[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 31 (Friday, February 14, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Page 7077]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-3739]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[DD-97-03]


Director's Decision Under 10 CFR 2.206

In the Matter of Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station and Toledo 
Coalition for Safe Energy.

    Notice is hereby given that the Director, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, has taken action with regard to the 
Petition of December 5, 1995, by the Toledo Coalition for Safe Energy, 
Alice Hirt, Charlene Johnston, Dini Schut, and William Hoops 
(Petitioners), that the Director of the Office of Nuclear Material 
Safety and Safeguards exercise his authority to immediately issue 
orders to prevent the loading of spent nuclear fuel into the VECTRA 
Technologies, Inc. (VECTRA) NUHOMS dry-shielded canisters (DSCs) at the 
Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station until an NRC rulemaking and/or 
license modification hearing is conducted on all safety-related changes 
which have been made to the DSCs, as described in the Safety Analysis 
Report. Also, the NRC was requested not to authorize any loading of the 
DSCs until a written procedure for unloading, in both urgent and non-
urgent circumstances, was written, approved, and field-tested.
    Petitioners contend that the safety of the DSCs has been 
compromised because of reduction in the thickness of the DSC welds. In 
addition, they claim that the NRC administrative process by which 
permission was granted for VECTRA to deliver the DSCs to the Davis-
Besse station and for the DSCs to be used on site are legally suspect, 
expressing the belief that agency rulemaking or some other public 
proceeding is necessary for permission for such a transfer and use to 
be granted.
    The Director of the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and 
Safeguards has determined that the NRC Certificate of Compliance for 
VECTRA's standardized NUHOMS should be modified to require a 
fabrication inspection of the DSC. An agency rulemaking is, therefore, 
needed and should be conducted to accomplish this modification. 
However, because the continued storage of spent fuel in the DSCs at 
Davis-Besse does not pose an unreasonable risk to public health and 
safety, there is no technical basis to require the DSCs to be unloaded 
pending completion of this rulemaking. Further, VECTRA has already been 
cited for a nonconformance with NRC regulations, and there is no basis 
in the Petition to take other action in this regard. Toledo Edison has 
developed loading and unloading procedures for handling spent fuels. 
These procedures have been applied for the dry run testing with NRC's 
oversight. Therefore, there is no basis in the Petition for requiring 
halting of the ISFSI operation at Davis-Besse. Accordingly, the 
Petition from the Toledo Coalition for Safe Energy is granted to the 
extent that it requests an agency rulemaking and is denied in all other 
respects. The reasons for this decision are explained in the 
``Director's Decision under 10 CFR 2.206'' (DD-97-03), which is 
available for public inspection in the Commission's Public Document 
Room, Gelman Building, 2120 L Street, NW, Washington, DC 20555, and in 
the Local Public Document Room, William Carlson Library, University of 
Toledo, 2001 West Bancroft Avenue, Toledo, Ohio 43606.
    A copy of this Decision will be filed with the Office of the 
Secretary for the Commission in accordance with 10 CFR 2.206(c). As 
provided by this regulation, the Decision will constitute the final 
action of the Commission 25 days after the date of issuance of the 
Decision unless the Commission, on its own motion, institutes a review 
of the Decision within that time.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 5th day of February 1997.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Carl J. Paperiello,
Director, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 97-3739 Filed 2-13-97; 8:45 am]
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