14166 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 57 / Tuesday, March 25, 1997 / Notices

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Arnold E. Levin,

Acting Designated Senior Official for

Information Resources Management.

[FR Doc. 97–7502 Filed 3–24–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P

[Docket No. 50–334]

Duquesne Light Company, Ohio

Edison Company, Pennsylvania Power

Company; Notice of Consideration of

Issuance of Amendment to Facility

Operating License and Opportunity for

a Hearing

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

Commission (the Commission) is

considering issuance of an amendment

to Facility Operating License No. DPR–

66, issued to Duquesne Light Company,

et al. (the licensee), for operation of the

Beaver Valley Power Station, Unit No. 1,

located in Shippingport, Pennsylvania.

The proposed amendment would

modify Technical Specification (TS)

5.3.1.2.a to increase the maximum

allowable U235 enrichment of new fuel

assemblies in the new fuel storage racks

to 5 weight percent with a tolerance of

+0.05 weight percent. The proposed

amendment would also modify TS

5.3.1.2.c to increase the maximum

allowable Keff to less than or equal to

0.98 for moderation by aqueous foam.

Before issuance of the proposed

license amendment, the Commission

will have made findings required by the

Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended

(the Act) and the Commission’s

regulations.

By April 24, 1997, the licensee may

file a request for a hearing with respect

to issuance of the amendment to the

subject facility operating license and

any person whose interest may be

affected by this proceeding and who

wishes to participate as a party in the

proceeding must file a written request

for a hearing and a petition for leave to

intervene. Requests for a hearing and a

petition for leave to intervene shall be

filed in-accordance with the

Commission’s ‘‘Rules of Practice for

Domestic Licensing Proceedings’’ in 10

CFR Part 2. Interested persons should

consult a current copy of 10 CFR 2.714

which is available at the Commission’s

Public Document Room, the Gelman

Building, 2120 L Street, NW.,

Washington, DC, and at the local public

document room located at the B. F.

Jones Memorial Library, 663 Franklin

Avenue, Aliquippa, PA 15001. If a

request for a hearing or petition for

leave to intervene is filed by the above

date, the Commission or an Atomic

Safety and Licensing Board, designated

by the Commission or by the Chairman

of the Atomic Safety and Licensing

Board Panel, will rule on the request

and/or petition; and the Secretary or the

designated Atomic Safety and Licensing

Board will issue a notice of hearing or

an appropriate order.

As required by 10 CFR 2.714, a

petition for leave to intervene shall set

forth with particularity the interest of

the petitioner in the proceeding, and

how that interest may be affected by the

results of the proceeding. The petition

should specifically explain the reasons

why intervention should be permitted

with particular reference to the

following factors: (1) The nature of the

petitioner’s right under the Act to be

made a party to the proceeding; (2) the

nature and extent of the petitioner’s

property, financial, or other interest in

the proceeding; and (3) the possible

effect of any order which may be

entered in the proceeding on the

petitioner’s interest. The petition should

also identify the specific aspect(s) of the

subject matter of the proceeding as to

which petitioner wishes to intervene.

Any person who has filed a petition for

leave to intervene or who has been

admitted as a party may amend the

petition without requesting leave of the

Board up to 15 days prior to the first

prehearing conference scheduled in the

proceeding, but such an amended

petition must satisfy the specificity

requirements described above.

Not later than 15 days prior to the first

prehearing conference scheduled in the

proceeding, a petitioner shall file a

supplement to the petition to intervene

which must include a list of the

contentions which are sought to be

litigated in the matter. Each contention

must consist of a specific statement of

the issue of law or fact to be raised or

controverted. In addition, the petitioner

shall provide a brief explanation of the

bases of the contention and a concise

statement of the alleged facts or expert

opinion which support the contention

and on which the petitioner intends to

rely in proving the contention at the

hearing. The petitioner must also

provide references to those specific

sources and documents of which the

petitioner is aware and on which the

petitioner intends to rely to establish

those facts or expert opinion. Petitioner

must provide sufficient information to

show that a genuine dispute exists with

the applicant on a material issue of law

or fact. Contentions shall be limited to

matters within the scope of the

amendment under consideration. The

contention must be one which, if

proven, would entitle the petitioner to

relief. A petitioner who fails to file such

a supplement which satisfies these

requirements with respect to at least one

contention will not be permitted to

participate as a party.

Those permitted to intervene become

parties to the proceeding, subject to any

limitations in the order granting leave to

intervene, and have the opportunity to

participate fully in the conduct of the

hearing, including the opportunity to

present evidence and cross-examine

witnesses.

A request for a hearing or a petition

for leave to intervene must be filed with

the Secretary of the Commission, U.S.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission,

Washington, DC 20555–0001, Attention:

Docketing and Services Branch, or may

be delivered to the Commission’s Public

Document Room, the Gelman Building,

2120 L Street, NW., Washington, DC, by

the above date. Where petitions are filed

during the last 10 days of the notice

period, it is requested that the petitioner

promptly so inform the Commission by

a toll-free telephone call to Western

Union at 1-(800) 248–5100 (in Missouri

1-(800) 342–6700). The Western Union

operator should be given Datagram

Identification Number N1023 and the

following message addressed to John F.

Stolz, Director, Project Directorate I–2:

petitioner’s name and telephone

number; date petition was mailed; plant

name; and publication date and page

number of this Federal Register notice.

A copy of the petition should also be

sent to the Office of the General

Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

Commission, Washington, DC 20555–

0001, and to Jay E. Silberg, Esquire,

Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge,

2300 N Street, NW., Washington, DC

20037, attorney for the licensee.

Nontimely filings of petitions for

leave to intervene, amended petitions,

supplemental petitions and/or requests

for hearing will not be entertained

absent a determination by the

Commission, the presiding officer or the

presiding Atomic Safety and Licensing

Board that the petition and/or request

should be granted based upon a

balancing of the factors specified in 10

CFR 2.714(a)(1) (i)–(v) and 2.714(d).

If a request for a hearing is received,

the Commission’s staff may issue the

amendment after it completes its

technical review and prior to the

completion of any required hearing if it

publishes a further notice for public

comment of its proposed finding of no

significant hazards consideration in

accordance with 10 CFR 50.91 and

50.92.

For further details with respect to this

action, see the application for

amendment dated February 27, 1997,

which is available for public inspection

at the Commission’s Public Document
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 57 / Tuesday, March 25, 1997 / Notices 14167

Room, the Gelman Building, 2120 L

Street, NW., Washington, DC, and at the

local public document room located at

the B. F. Jones Memorial Library, 663

Franklin Avenue, Aliquippa, PA 15001.

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 19th day

of March 1997.

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

John F. Stolz,

Director, Project Directorate I–2, Division of

Reactor Projects—I/II, Office of Nuclear

Reactor Regulation.

[FR Doc. 97–7501 Filed 3–24–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P

[Docket No. 50–388]

Pennsylvania Power & Light Company;

Notice of Consideration of Issuance of

Amendment to Facility Operating

License, Proposed No Significant

Hazards Consideration Determination,

and Opportunity for a Hearing

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

Commission (the Commission) is

considering issuance of an amendment

to Facility Operating License No. NPF–

22, issued to Pennsylvania Power &

Light Company (PP&L), (the licensee),

for operation of the Susquehanna Steam

Electric Station (SSES), Unit 2, located

in Luzerne County, PA.

The proposed amendment would

modify the Design Features Section

5.3.1 of the Technical Specifications to

reflect the Atrium-10 design and would

include a Siemens Power Corporation

(SPC) topical report reference in Section

6.9.3.2 to reflect mechanical design

criteria for this fuel. This change would

allow this fuel to be loaded and

maintained in the core only under

Condition 5, (refueling).

PP&L has indicated that exigent

circumstances exist which are a result of

the following. PP&L submitted its

proposal for amendment for the staff to

approve the use of SPC Atrium-10 fuel

in SSES, Unit 2 on December 18, 1996

and as supplemented on March 12,

1997. The staff approval has been

predicated on the completion of an

audit at SPC. Issues raised during the

SPC audit have caused an unanticipated

delay in completing the staff’s review.

In its letter, the licensee stated that this

delay causes a threat to PP&L’s ability

to complete the Unit 2 8th refueling and

inspection outage as planned and the

return to Unit 2 operation. This outage

has already begun. During the original

Unit 2 outage scoping process PP&L

stated that it did not anticipate the need

for a specific NRC inspection of SPC to

support the NRC review and approval of

the December 18, 1996 amendment.

Further, PP&L reasonably expected that

all audit results would be satisfactory

and would not impact the current Unit

2 outage schedule. The resultant

consequences required the

supplemental submittal on March 12,

1997, and requires additional

unavoidable NRC staff review which is

ongoing. The March 17, 1997

application is only to approve those

changes that are applicable to allow fuel

to be loaded and maintained in the

reactor core only during Operational

Condition 5 on an interim basis during

the outage and prior to the NRC’s

approval of the December 18, 1996 and

March 12, 1997, requested TS changes,

to minimize the delay in startup based

on the NRC review of the two submittals

discussed above. The staff agrees that

exigent conditions exist that were not

anticipated by the licensee.

This notice is related to the

amendment requested by the December

18, 1996 and March 12, 1997 submittals

by Pennsylvania Power and Light

Company, but does not affect the

previous notice dated March 12, 1997,

which was published in the Federal

Register on March 18, 1997 (62 FR

12859).

Before issuance of the proposed

license amendment, the Commission

will have made findings required by the

Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended

(the Act) and the Commission’s

regulations.

Pursuant to 10 CFR 50.91(a)(6) for

amendments to be granted under

exigent circumstances, the NRC staff

must determine that the amendment

request involves no significant hazards

consideration. Under the Commission’s

regulations in 10 CFR 50.92, this means

that operation of the facility in

accordance with the proposed

amendment would not (1) Involve a

significant increase in the probability or

consequences of an accident previously

evaluated; or (2) create the possibility of

a new or different kind of accident from

any accident previously evaluated; or

(3) involve a significant reduction in a

margin of safety. As required by 10 CFR

50.91(a), the licensee has provided its

analysis of the issue of no significant

hazards consideration, which is

presented below:

1. The proposed change does not involve

a significant increase in the probability or

consequences of an accident previously

evaluated.

The description of a fuel assembly (Section

5.3.1) is revised to reflect the fact that

ATRIUMTM–10 contains a central water

channel. Since the active fuel length of

ATRIUMTM–10 is different from that of 9×9–

2, reference to an active fuel length of 150

inches is no longer appropriate and was

deleted. There is no safety significance to

these changes.

Due to the limitation of this proposed

change to Operational Condition 5, only a

subset of the accident events analyzed in the

FSAR [Final Safety Analysis Report] needed

to be addressed. All other events were

considered and the addition of ATRIUMTM–

10 fuel to the reactor core in Operational

Condition 5 did not increase the probability

or consequences of an accident previously

evaluated. The events considered are

described below.

The maximum allowed enrichment

(Section 5.3.1) is increased from 4.0 to 4.5

weight percent U235. Criticality calculations

were performed with a KENO Monte Carlo

code to ensure that ATRIUMTM–10 fuel with

a lattice average enrichment of 4.5 weight

percent U235 can be safely stored in both the

new fuel vault and the spent fuel storage pool

at Susquehanna. These calculations

demonstrated, consistent with current

Technical Specifications, that the maximum

k-effective of both the new fuel vault and

spent fuel storage pool will not exceed 0.95

under the worst credible storage array or

accident conditions.

The ATRIUMTM–10 fuel assembly is

unirradiated and its weight is nearly

identical to the current SPC 9×9–2 fuel

assembly weight as well as being less than

the fuel assembly weight used in the 9×9–2

analyses (680 lbs.). The dose consequences of

the current 9×9–2 licensing analyses of the

Fuel and Equipment Handling Accidents

bound the dose consequences of a Fuel

Handling Accident involving ATRIUMTM–10

fuel.

The grappling of the ATRIUMTM–10 fuel is

similar to the 9×9–2, due to the similar bail

handle dimensions and assembly weights.

Therefore, ATRIUMTM–10 fuel is completely

compatible with the refueling platform main

grapple. Because the assembly weights of the

ATRIUMTM–10 fuel and the 9×9–2 fuel are

essentially the same, the capacity of the

refueling platform main hoist will be

sufficient to handle the ATRIUMTM–10 fuel.

Also, the ATRIUMTM–10 fuel uses the

identical fuel channel design as the 9×9–2

fuel and the lower tie plate has very similar

outside dimensions. Therefore, the

ATRIUMTM–10 fuel is compatible with, and

can be safely inserted/placed into the reactor

core.

Storage of channelled ATRIUMTM–10 fuel

in the Reactor Core was evaluated. Core

shutdown margin calculations were

performed using NRC approved methodology

for the beginning of cycle core configuration.

Validation of the shutdown margin

methodology as it applies to ATRIUMTM–10

was done through comparisons to Siemens’

Power Corporation analyses and higher-order

Monte Carlo calculations. Calculated core

shutdown margin for the beginning of cycle

core loading is greater than 1.00%[delta]k/k

which far exceeds the Technical

Specification value of 0.38%[delta]k/k.

Therefore, ATRIUMTM–10 fuel can be placed

into the U2C9 final core configuration with

assurance that the core will remain

subcritical with the strongest worth rod

withdrawn. A positive core shutdown margin

assures protection against the control rod

removal error during refueling (FSAR Section

15.4.1.1) because subcriticality is maintained.