[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 11, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11756-11758]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-03816]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket Nos. 72-1036, 50-220, and 50-410; CEQ ID EAXX-429-00-000-
1740728217; NRC-2025-0037]
Constellation Energy Generation, LLC; Nine Mile Point Nuclear
Station, Units 1 and 2; 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 Nine Mile Point
Nuclear Station (NMP) to maintain nine loaded and to load six new 89
multi-purpose canisters (MPC) with continuous basket shims (CBS) in the
HI-STORM Flood/Wind (FW) MPC Storage System at its NMP Units 1 and 2
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. 3, Revision No.
0 are not met.
DATES: The EA and FONSI referenced in this document are available on
March 11, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2025-0037 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-2025-0037. Address
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Bridget Curran;
telephone: 301-415-1003; 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: John-Chau Nguyen, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555; telephone: 301-415-0262; email: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
The NRC is reviewing an exemption request from Constellation, dated
January 30, 2025, as supplemented on February 6, 2025. Constellation is
requesting an exemption, pursuant to Sec. 72.7 of title 10 of the Code
of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), in Sec. Sec. 72.212(a)(2), (b)(3),
(b)(5)(i), (b)(11) and 72.214 that require Constellation to comply with
the terms, conditions, and specifications of the CoC No. 1032,
Amendment No. 3,
[[Page 11757]]
Revision No. 0. If approved, the exemption would allow Constellation to
maintain nine loaded and to load six new MPC-89-CBS in the HI-STORM FW
MPC Storage System at the NMP ISFSI in a storage condition where the
terms, conditions, and specifications in the CoC No. 1032, Amendment
No. 3, Revision No. 0, are not met.
II. Environmental Assessment
Background
NMP is located in in the town of Scriba, approximately five miles
northeast of Oswego, New York, on the shore of Lake Ontario. The 900-
acre site is also occupied by the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power
Plant. NMP Unit 1 began operating in 1969 and Unit 2 began operating in
1988. Constellation has been storing spent fuel in an ISFSI at NMP
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 FW MPC Storage System under
CoC No. 1032, Amendment No. 3, Revision No. 0 for dry storage of spent
nuclear fuel in a specific MPC (i.e., MPC-89) at the NMP 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), (b)(3), (b)(5)(i), (b)(11), and
72.214 only as these requirements pertain to the use of the MPC-89-CBS
in the HI-STORM FW MPC Storage System for the nine already loaded
systems and the near-term planned loading of six new canisters. The
exemption would allow Constellation to maintain loaded and to load MPC-
89-CBS in the HI-STORM FW MPC Storage System at the NMP ISFSI, despite
the MPC-89-CBS in the HI-STORM FW MPC Storage System not being in
compliance with the terms, conditions, and specifications in the CoC
No. 1032, Amendment No. 3, Revision No. 0.
The HI-STORM FW MPC Storage 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 FW MPC Storage System, developed a variant
of the design with continuous basket shims (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.
Holtec subsequently submitted Amendment 7 to the HI-STORM FW CoC to
address the issues; however, NMP was not able to take advantage of the
final NRC approved methodology in Amendment 7 for performing the non-
mechanistic tip-over analysis because NMP's site-specific parameters
were not bounded by that analysis.
Prior to the issuance of the violations, Constellation had already
loaded nine MPC-89-CBS in the HI-STORM FW MPC Storage System, which are
in storage on the NMP ISFSI pad. Additionally, Constellation plans to
load six new MPC-89-CBS in the HI-STORM FW MPC Storage System beginning
in May 2025. This exemption considers the storage of the nine already
loaded systems and the near-term planned loading of the six canisters
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 nine already loaded
MPC-89-CBS in the HI-STORM FW MPC Storage System to remain in storage
at the NMP ISFSI. The applicant also requested the exemption in order
to allow NMP to load six new MPC-89-CBS in the HI-STORM FW MPC Storage
System at the NMP ISFSI for the future loading campaign beginning in
May 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 NMP 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.
1032, Amendment No. 3, Revision No. 0. The exemption would allow nine
loaded MPC-89-CBS in the HI-STORM FW MPC Storage System to remain
loaded at the NMP ISFSI. The exemption also would allow a near-term
loading of six new MPC-89-CBS to be loaded in the HI-STORM FW MPC
Storage System and maintained in storage at the NMP 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. 1032,
Amendment No. 1, Revision No. 1, 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 FW MPC 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 Constellation at the NMP site as they
relate to CoC No. 1032, Amendment No. 3, Revision No. 0, for the HI-
STORM FW MPC Storage System are limited to the use of the CBS variant
basket design only for the already loaded nine canisters and near-term
planned loading of six canisters 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. 1032, Amendment No. 3, Revision No. 0. 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
[[Page 11758]]
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-89-CBS in the HI-STORM
FW MPC Storage System to bring it in compliance with the CoC terms,
conditions, and specifications in the CoC No. 1032, Amendment No. 3,
Revision No. 0. 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 planned
future loading campaign 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 NMP 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 safely in the MPC-89-CBS canisters.
Agencies Consulted
The NRC provided the New York State Energy Research and Development
Authority (NYSERDA) a copy of this draft EA for review by an email
dated February 24, 2025. On February 28, 2025, NYSERDA 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 EA, 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 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 one or more of the following methods, as
indicated.
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ADAMS Accession No. or Federal
Document description Register notice
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Constellation's request for ML25031A016.
exemption, dated January 30, 2025.
Constellation's request for ML25042A159.
exemption, supplemented, dated
February 6, 2025.
Certificate of Compliance No. ML17214A039 (Package).
1032, Amendment 3, Revision 0,
dated August 9, 2017.
Holtec International, Inc.--Notice ML24016A190.
of Violation; 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 55 FR 29181.
spent fuel storage in NRC-
approved casks, published July
18, 1990.
EA for 10 CFR part 72 amendment to ML051230231.
allow spent fuel storage in NRC-
approved casks, dated March 8,
1989.
Final rule for List of Approved 80 FR 14291.
Spent Fuel Storage Casks: Holtec
HI-STORM Flood/Wind System;
Certificate of Compliance No.
1032, Amendment No. 1, Revision
1, published March 19, 2015.
Final rule for List of Approved 82 FR 29225.
Spent Fuel Storage Casks: Holtec
International HI-STORM Flood/Wind
Multipurpose Canister Storage
System, Certificate of Compliance
No. 1032, Amendment No. 3,
published June 28, 2017.
Safety Determination of a ML24018A085.
Potential 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 NYSERDA requesting ML25059A175.
review of EA/FONSI for NMP
Exemption, dated February 24,
2025.
Email response from NYSERDA ML25059A179.
regarding EA/FONSI for NMP
Exemption, dated February 28,
2025.
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Dated: March 5, 2025.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Thomas Boyce,
Acting Chief, Storage and Transportation Licensing Branch, Division of
Fuel Management, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2025-03816 Filed 3-10-25; 8:45 am]
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