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INFORMATION REPORT SECY-06-0203 October 3, 2006
Contact: R. Taylor, OEDO Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) License Renewal Application for James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant On August 1, 2006, the staff received an application from Entergy Nuclear Operation, Inc., requesting an extension of the operating license for the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant (JAF) for an additional 20 years beyond the current 40-year term. JAF is a boiling-water reactor designed by General Electric with a current operating license that expires at midnight on October 17, 2014. The staff completed an acceptance review of the JAF application and found the application sufficient for docketing. License Renewal Application for Susquehanna Steam Electric Stations On September 15, 2006, the staff received an application from PPL Susquehanna, LLC, requesting the extension of the operating licenses for the Susquehanna Steam Electric Stations 1 and 2, for an additional 20 years beyond the current 40-year terms. Susquehanna Units 1 and 2 are boiling-water reactors designed by General Electric whose current operating licenses expire at midnight on July 17, 2022, and March 23, 2024, respectively. The staff is currently performing its acceptance review of the application prior to docketing. Staff Issues Monticello License Renewal Final Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement On September 19, 2006, the staff issued the Final Supplement 26 to NUREG-1437, "Generic Environmental Impact Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants," regarding Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant. The supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) represents the completion of the staff's environmental review of the license renewal application submitted by Nuclear Management Company. The SEIS includes the staff's final analysis in which the staff considers and weighs the environmental effects of the proposed action, the environmental impacts of alternatives to the proposed action, and mitigative measures available for reducing or avoiding adverse impacts. The report contains the NRC's finding that there are no environmental impacts that would preclude license renewal for an additional 20 years of operation. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to issue the Notice of Availability of the final SEIS in the September 29, 2006, Federal Register. The NRC can then proceed with the renewal actions after a 30-day period expires (October 29, 2006), provided that no Federal agency refers matters in dispute in the final SEIS to the Council on Environmental Quality. North Anna Early Site Permit (ESP) - Revision 9 On August 15, 2006, the staff issued a supplement to the Final Safety Evaluation Report (FSER) for the North Anna ESP site to the applicant for a proprietary review. During the proprietary review period, an issue was raised that the bounding value for the total tritium concentration in liquid effluent releases could potentially exceed the EPA drinking water standards. Dominion, the licensee for North Anna, elected to reduce the bounding value for tritium to ensure that the tritium concentration in liquid effluent is less than both the 10 CFR Part 20 limit and the EPA drinking water standards. Subsequently, Dominion revised its ESP application and submitted Revision 9 of the application on September 14, 2006. The staff is currently reviewing Revision 9 of the submittal, and upon completion of its review, plans to revise the supplement to the FSER. The staff plans to release the supplement to the FSER by October 6, 2006. The final environmental impact statement (FEIS) remains on schedule to be issued on December 29, 2006. Acceptance Review of Vogtle Early Site Permit On September 19, 2006, the staff completed its acceptance review of the Vogtle ESP application and concluded that the application is acceptable for docketing. The staff issued Southern Nuclear Operating Company a letter of acceptance with the review schedule attached. This starts the staff's 20 month review schedule for issuance of the FSER and the FEIS. A notice of acceptance has been forwarded to the Federal Register. Exelon and Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PSEG) - Termination of Merger Agreement On September 14, 2006, PSEG and Exelon Corporation announced that Exelon has provided PSEG formal notice of termination of the merger agreement announced December 24, 2004. The companies have agreed to withdraw their application for merger approval, that had been pending before the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. Salem Units 1 and 2 and Hope Creek Unit 1 will continue to be operated by Exelon under an Operating Services Contract with PSEG that expires in January 2007. PSEG has an option to renew the contract for another 3 years. Vermont Yankee (VY) - Extended Power Uprate (EPU) Hearing On September 13 and 14, 2006, the NRC staff participated in an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) hearing held in Newfane, Vermont, pertaining to the VY EPU license amendment. The hearing addressed intervenor New England Coalition's contention that large transient testing should be performed as a condition of the EPU. An ASLB decision is pending. Chairman and Research and Test Reactors Staff Participated in the Annual Test, Research, and Training Reactors Conference During the week of September 11, 2006, NRC staff participated in the annual conference of the National Organization of Test, Research, and Training Reactors held in Austin, Texas. Chairman Dale Klein was the keynote speaker at the evening banquet on September 14, 2006. The meeting, which was sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin, provided an opportunity for members of the research reactor community to discuss recent developments at their facilities, learn about generic design development activities, and meet and discuss issues with representatives of the NRC, the Department of Energy, and other government organizations and corporate sponsors. Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) Presentation on transfer of Research and Test Reactors from the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) to NMSS On September 13, 2006, an NMSS representative made a presentation, at the Test, Research and Training Reactor (TRTR) annual conference, on the imminent transfer of NRC project management oversight responsibility for decommissioning TRTRs from NRR to NMSS. The presentation focused on why the transfer was being done and how it would affect the licensees. There were no substantiative licensee questions regarding either the presentation or the transfer. Public Meeting with the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) on High-Level Waste (HLW) Program On September 14, 2006, NRC staff held a public meeting with NEI to discuss and clarify NEI comments on the "HLW Program Interim Staff Guidance Review Methodology for Seismically Initiated Event Sequences" (HLWRS-ISG-01). Stakeholders and other members of the public, participated in the meeting either by attending the meeting at NRC Headquarters or by teleconference. HLW Staff Members Visit Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) On September 19-20, 2006, staff carried out an onsite representative visit to SNL to obtain technical information related to the Department of Energy's (DOE's) evaluation of water infiltrating Yucca Mountain. After SNL completes its analyses and documentation (anticipated by the end of calendar year 2006), the staff plans to observe DOE's Quality Assurance review of this program. In 2007 the staff intends to participate in a public technical exchange meeting to discuss DOE's findings. NRC's Approval of Toshiba Corporation's Purchase of Westinghouse Electric Company On September 15, 2006, NRC consented to the indirect change of control of Westinghouse Electric Company from British Nuclear Fuels, Ltd., to Toshiba Corporation - a $5.4 billion transaction. In April 2006, Westinghouse applied for NRC consent to the change of control for the Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina, the Hematite decommissioning site in Missouri, the Science and Technology Department in Pittsburgh, and the Waltz Mill site in Madison, Pennsylvania. After the change, Westinghouse will continue to be the holder of the licenses, transportation quality assurance program approvals, and certificates of compliance listed in Appendix A to the application for consent. Toshiba will maintain control of Westinghouse at all times after the closing, through its ownership of at least 51 percent of a newly-created intermediate holding company called Toshiba Nuclear Energy Holdings (US). NRC verified that the decommissioning cost estimates and financial assurance instruments were up-to-date and sufficient to comply with applicable regulations. The U.S. Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investments in the U.S. reviewed the application and approved the transaction in July. Westinghouse anticipates that the closing will occur the last week of September. Transportation External Coordination Meeting On September 13-14, 2006, NMSS and Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response staff attended DOE's Transportation External Coordination (TEC) meeting in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Attendees included Federal Rail Administration, the Association of American Railroads, representatives from State Governments, transportation carriers, and other Federal agencies. The TEC meeting is held semiannually to discuss coordination of transportation activities between the Federal government and State governments involving spent fuel and high-level and transuranic radioactive waste. A major discussion item was the National Academy of Sciences' recently completed study on the safety of spent fuel transportation. NRC staff met separately with the Chairman and staff of the four State regional transportation committees to discuss the process and need for sharing the results of NRC package security assessments. The separate meeting was held to initiate the dialogue with State Regional Groups referenced in NRC Chairman Klein's August 16, 2006, letter to Chairman Robert Owen, of the Midwestern States Radioactive Material Transportation Committee. Proposed Rule Signed by the Acting Executive Director for Operations On September 22, 2006, the Acting Executive Director for Operations approved a proposed rule which revises 10 CFR Part 72.214, "List of approved spent fuel storage casks," revising the Holtec International HI-STORM 100 cask system listing within the "List of approved spent fuel storage casks." This amendment would revise Technical Specification (TS) 3.1.3 to eliminate cooling of the Multi-Purpose Canister (MPC) cavity prior to reflood with water as part of cask unloading operations; TS 3.3.1 to allow linear interpolation between minimal soluble boron concentrations for certain fuel enrichments in the MPC-32/32F; Appendix B, Section 1, to make modifications to the definitions of fuel debris, damaged fuel assembly, and non-fuel hardware; and Appendix B, Section 2, to permit the storage of pressurized water reactor fuel assemblies with annular fuel pellets in the top and bottom 12 inches of the active fuel length. Other changes would be made to incorporate minor editorial corrections. Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) Third Research Coordination Meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Coordinated Research Project on Natural Circulation Phenomena, Modeling, and Reliability of Passive Systems that Utilize Natural Circulation On September 10-15, 2006, staff participated in the subject meeting and presented results on NRC-sponsored passive containment cooling system (PCCS) experiments conducted at Purdue University. Numerous presentations were made by other participants on advanced passive plant designs. Of special interest were modeling efforts conducted by representatives of Instituto de Ingenieria Energetica in Spain on PCCS code modeling, which can be directly applied to the NRC's ongoing computer code development activities supporting General Electric's Economic Simplified Boiling-Water Reactor design certification. 7th Annual Meeting of the International Nuclear Graphite Specialists On September 11-13, 2006, staff participated in the subject meeting during which nuclear graphite specialists from the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, France, South Korea, China, Japan, the Netherlands, and South Africa shared technical information on nuclear graphite structure and properties, irradiation behavior, properties modeling, component reliability estimations, material specification and testing standardization for graphite properties, and international Generation IV activities to gather data on nuclear graphite. The information obtained by the staff from this meeting will be used to develop regulatory guidance for new reactor designs and as input to the advanced reactor research plan. The proceedings of this meeting will be published in a special edition of the Journal of Nuclear Materials in 2007. Technical Information Exchange Meetings with Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (JNES) on the NRC/Japanese Cooperative Research Program On September 11-15, 2006, staff met with JNES staff to discuss the results of activities performed under the technical information exchange agreement in the area of seismic engineering research. The participants discussed seismic performance-based activities, an assessment of analysis methods for seismic shear wall capacity performed by the U.S. participants, the status of the non-linear soil structures interaction tests at Black Thunder Mine in Wyoming, degraded piping and component tests, equipment fragility tests being performed by the Japanese participants, and the ongoing test programs at the National Research Institute for Earth Science & Disaster Prevention 3-D Earthquake Testing Facility and the Kobelco Research Institute. This cooperative research program supports development of codes and standards in the U.S., as well as development of regulatory guidance on seismic design. Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)/Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) Technical Workshop on Ground-Water Monitoring On September 12-13, 2006, RES and NMSS representatives made presentations at the subject workshop, principally attended by radiological health physicists and environmental managers from nuclear power plant utilities and by hydrogeologic and geotechnical consultants to the utilities. The session topics included: operating plant ground-water program experience, what is known about tritium releases, mature ground-water programs, ground-water monitoring programs, ground-water data analysis and management, and site hydrogeology modeling. The staff discussed rulemaking and guidance related to subsurface monitoring and described development of an integrated ground-water monitoring strategy. Information exchanged at the workshop is being shared with members of the inter-office Technical Advisory Group on ground-water and performance monitoring. Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) Public Workshop On September 14-15, 2006, RES and NMSS staff conducted the subject workshop. In support of the ANPR, which proposes developing a comprehensive set of risk-informed and performance-based requirements (e.g., a new Part 53) as an alternative to current requirements in 10 CFR Part 50, the staff also issued the "Technology Neutral Framework" (TNF) that could potentially serve as the technical basis to support development of a new Part 53. The purpose of the workshop was to discuss the ANPR and TNF, and gain early insight into possible stakeholder input prior to the closing of the ANPR (December 29, 2006). The workshop was attended by approximately 40 people, including representatives of NEI, the Department of Energy, Areva, Westinghouse, PBMR Ltd., Exelon, Scientech, McGraw-Hill, and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Formal presentations were given by Westinghouse, ASME, NEI, and Scientech. Prior to the workshop, the staff received a preliminary set of written comments on the ANPR/TNF from NEI, Areva, and ASME. One common theme between the workshop and the written comments is the need to "test out" some of the TNF concepts through the licensing of an advanced reactor design (e.g., high temperature gas cooled reactor) in accordance with 10 CFR Parts 50 and 52, prior to proceeding with Part 53. The staff notes that the comments submitted to date have been at a high-level, but anticipates that significantly more detailed comments will be forthcoming in the December timeframe. Office of Administration (ADM) Charges for Reproducing Records (AH66 - Part 9) On September 18, 2006, the NRC published a final rule in the Federal Register (71 FR 54570) that revised the charges for copying publicly available documents by the copy service at the NRC's Public Document Room. The final rule becomes effective October 18, 2006. Contract Award On September 18, 2006, a competitive Time and Materials Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity delivery order number NRC-33-01-182-003 was awarded to Nortel Government Solutions, Inc., under the General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule Program. The contractor shall provide operational and maintenance support for the Enterprise Digital Data Maintenance Systems installed at the Rockville and Las Vegas hearing room facilities. The total estimated cost is $7.6 million for a four-year period of performance, inclusive of two one-year options. Communications Training On September 18, 2006, a competitive Delivery Order numbered NRC-38-06-404 entitled, "Communications Training" was awarded to Vantage Human Resource Services, under the GSA Federal Supply Service Schedule program. The purpose of the contract is to provide the services of a contractor to perform a needs assessment survey and analyze the results to determine whether NRC's training curriculum is comprehensive, effective and efficient in providing the appropriate communications skills needed for the various levels and positions in the NRC. The contractor will also be responsible for developing and conducting the training recommended as a result of the needs assessment analysis. The period of performance of the contract is one year, with four one-year option periods. The estimated value of the base period is $731,000 and the total estimated value of the contract, inclusive of options, is $2.3 million. Office of Information Services (OIS) Technical Library Adds New and Historical Online Codes and Standards NRC staff now have access to additional new and historical online codes and standards through Information Handling Services. The new online codes and standards include Underwriters Laboratories, National Electrical Manufacturer's Association, International Electrotechnical Commission and American Welding Society. Historical codes and standards are also available from these organizations, as well as from the American Nuclear Society, American Society of Mechanical Engineers International, and American National Standards Institute. Almost 18,000 online codes and standards have been added from this action. NRC staff may gain access to these codes and standards through the Technical Library Intranet site. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy Act (PA) Requests Received During the Period of September 15 through September 21, 2006:
Office of Human Resources (HR)
Office of Public Affairs (OPA) The Office of Public Affairs received significant media inquiries on the following: A report by the Union of Concerned Scientists regarding extended shutdowns at nuclear plants. Commissioner Merrifield's visit to Oyster Creek. Shieldalloy's plan for decommissioning its facility in New Jersey. Fire protection issues at Shearon Harris. Other Public Affairs Items: Region I Public Affairs assisted in an emergency exercise at Susquehanna.
Office of the Secretary (SECY)
Commission Correspondence
Federal Register Notices Issued
Region II (RII) URENCO Gas Centrifuge Facility in The Netherlands On September 18-22, 2006, staff traveled to The Netherlands and met with the Dutch regulators to discuss inspection related issues concerning the URENCO gas centrifuge facility in Almelo, The Netherlands. They also visited the URENCO site and observed both an operating facility and a facility under construction to gain insights into the safety issues important to the operation and construction of a gas centrifuge facility. Office of Congressional Affairs (OCA)
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