[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 127 (Thursday, July 2, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36277-36278]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-17608]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket 72-16]


Virginia Electric and Power Company, Issuance of Environmental 
Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact Regarding the Proposed 
Exemptions From Requirements of 10 CFR Part 72

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) is 
considering issuance of an exemption from certain requirements of its 
regulations to Virginia Electric and Power Company (Virginia Power). 
The requested exemption would allow Virginia Power to submit the report 
of preoperational test acceptance criteria and test results at least 3 
days (instead of 30 days) prior to the receipt of fuel at its 
independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) at the North Anna 
Power Station (Docket Nos. 50-338 and 50-339) in Louisa County, 
Virginia.

Environmental Assessment (EA)

Identification of Proposed Action

    By letter dated June 12, 1998, Virginia Power requested an 
exemption from the requirement in 10 CFR 72.82(e) which states that ``A 
report of the preoperational test acceptance criteria and test results 
must be submitted . . . at least 30 days prior to the receipt of spent 
fuel or high level waste.'' Virginia Power proposed to submit this 
report 3 days prior to receipt of fuel at the ISFSI. Granting the 
exemption at this time would enable Virginia Power to proceed with 
activities to support its scheduled Unit 1 refueling outage.

Need for the Proposed Action:

    Virginia Power's request is to ensure the availability of adequate 
storage space in the spent fuel pool to support its upcoming Unit 1 
refueling outage which is scheduled to begin in September 1998. New 
fuel for the outage is scheduled to arrive onsite on July 21, 1998. To 
load the new fuel into the spent fuel pool and still retain a single 
unit full core offload capacity in the spent fuel pool, Virginia Power 
plans to load its first spent fuel storage cask during the week of July 
6, 1998.
    The purpose of the 30-day period, for the applicant to submit a 
report of the preoperational test acceptance criteria and test results, 
is to establish a sufficient hold point to ensure that the NRC has 
enough time to inspect a new licensee's preparation and, if necessary, 
exercise its regulatory authority before fuel is received at an ISFSI. 
For example, an ISFSI located at an away-from-reactor site may not have 
a resident inspector, therefore, the full 30-day period might be 
necessary to provide enough time for the NRC to review the licensee's 
records and preoperational test results and, if needed, send inspectors 
to the site. The North Anna ISFSI is located on a reactor site that has 
resident inspectors, and the resident and other NRC inspectors were 
present to observe portions of the preoperational test activities as 
they were being conducted. The NRC inspectors will also have ongoing 
access to the applicant's tests procedures and results to allow the 
inspectors to conduct the appropriate review. Thus, in view of the 
NRC's oversight presence during the preoperational testing phase at 
North Anna, as well as NRC's immediate access to the applicant's test 
procedures and results, the Commission concludes that the entire 30 
days provided for in the rule will not be needed for the NRC to 
complete its inspection activities and determine whether any further 
regulatory action is needed before spent fuel is received at the North 
Anna ISFSI. However, the NRC may determine that it requires more than 
the requested 3 days to review the test results. The NRC will consider 
the specific amount of time needed to review the North Anna 
preoperational test results in its final response to the request for 
exemption.

Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action

    The Environmental Assessment (EA) for the license application for 
the North Anna ISFSI (62 FR 16202, April 4, 1997) considered the 
potential environmental impacts of construction and operation of an 
ISFSI at the North Anna site. In the EA, the NRC concluded that storage 
of spent fuel at the North Anna ISFSI will not significantly affect the 
quality of the environment. The proposed actions now under 
consideration would not change the potential environmental effects 
assessed in the EA. Specifically, there are no environmental impacts 
associated with the time frame for submitting the preoperational test 
acceptance criteria and test results. As previously discussed, the 30-
day period is to provide the NRC sufficient opportunity to review the 
licensee's report. However, as NRC inspectors were on site during the 
applicant's preoperational tests, which were conducted between June 8 
and June 18, 1998, the shorter 3-day period will provide the same, 
sufficient opportunity. In addition, the proposed exemption does not 
involve any changes that increase the probability or consequences of 
accidents, change the

[[Page 36278]]

types of effluents that may be released offsite, or would significantly 
increase the allowable individual or cumulative occupational radiation 
exposure. Accordingly, the Commission concludes that this proposed 
exemption will have no significant radiological or nonradiological 
environmental impacts.

Alternative to the Proposed Action

    Since there is no significant environmental impact associated with 
the proposed action, any alternatives with equal or greater 
environmental impact are not evaluated. The alternative to the proposed 
action would be to deny approval of the exemption and, therefore, 
require the preoperational test acceptance criteria and test report to 
be submitted 30 days prior to receipt of spent fuel, rather than 3 days 
as proposed. This alternative would have no significant environmental 
impacts as well. However, denial of the requested exemption could 
result in loss of full core offload capability. The licensee is not 
required to maintain a full core offload capability, however, it is an 
operationally advantageous capability.

Agencies and Persons Consulted

    An official from the State of Virginia Bureau of Radiological 
Health was contacted about this EA for the proposed action and had no 
concerns.

Finding of No Significant Impact

    The environmental impacts of the proposed action have been reviewed 
in accordance with the requirements set forth in 10 CFR part 51. Based 
upon the foregoing EA, the Commission finds that the proposed action of 
granting an exemption from 10 CFR 72.82(e) so that Virginia Power may 
submit a preoperational test acceptance criteria and test report 3 days 
prior to receipt of spent fuel at the North Anna ISFSI will not 
significantly impact the quality of the human environment. Accordingly, 
the Commission has determined not to prepare an environmental impact 
statement for the proposed exemption.
    This application was docketed under 10 CFR part 72, Docket 72-16. 
For further details with respect to this action, see the application 
for an ISFSI license dated May 9, 1995, and the request for exemption 
dated June 12, 1998, which is available for public inspection at the 
Commission's Public Document Room, 2120 L Street, NW, Washington, DC 
20555, and the Local Public Document Room at the University of 
Virginia, Alderman Library, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 24th day of June 1998.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
William F. Kane,
Director, Spent Fuel Project Office, Office of Nuclear Material Safety 
and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 98-17608 Filed 7-1-98; 8:45 am]
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