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[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 138 (Monday, July 20, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 38862-38863]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-19223]

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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 50-335]

Florida Power and Light (St. Lucie Unit 1); Confirmatory Order 
Modifying License Effective Immediately

I

    Florida Power and Light, (FPL or the Licensee) is the holder of 
Facility Operating License No. 50-335, which authorizes operation of 
St. Lucie Plant, Unit 1, located in St. Lucie County, Florida.

II

    The staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has been 
concerned that Thermo-Lag 330-1 fire barrier systems installed by 
Licensees may not provide the level of fire endurance intended and that 
Licensees that use Thermo-Lag 330-1 fire barriers may not be meeting 
regulatory requirements. During the 1992 to 1994 timeframe, the NRC 
staff issued Generic Letter (GL) 92-08, ``Thermo-Lag 330-1 Fire 
Barriers,'' and subsequent requests for additional information that 
requested Licensees to submit plans and schedules for resolving the 
Thermo-Lag issue. The NRC staff has obtained and reviewed all 
Licensees' corrective plans and schedules. The staff is concerned that 
some Licensees may not be making adequate progress toward resolving the 
plant-specific issues, and that some implementation schedules may be 
either too tenuous or too protracted. For example, several Licensees 
informed the NRC staff that their completion dates had slipped by 6 
months to as much as 3 years. For plants that have completion action 
scheduled beyond 1997, the NRC staff has met with these Licensees to 
discuss the progress of the Licensees' corrective actions and the 
extent of Licensee management attention regarding completion of Thermo-
Lag corrective actions. In addition, the NRC staff discussed with 
Licensees the possibility of accelerating their completion schedules.
    FPL was one of the Licensees with which the NRC staff held 
meetings. At these meetings, the NRC staff reviewed with FPL the 
schedule of Thermo-Lag corrective actions described in FPL submittals 
to the NRC dated October 27, 1995, and August 27, 1996. Based on the 
information submitted by FPL as supplemented by letter dated June 3, 
1998, the NRC staff has concluded that the schedules presented are 
reasonable. This conclusion is based on (1) the amount of installed 
Thermo-Lag, (2) the complexity of the plant-specific fire barrier 
configurations and issues, (3) the need to perform certain plant 
modifications during outages as opposed to those that can be performed 
while the plant is at power, and (4) integration with other 
significant, but unrelated issues that FPL is addressing at its plant. 
In order to remove compensatory measures such as fire watches, it has 
been determined that resolution of the Thermo-Lag corrective actions by 
FPL must be completed in accordance with current FPL schedules. By 
letter dated May 1, 1998, the NRC staff notified FPL of its plan to 
incorporate FPL's schedule commitment into a requirement by issuance of 
an order and requested consent from the Licensee. By letter dated June 
3, 1998, the Licensee provided its consent to issuance of a 
Confirmatory Order.

III

    The Licensee's commitment as set forth in its letter of June 3, 
1998 is acceptable and is necessary for the NRC to conclude that public 
health and safety are reasonably assured. To preclude any schedule 
slippage and to assure public health and safety, the NRC staff has 
determined that the Licensee's commitments in its June 3, 1998, letter 
be confirmed by this Order. The Licensee has agreed to this action. 
Based on the above, and the Licensee's consent, this Order is 
immediately effective upon issuance.

IV

    Accordingly, pursuant to sections 103, 161b, 161i, 161o, 182, and 
186 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and the Commission's 
regulations in 10 CFR 2.202 and 10 CFR Part 50, it is hereby ordered, 
effective immediately, that:

    FPL shall complete final implementation of Thermo-Lag 330-1 fire 
barrier corrective actions at St. Lucie Unit 1, as described in FPL 
letters L-97-19 dated March 17, 1997, and L-98-134 dated June 3, 
1998, by December 31, 1998. There are three exceptions to this 
commitment as discussed in FPL letter L-98-134.
    1. The proposed corrective action for the Thermo-Lag wall 
separating the St. Lucie Unit 1 cable spreading room and ``B'' 
switchgear room will not be completed by December 31, 1998. As 
discussed in L-98-134, FPL will complete the implementation of this 
proposed corrective action by the completion of the St. Lucie Unit 1 
1999 refueling outage (SL1-16).
    2. Thermo-Lag ampacity derating methodology issues, which are 
still under NRC review, will likely not be resolved by December 31, 
1998. Schedules for any corrective actions related to ampacity 
derating will be determined separately and are not part of this 
Order.

[[Page 38863]]

    3. The resolution of any new Thermo-Lag corrective actions 
resulting from the pilot fire protection functional inspection 
(FPFI) conducted at St. Lucie during March 1998 are not considered 
part of this confirming order since FPL has neither received nor 
responded to the inspection report. Such issues and any corrective 
actions will be scheduled and resolved as part of that inspection.

The Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, may relax or 
rescind, in writing, any provisions of this Confirmatory Order upon a 
showing by the Licensee of good cause.

V

    Any person adversely affected by this Confirmatory Order, other 
than the Licensee, may request a hearing within 20 days of its 
issuance. Where good cause is shown, consideration will be given to 
extending the time to request a hearing. A request for extension of 
time must be made in writing to the Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor 
Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555, 
and include a statement of good cause for the extension. Any request 
for a hearing will be submitted to the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Attention: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff, 
Washington, DC 20555. Copies of the hearing request shall also be sent 
to the Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555, to the Deputy Assistant 
General Council for Enforcement at the same address, to the Regional 
Administrator, NRC Region II, Atlanta Federal Center, M/S 23T85, 61 
Forsyth Street, SW., Atlanta, GA 30303-3415, and to the Licensee. If 
such a person requests a hearing, that person shall set forth with 
particularity the manner in which his or her interest is adversely 
affected by this Order and shall address criteria set forth in 10 CFR 
2.714(d).
    If a hearing is requested by a person whose interest is adversely 
affected, the Commission will issue an Order designating the time and 
place of any such hearing. If a hearing is held, the issue to be 
considered at such hearing shall be whether this Confirmatory Order 
should be sustained.
    In the absence of any request for hearing, or written approval of 
an extension of time in which to request a hearing, the provisions 
specified in Section IV above shall be final 20 days from the date of 
this Order without further order or proceedings. If an extension of 
time for requesting a hearing has been approved, the provisions 
specified in Section IV shall be final when the extension expires if a 
hearing request has not been received. An answer or a request for 
hearing shall not stay the immediate effectiveness of this Order.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 13th day of July, 1998.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Frank J. Miraglia,
Acting Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 98-19223 Filed 7-17-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
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