[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 79 (Friday, April 24, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22175-22177]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2026-08008]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 50-302; NRC-2026-1819]
Accelerated Decommissioning Partners Crystal River Unit 3, LLC;
Crystal River Unit 3 Nuclear Generating Plant; License Termination Plan
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Public meeting; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: On October 15, 2025, as supplemented December 11, 2025, and
February 25, 2026, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
received from Accelerated Decommissioning Partners Crystal River Unit
3, LLC (ADP CR3, licensee) a license amendment request to approve the
License Termination Plan (LTP) for the Crystal River Unit 3 Nuclear
Generating Plant (CR3) and to add a license condition that establishes
the criteria for determining when changes to the LTP require prior NRC
approval. The LTP provides details about the known radiological
information for the site, the planned demolition and decommissioning
tasks to be completed, and the final radiological surveys and data that
must be obtained for termination of the NRC's license for CR3. The NRC
is requesting public comments on CR3's LTP and will hold a public
meeting to discuss the LTP.
DATES: Submit comments by June 23, 2026. Comments received after this
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the Commission
is able to ensure consideration only for comments received before this
date. A public meeting will be held on May 12, 2026. See Section IV.
Public Meeting, of this document for more information.
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-2026-1819. 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.
Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop:
TWFN-5-A85, 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: Chris Allen, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-6877; email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2026-1819 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-2026-1819.
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 ADAMS Public 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.
B. Submitting Comments
The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the
Federal rulemaking website (https://www.regulations.gov). Please
include Docket ID NRC-NRC-2026-1819 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 before making the comment submissions available
to the public or entering the comment into ADAMS.
II. Background
Accelerated Decommissioning Partners Crystal River Unit 3, LLC (ADP
CR3, licensee) is currently the licensed operator responsible for
decommissioning of Crystal River Unit 3 Nuclear Generating Plant (CR3).
Prior to ADP CR3, Duke Energy Florida (DEF) held the licensed authority
for CR3. The Facility Operating License No. DPR-72, provides, among
other things, that the facility is subject to all rules, regulations,
and orders of the NRC now or hereafter in effect. The facility is
located in Citrus County, Florida.
By letter dated February 20, 2013, pursuant to paragraphs
50.82(a)(1)(i)-(ii) of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10
CFR), DEF formally notified the NRC that it had determined to
permanently cease power operations at CR3 and that it had permanently
removed fuel from the reactor vessel. In this letter, DEF explained
that CR3 had been safely shutdown since September 26, 2009, and that
all fuel had been permanently removed from the CR3 reactor vessel as of
May 28, 2011, and had been placed in the CR3 spent fuel pool for
temporary storage.
DEF described its proposed decommissioning activities and schedule
in its Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR)
submitted on December 2, 2013. At that time, DEF decided to place the
facility in long-term storage (i.e., the SAFSTOR decommissioning
option). SAFSTOR is a decommissioning method in which a nuclear
facility is placed and maintained in a condition
[[Page 22176]]
that allows the facility to be safely stored and subsequently
decontaminated to levels that permit release for unrestricted use.
By letter dated June 14, 2019, as supplemented by letters dated
January 17, 2020, and March 5, 2020, DEF and ADP CR3 requested that the
NRC consent to the proposed direct transfer of licensed authority under
CR3 Facility Operating License No. DPR-72 and the general license for
the CR3 Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) from DEF to
ADP CR3. ADP CR3 is a joint venture between NorthStar Group Services
and Orano USA. By letter dated June 26, 2019, ADP CR3 submitted a
revised PSDAR contingent upon NRC approval of the direct transfer of
the licensed authority to ADP CR3. The revised PSDAR changed the
decommissioning approach for CR3 from SAFSTOR to the immediate
implementation of the DECON decommissioning option. DECON is a method
of decommissioning in which structures, systems, and components that
contain radioactive contamination are actively removed from the site
and safely disposed of at a commercially operated low-level waste
disposal facility or decontaminated to a level that permits the site to
be released for unrestricted use as soon as possible after removal of
the spent fuel from the spent fuel pool.
By Order dated April 1, 2020, the NRC provided its consent to the
direct transfer of licensed authority. On October 1, 2020, DEF
transferred the licensed authority to ADP CR3 pursuant to the terms of
the transfer agreement between DEF and ADP CR3, as proposed in the June
14, 2019, letter. Per the agreement, DEF remained the NRC-licensed
owner of the plant, property, and decommissioning trust fund while ADP
CR3 became the NRC-licensed operator responsible for decommissioning
and maintaining the ISFSI under a service agreement with ADP SF1. ADP
SF1 became the owner of the spent nuclear fuel, high-level waste, and
Greater-Than-Class C waste stored in the ISFSI.
On October 15, 2025, as supplemented December 11, 2025, and
February 25, 2026, ADP CR3 submitted its LTP to the NRC. Paragraph
50.82(a)(9), ``Termination of license,'' specifies that an application
for license termination must be accompanied or preceded by a LTP which
is subject to NRC review and approval. The LTP addresses site
characterization to ensure that the scope of final status surveys (FSS)
of the site cover all areas where contamination existed, remains, or
has the potential to exist or remain, identification of remaining
dismantlement activities, plans for site remediation, a description of
the FSS plans to confirm that CR3 will meet the release criteria in 10
CFR part 20, subpart E, ``Radiological Criteria for License
Termination,'' dose-modeling scenarios that ensure compliance with the
radiological criteria for license termination, an estimate of the
remaining site-specific decommissioning costs and an updated assessment
of the environmental effects of decommissioning CR3. Once approved, the
LTP would become a supplement to the CR3 Defueled Safety Analysis
Report.
According to 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
and to request public comments on the LTP. 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. 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
Document description No.
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DEF notification of its intent to permanently cease ML13056A005.
operations at Crystal River Unit 3, dated February
20, 2013.
DEF submittal of PSDAR for Crystal River Unit 3, ML13340A009.
dated December 2, 2013.
Submittal of updated PSDAR for Crystal River Unit 3 ML19177A080.
to reflect the change from SAFSTOR to DECON, dated
June 26, 2019.
DEF and ADP CR3 proposed direct transfer of CR3 ML19170A209
Facility Operating License No. DPR-72 from DEF to (Package).
ADP CR3 dated June 14, 2019, and supplemented on ML20017A216.
January 17, 2020, and March 5, 2020. ML20065K737.
NRC Order providing consent to the direct license ML20069A028
direct transfer of CR3 Facility Operating License (Package).
No. DPR-72 from DEF to ADP CR3, dated April 1, 2020.
ADP CR3 LTP submittal to the NRC, dated October 15, ML25288A001
2025. (Package).
ADP CR3 LTP submittal update, dated December 11, 2025 ML25345A212
(Package).
ADP CR3 LTP supplement submittal, dated February 25, ML26056A059.
2026.
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The NRC may post materials related to this document, including
public comments, on the Federal rulemaking website at https://www.regulations.gov under Docket ID NRC-2026-1819. In addition, the
Federal rulemaking website allows members of the public to receive
alerts when changes or additions occur in a docket folder. To
subscribe: (1) navigate to the docket folder (NRC-2026-1819); (2) click
the ``Subscribe'' link; and (3) enter an email address and click on the
``Subscribe'' link.
IV. Request for Comment and Public Meeting
The NRC will conduct a public meeting to answer questions and
gather comments regarding ADP's request for approval of the LTP. The
meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, from 5:30 p.m. until
6:30 p.m. ET, at the Citrus County Chamber of Commerce, located at 915
N Suncoast Blvd., Crystal River, FL 34429.
This is a Category 3 public meeting where stakeholders are invited
to fully engage NRC staff to provide a range of views, information,
concerns and suggestions with regard to ADP's request for approval of
the LTP. After the presentation portion of the meeting, the public is
allowed to speak and ask questions. Comments can be provided orally or
in writing to the NRC staff present at the meeting. The NRC will
consider and, if appropriate, respond to these written and verbal
comments, but such comments will not otherwise constitute part of the
decisional record.
Please contact Chris Allen no later than May 5, 2026, by phone at
301-415-6877 or by email at [email protected], 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.
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Stakeholders interested in attending this meeting should monitor
the NRC's Public Meeting Schedule website at https://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/index.cfm for additional information,
meeting agenda, and access information for the public meeting.
Authority: 42 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Dated: April 22, 2026.
Michelle Sutherland,
Acting Chief, Reactor Decommissioning Branch, Division of
Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery and Waste Programs, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2026-08008 Filed 4-23-26; 8:45 am]
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