[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 95 (Wednesday, May 15, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42510-42511]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-10625]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 50-18; NRC-2024-0092]


GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy/NorthStar Vallecitos, LLC.; Vallecitos 
Boiling Water Reactor; License Termination Plan

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Public meeting and request for comment.

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SUMMARY: On September 7, 2023, as supplemented by letters dated 
September 15, 2023, and March 25, 2024, and email dated October 31, 
2023, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) received from 
General Electric (GE) Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH, the licensee) a 
license amendment request to include a License Termination Plan (LTP) 
for the GEH Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor (VBWR). The LTP provides 
details about the radiological status of the reactor facility, the 
remaining decommissioning tasks to be completed, and the plan for 
termination of the VBWR license. The NRC is requesting public comments 
on VBWR's LTP and will hold a public meeting to discuss the LTP.

DATES: The public meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, from 6 
p.m. to 8 p.m., pacific daylight time (PDT), in the meeting room of the 
SpringHill Suites Pleasanton, 7270 Johnson Drive, Pleasanton, CA 94588. 
The public meeting is also available through an online webinar or by 
phone. See section III ``Request for Comment and Public Meeting'' of 
this document for additional information. Submit comments by July 15, 
2024. 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; 
however, the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the 
Federal rulemaking website:
     Federal rulemaking website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2024-0092. 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.
     Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop: 
TWFN-7-A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing 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: Jack D. Parrott, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone: 301-415-6634; email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments

A. Obtaining Information

    Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2024-0092 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-2024-0092.
     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]. 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: 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.

B. Submitting Comments

    The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the 
Federal rulemaking website (https://www.regulations.gov). Please 
include Docket ID NRC-2024-0092 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

[[Page 42511]]

before making the comment submissions available to the public or 
entering the comment into ADAMS.

II. Discussion

    General Electric (GE) Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH, the licensee) is 
the holder of Facility Operating License, DPR-1. The license provides, 
among other things, that the GEH Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor 
(VBWR) is subject to all rules, regulations, and orders of the NRC now 
or hereafter in effect. The VBWR is a boiling water reactor located at 
the GEH Vallecitos Nuclear Center (VNC) in Sunol, CA.
    The license, DPR-1, was issued to GE on August 31, 1957, and full 
power was attained on October 19, 1957. The VBWR ceased operations on 
December 9, 1963, and was defueled on December 24 of that year. GE was 
issued a license to possess but not operate the VBWR reactor on 
September 9, 1965. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission issued GE an order 
to dismantle the VBWR on July 25, 1966. However, the VBWR was put into 
a safe storage configuration and major decommissioning activities at 
the VBWR did not occur until 2007-2008 with the removal of most of the 
contaminated equipment and components. The reactor vessel was the last 
remaining component of the VBWR reactor. The reactor vessel was removed 
and disposed of offsite in 2023. What remains of the VBWR is the empty 
reactor building with residual structural contamination and 
contaminated embedded piping.
    The VBWR LTP describes a strategy for terminating the VBWR license 
by transferring the residual contamination of the VBWR to the NRC 
license (DR-10) for the Empire State Atomic Development Agency (ESADA) 
Vallecitos Experimental Superheat Reactor (EVESR), that is adjacent to 
the VBWR. This strategy will require approval of an exemption to 
paragraph 50.82(a)(11)(ii) of title 10 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations (10 CFR) that will allow the VBWR license to be terminated 
without demonstrating that the facility and site have met the residual 
contamination criteria for license termination in 10 CFR 20, subpart E. 
This is because the VBWR residual contamination would be transferred to 
the EVESR license by amending the EVESR license. When the DPR-1 license 
is terminated, the VBWR facility and all in-situ residual contamination 
will be included in the EVESR license. The VBWR LTP describes that an 
LTP for the EVESR will be submitted later, that will include the 
residual contamination of the VBWR, and describe meeting the residual 
contamination requirements of 10 CFR 20, subpart E. This will allow for 
the termination of the EVESR DR-10 license by April 15, 2030.
    The VBWR license, and the other GE licensed facilities at the VNC, 
were transferred from GE to GEH in 2007. By letter dated September 1, 
2023 (ADAMS Accession No. ML23244A247), GEH and NorthStar Vallecitos, 
LLC (NorthStar Vallecitos) have requested that the GEH licenses at the 
VNC (including the license for the VBWR) be transferred to NorthStar 
Vallecitos for decommissioning. This request is still under review by 
the NRC but may be granted by the time of this public meeting. If so, 
the VBWR licensee will then be NorthStar Vallecitos. By letter dated 
September 7, 2023 (ADAMS Accession No. ML23250A267), as supplemented by 
letter dated September 15, 2023 (ADAMS Package Accession No. 
ML23261A591), and March 25, 2024 (ADAMS Accession No. ML24085A792), and 
email dated October 31, 2023 (ADAMS Accession No. ML23304A300), GEH 
submitted the LTP for the VBWR.
    According to the requirements in 10 CFR 50.82(a)(9)(iii), after the 
licensee submits an LTP the NRC must hold a public meeting near the 
site. The purpose of the meeting is for the NRC staff to discuss the 
NRC's review of the LTP, to solicit public comments on the LTP, and to 
describe how comments can be submitted to NRC. In addition, in 
accordance with 10 CFR 50.82(a)(9)(iii) and 20.1405, upon the receipt 
of an LTP from a licensee, NRC must publish a notice in the Federal 
Register and solicit comments from affected parties.

III. Request for Comment and Public Meeting

    The NRC is requesting public comments on the VBWR LTP. The NRC will 
conduct a public meeting to discuss the LTP and receive comments on 
Tuesday, May 21, 2024, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., PDT. The public meeting 
will be held at SpringHill Suites Pleasanton, 7270 Johnson Drive, 
Pleasanton, CA 94588. Please contact Jack Parrott no later than May 17, 
2024, if accommodations or special equipment are needed for you to 
attend or to provide comments, so that the NRC staff can determine 
whether the request can be accommodated.
    For additional information regarding the meeting, see the NRC's 
Public Meeting Schedule website at https://meetings.nrc.gov/pmns/mtg. 
The agenda and links to participate by webinar or phone will be posted 
no later than 10 days prior to the meeting.

    Dated: May 10, 2024.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Nicole Warnek,
Acting Chief, Reactor Decommissioning Branch, Division of 
Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste Programs, Office of 
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguard.
[FR Doc. 2024-10625 Filed 5-14-24; 8:45 am]
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