effectively 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 Perry and other VistraOps sites. The NRC 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 safely in the MPC-89-CBS casks.
Agencies Consulted
The NRC provided the Ohio Emergency Management Agency (OH-EMA) a
copy of this draft EA for review by an email dated April 25, 2024. On
April 25, 2024, OH-EMA stated via email that it had no comments on the
draft EA and FONSI.
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
specific future loading of two
[[Page 38928]]
canisters with the 89-assembly CBS variant design basket beginning
August 2024, would not significantly impact the quality of the human
environment. Accordingly, the NRC has determined that a 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
interested persons through ADAMS, as indicated.
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Document description ADAMS accession No. or Federal Register notice
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Issuance of order for license transfer, dated September 28, ML23237B448 (Package).
2023.
VistraOps and Energy Harbor Nuclear Corporation letter ML24054A498.
providing Notice of Planned Closing of Transaction and
Provision of Documents to Satisfy Order Conditions, dated
February 23, 2024.
Energy Harbor Nuclear Corporation request for specific ML24058A180.
exemption, dated February 27, 2024.
NRC authorization of license transfer amendment, dated ML24057A092 (Package).
March 1, 2024.
VistraOps supplement to request for exemption, dated March ML24082A132.
22, 2024.
NRC issuance of Certificate of Compliance No. 1032, ML20163A701 (Package).
Amendment 5, dated June 25, 2020.
Holtec International, Inc.--Notice of Violation; The U.S. ML24016A190.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspection Report No.
07201014/2022-201, EA-23-044, dated January 30, 2024.
10 CFR part 72 amendment to allow spent fuel storage in NRC- 55 FR 29181.
approved casks, dated July 18, 1990.
EA for part 72 amendment to allow spent fuel storage in NRC- ML051230231.
approved casks, dated March 8, 1989.
Final rule for List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks: 85 FR 28479.
Holtec International HI-STORM Flood/Wind Multipurpose
Canister Storage System CoC No. 1032, Amendment 5, dated
May 13, 2020.
NRC Safety Determination of a Potential Structural Failure ML24018A085.
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 OH-EMA, ``State's review of EA/FONSI for Perry ML24120A321.
Exemption,'' dated April 25, 2024.
Email from OH-EMA regarding request for State review of the ML24120A322.
Perry exemption request environmental assessment, dated
April 26, 2024.
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Dated: May 3, 2024.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Yoira Diaz-Sanabria,
Chief, Storage and Transportation Branch, Division of Fuel Management,
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2024-10043 Filed 5-7-24; 8:45 am]
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