[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 170 (Tuesday, September 3, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 71432-71433]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-19630]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket Nos. 50-275 and 50-323; NRC-2024-0148]
Pacific Gas & Electric Company; Diablo Canyon Power Plant, Unit
Nos. 1 and 2; Petition
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: 10 CFR 2.206 request; receipt.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is giving notice
that by petition dated March 4, 2024, as supplemented on June 7, 2024,
San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth, and
Environmental Working Group (the petitioners) requested that the NRC
exercise its supervisory authority to order the immediate closure of
Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, Unit Nos. 1 and 2 (Diablo Canyon)
due to ``the unacceptable risk of a seismically induced severe
accident.'' The Commission referred the request to the enforcement
petition process under NRC regulations. The petitioners' request is
included in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
DATES: September 3, 2024.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2024-0148 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-2024-0148. 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: Perry Buckberg, Office of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC
20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-1383; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On March 4, 2024, the petitioners filed a
petition requesting that the NRC exercise its supervisory authority to
order the immediate closure of Diablo Canyon due to ``the unacceptable
risk of a seismically induced severe accident.'' An order was issued on
March 12, 2024, referring the request to the enforcement petition
process under section 2.206 of title 10 of the Code of Federal
Regulations (10 CFR), ``Requests for action under this subpart.''
The specific concerns expressed in the March 4, 2024, petition, as
supplemented on June 7, 2024, now include:
1. Thrust faulting is neglected by Pacific Gas & Electric Company's
(PG&E's) 2012 Seismic Source Characterization (SSC) model, because the
model assumes that a majority of large earthquakes affecting Diablo
Canyon are strike-slip and disregards the significant contribution of
thrust faulting earthquake sources under the Diablo Canyon site and the
adjacent Irish Hills. In addition, PG&E did not use a hanging-wall term
for the modeling of potential ground motions from the Los Osos and San
Luis Bay thrust faults.
2. The January 2024 magnitude 7.5 (moment magnitude) earthquake
centered in the Noto Peninsula (Japan), with an average slip of 2
meters on the fault, is analogous to future potential thrust mechanism
earthquakes beneath Diablo Canyon. Based on the slip rate of the Irish
Hills adjacent to Diablo Canyon and the slip of the Noto earthquake,
large thrust fault earthquakes will occur, on average, every 715 years
near the Diablo Canyon site.
3. PG&E's 2012 SSC model does not account for an inferred offshore
thrust fault that has a slip rate of 2.8 millimeters per year (mm/yr)
and the potential for producing a magnitude 7.5 earthquake.
4. Seismic core damage frequency estimated by PG&E in 2018 to be 3
x 10-5, should be 1.4 x 10-3 per year (about once
every 715 years) based on this higher recurrence rate for thrust
earthquakes.
The NRC staff assembled a Petition Review Board (PRB) in accordance
with NRC Management Directive (MD) 8.11, ``Review Process for 10 CFR
2.206 Petitions,'' and its associated Directive Handbook 8.11, Section
III. In an email dated May 15, 2024, the petition manager informed the
petitioners that the PRB's initial assessment was to not accept the
petition for review. The PRB's position was that the petition did not
meet the criteria in MD 8.11 for accepting petitions under 10 CFR 2.206
because ``the issues raised have previously been the subject of a
facility specific or generic NRC staff review . . .'' and the petition
does not provide significant new information that the staff did not
consider in a prior review.
On May 15, 2024, along with the initial assessment, the petition
manager offered the petitioners an opportunity to address the PRB in a
public meeting, which was accepted by the petitioners.
[[Page 71433]]
The June 7, 2024, supplement to the petition responded to the PRB's
initial assessment.
The NRC then held the public meeting on July 17, 2024. During the
meeting, the petitioner's presentation discussed and expounded on
information from the supplement dated June 7, 2024, and included
graphics to represent their position. The transcript of that meeting is
considered a supplement to the petition.
Following the public meeting, the PRB met to consider what had been
presented during the meeting. The PRB determined that the concerns as
previously described in this notice, which were raised in the original
petition and supplements, meet the criteria in MD 8.11, Sections
III.C.1(a) and (b) and will be accepted into the 10 CFR 2.206 process
for further review by the PRB in accordance with MD 8.11. The PRB also
determined that there is no imminent safety concern that warrants
immediate shutdown of Diablo Canyon. On August 22, 2024, the petition
manager informed the petitioners of this outcome.
Availability of Documents
The documents identified in the following table are available to
interested persons through ADAMS.
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Document description ADAMS Accession No.
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Petition submitted by San Luis Obispo Mothers ML24067A066
for Peace, Friends of the Earth, and
Environmental Working Group, dated March 4,
2024.
NRC SECY Order referring the petition to the ML24072A529
10 CFR 2.206 process, dated March 12, 2024.
Petition Supplement, dated June 7, 2024....... ML24162A079
NRC Management Directive 8.11, ``Review ML18296A043
Process for 10 CFR 2.206 Petitions,'' dated
March 1, 2019.
Email from the NRC to the Petitioners re ML24136A162
Diablo Canyon Seismic Core Damage 2.206
petition--Initial Assessment, dated May 15,
2024.
July 17, 2024, Public Meeting Petitioner ML24198A105
Presentation to the PRB.
July 17, 2024, Public Meeting Official ML24218A164
Transcript of Proceedings.
Email from the NRC the Petitioners re Diablo ML24235A203
Canyon Seismic Core Damage 2.206 petition--
Accepted, dated August 22, 2024.
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Dated: August 27, 2024.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Michael X. Franovich,
Acting Deputy Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2024-19630 Filed 8-30-24; 8:45 am]
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