104234 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 245 / Friday, December 20, 2024 / Notices 

automated collection techniques or 

other forms of information technology? 

Dated: December 17, 2024. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

David Cullison, 

NRC Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief 

Information Officer. 

[FR Doc. 2024–30392 Filed 12–19–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

[Docket Nos. 72–70, 50–373, and 50–374; 

NRC–2024–0205] 

Constellation Energy Generation, LLC; 

LaSalle County Station Units 1 and 2; 

Independent Spent Fuel Storage 

Installation; Environmental 

Assessment and Finding of No 

Significant Impact 

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Notice; issuance. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) is issuing an 

environmental assessment (EA) and a 

finding of no significant impact (FONSI) 

for an exemption request submitted by 

Constellation Energy Generation, LLC 

(CEG), that would permit LaSalle 

County Station (LSCS) to maintain four 

loaded and to load four 68M multipurpose canister (MPC) with continuous 

basket shims (CBS) in the HI–STORM 

100 Cask System at its LSCS Units 1 and 

2 independent spent fuel storage 

installation (ISFSI) in a storage 

condition where the terms, conditions, 

and specifications in the Certificate of 

Compliance (CoC) No. 1014, 

Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1, are 

not met. 

DATES: The EA and FONSI referenced in 

this document are available on 

December 20, 2024. 

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID 

NRC–2024–0205 when contacting the 

NRC about the availability of 

information regarding this document. 

You may obtain publicly available 

information related to this document 

using any of the following methods: 

• Federal Rulemaking website: Go to 

https://www.regulations.gov and search 

for Docket ID NRC–2024–0205. Address 

questions about Docket IDs in 

Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann; 

telephone: 301–415–0624; email: 

Stacy.Schumann@nrc.gov. For technical 

questions, contact the individual listed 

in the ‘‘For Further Information 

Contact’’ section of this document. 

• NRC’s Agencywide Documents 

Access and Management System 

(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly 

available documents online in the 

ADAMS Public Documents collection at 

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ 

adams.html. To begin the search, select 

‘‘Begin Web-based ADAMS Search.’’ For 

problems with ADAMS, please contact 

the NRC’s Public Document Room (PDR) 

reference staff at 1–800–397–4209, at 

301–415–4737, or by email to 

PDR.Resource@nrc.gov. For the 

convenience of the reader, instructions 

about obtaining materials referenced in 

this document are provided in the 

‘‘Availability of Documents’’ section. 

• NRC’s PDR: The PDR, where you 

may examine and order copies of 

publicly available documents, is open 

by appointment. To make an 

appointment to visit the PDR, please 

send an email to PDR.Resource@nrc.gov 

or call 1–800–397–4209 or 301–415– 

4737, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern 

time (ET), Monday through Friday, 

except Federal holidays. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Martin Ortiz Gonzalez, Office of Nuclear 

Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 

Washington, DC 20555–0001; telephone: 

301–415–3637; email: 

Martin.OrtizGonzalez@nrc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Introduction 

The NRC is reviewing an exemption 

request from CEG, dated September 19, 

2024. CEG is requesting an exemption, 

pursuant to section 72.7 of title 10 of the 

Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR), 

in paragraphs 72.212(a)(2), 72.212(b)(3), 

72.212(b)(5)(i), 72.212(b)(11), and 

72.214 that require CEG to comply with 

the terms, conditions, and specifications 

of the CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, 

Revision No. 1. If approved, the 

exemption would allow CEG to 

maintain four loaded and to load four 

new MPC–68M–CBS in the HI–STORM 

100 Cask System at the LSCS ISFSI in 

a storage condition where the terms, 

conditions, and specifications in the 

CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, 

Revision No. 1, are not met. 

II. Environmental Assessment 

Background 

The LSCS site is approximately 75 

miles (mi) (120 kilometers (km)) 

southwest of downtown Chicago, 

Illinois, and approximately 26 mi (42 

km) west of Exelon’s Braidwood Station 

in Braceville, Illinois, and 23 mi (37 km) 

southwest of the Dresden Nuclear Power 

Station near Morris, Illinois. Interstate 

Highway 80 is 8 mi (13 km) north of the 

site. The LSCS site is located in a rural 

and agricultural setting. The town of 

Seneca lies 6 mi (10 km) northeast of 

LSCS. The town of Marseilles lies 7 mi 

(11 km) north-northwest of LSCS. The 

Illinois River is 5 mi (8 km) north of 

LSCS. Unit 1 and Unit 2 began operating 

in 1984. CEG has been storing spent fuel 

in an ISFSI at LSCS under a general 

license as authorized by 10 CFR part 72, 

subpart K, ‘‘General License for Storage 

of Spent Fuel at Power Reactor Sites.’’ 

CEG currently uses the HI–STORM 100 

Cask System under CoC No. 1014, 

Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1, for 

dry storage of spent nuclear fuel in a 

specific MPC (i.e., MPC–68M) at the 

LSCS ISFSI. 

Description of the Proposed Action 

The CoC is the NRC-approved design 

for each dry cask storage system. The 

proposed action would exempt the 

applicant from the requirements of 10 

CFR 72.212(a)(2), 72.212(b)(3), 

72.212(b)(5)(i), 72.212(b)(11), and 

72.214 only as these requirements 

pertain to the use of the MPC–68M–CBS 

in the HI–STORM 100 Cask System for 

the four already loaded canisters and 

the planned loading of four new 

canisters. The exemption would allow 

CEG to maintain four loaded and to load 

four new MPC–68M–CBS in the HI– 

STORM 100 Cask System at the LSCS 

ISFSI, despite the MPC–68M–CBS in the 

HI–STORM 100 Cask System not being 

in compliance with the terms, 

conditions, and specifications in the 

CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, 

Revision No. 1. 

The HI–STORM 100 Cask System CoC 

provides the requirements, conditions, 

and operating limits necessary for use of 

the system to store spent fuel. Holtec 

International (Holtec), the designer and 

manufacturer of the HI–STORM 100 

Cask System, developed a variant of the 

design with continuous basket shims 

(CBS) for the MPC–68M, known as 

MPC–68M–CBS. Holtec originally 

implemented the CBS variant design 

under the provisions of 10 CFR 72.48, 

which allows licensees to make changes 

to cask designs without a CoC 

amendment under certain conditions 

(listed in 10 CFR 72.48(c)). After 

evaluating the specific changes to the 

cask designs, the NRC determined that 

Holtec erred when it implemented the 

CBS variant design under 10 CFR 72.48, 

as this was not the type of change 

allowed without a CoC amendment. For 

this reason, the NRC issued three 

Severity Level IV violations to Holtec. 

CEG had previously loaded four MPC– 

68M–CBS in the HI–STORM 100 Cask 

System and plans to load four MPC– 

68M–CBS in the HI–STORM 100 Cask 

System beginning in June 2025. This 

exemption considers the storage of the 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 245 / Friday, December 20, 2024 / Notices 104235 

already loaded systems and the planned 

loading of the four canisters with the 

CBS variant basket design. 

Need for the Proposed Action 

CEG requested this exemption 

because CEG is currently out of 

compliance with NRC requirements, 

resulting from the previous loading of 

spent fuel into a storage system with the 

CBS variant basket design. This 

exemption would allow four already 

loaded MPC–68M–CBS in the HI– 

STORM 100 Cask System to remain in 

storage at the LSCS ISFSI. The 

exemption would also allow CEG to 

load four new MPC–68M–CBS in HI– 

STORM 100 Cask System at the LSCS 

ISFSI for the future loading campaign 

scheduled to begin in June 2025. 

Approval of the exemption request 

would allow CEG to effectively manage 

the margin to full core discharge 

capability in the spent fuel pool. It 

would also allow CEG to effectively 

manage the availability of the 

specialized resources and equipment 

needed to support multiple competing 

priorities at LSCS and throughout CEG’s 

fleet. 

Environmental Impacts of the Proposed 

Action 

This EA evaluates the potential 

environmental impacts of granting an 

exemption from the terms, conditions, 

and specifications in CoC No. 1014, 

Amendment No. 8, Revision No.1. The 

exemption would allow four already 

loaded MPC–68M–CBS in the HI– 

STORM 100 Cask system to remain 

loaded at the LSCS ISFSI. The 

exemption would also allow four new 

MPC–68M–CBS to be loaded in the HI– 

STORM 100 Cask System in a future 

loading campaign and maintained in 

storage at the LSCS ISFSI. 

The potential environmental impacts 

of storing spent nuclear fuel in NRCapproved storage systems have been 

documented in previous assessments. 

On July 18, 1990 (55 FR 29181), the 

NRC amended 10 CFR part 72 to 

provide for the storage of spent fuel 

under a general license in cask designs 

approved by the NRC. The EA for the 

1990 final rule analyzed the potential 

environmental impacts of using NRCapproved storage casks. The EA for the 

HI–STORM 100 Cask System, CoC No. 

1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 

1 (80 FR 49887), published in 2015, tiers 

off of the EA issued for the July 18, 

1990, final rule. ‘‘Tiering’’ off earlier 

EAs is a standard process encouraged by 

the regulations implementing the 

National Environmental Policy Act of 

1969 (NEPA) that entails the use of 

impact analyses of previous EAs to 

bound the impacts of a proposed action 

where appropriate. The Holtec HI– 

STORM 100 Cask System is designed to 

mitigate the effects of design basis 

accidents that could occur during 

storage. Considering the specific design 

requirements for the accident 

conditions, the design of the cask would 

prevent loss of containment, shielding, 

and criticality control. If there is no loss 

of containment, shielding, or criticality 

control, the environmental impacts 

would not be significant. 

The exemptions requested by CEG at 

the LSCS site as they relate to CoC No. 

1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No.1, 

for the HI–STORM 100 Cask System are 

limited to the use of the CBS variant 

basket design only for the four 

previously loaded canisters and planned 

loading of four canisters utilizing the 

CBS variant basket design. The NRC 

staff has determined that this change in 

the basket will not result in either 

radiological or non-radiological 

environmental impacts that significantly 

differ from the environmental impacts 

evaluated in the environmental 

assessment supporting the issuance of 

CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, 

Revision 1. If the exemption is granted, 

there will be no significant change in 

the types or amounts of any effluents 

released, no significant increase in 

individual or cumulative public or 

occupational radiation exposure, and no 

significant increase in the potential for 

or consequences from radiological 

accidents. Accordingly, the Commission 

concludes that there would be no 

significant environmental impacts 

associated with the proposed action. 

Alternative to the Proposed Action 

CEG considered requesting that 

Holtec provide eight fully compliant 

canisters for the June 2025 campaign. 

However, CEG expects that Holtec will 

not be able to meet this request based 

on current manufacturing schedules. 

Additionally, CEG considered delaying 

the start of the 2025 campaign until 

Amendment No. 19 of the HI–STORM 

100 CoC is approved. This delay would 

result in the LSCS ISFSI campaign 

needing to pull specialty resources 

which would otherwise be required to 

support other CEG refueling and ISFSI 

campaigns. 

The NRC staff considered the noaction alternative. The no-action 

alternative (denial of the exemption 

request) would require LSCS to unload 

spent fuel from the MPC–68M–CBS in 

the HI–STORM 100 Cask System to 

bring it in compliance with the CoC 

terms, conditions, and specifications in 

the CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, 

Revision No 1. Unloading the cask 

would subject station personnel to 

additional radiation exposure, generate 

additional contaminated waste, increase 

the risk of a possible fuel handling 

accident, and increase the risk of a 

possible heavy load handling accident. 

Furthermore, the removed spent fuel 

would need to be placed in the spent 

fuel pool, where it would remain until 

it could be loaded into an approved 

storage cask. Not allowing the planned 

future loading campaign could affect 

LSCS’s ability to manage the margin to 

full core discharge capability. It could 

also pose challenges to spent fuel heat 

removal and impact the availability of 

the specialized resources and 

equipment needed to support competing 

fuel loading and operational activities at 

LSCS, including spent fuel pool cleanup and refueling outages. The NRC has 

determined that the no-action 

alternative would result in undue 

potential human health and safety 

impacts that could be avoided by 

proceeding with the proposed 

exemption, especially given that the 

NRC staff has concluded in NRC’s 

Safety Determination Memorandum, 

issued with respect to the enforcement 

action against Holtec regarding these 

violations, that fuel can be stored safely 

in the MPC–68M–CBS canisters. 

Agencies Consulted 

The NRC provided the Illinois 

Emergency Management Agency and 

Office of Homeland Security (IL–IEMA– 

OHS) a copy of this draft EA for review 

by an email dated November 22, 2024. 

On November 27, 2024, IL–IEMA–OHS 

provided its concurrence by email. 

III. Finding of No Significant Impact 

The environmental impacts of the 

proposed action have been reviewed in 

accordance with the requirements in 10 

CFR part 51, which implement NEPA. 

Based upon the foregoing environmental 

assessment, the NRC finds that the 

proposed action of granting the 

exemption from the regulations in 10 

CFR 72.212(a)(2), 72.212(b)(3), 

72.212(b)(5)(i), 72.212(b)(11) and 

72.214, which require the licensee to 

comply with the terms, conditions, and 

specifications of the CoC, in this case 

limited to the past and specific future 

loading of baskets with the CBS variant 

design, would not significantly impact 

the quality of the human environment. 

Accordingly, the NRC has determined 

that a finding of no significant impact 

(FONSI) is appropriate, and an 

environmental impact statement is not 

warranted. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1
104236 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 245 / Friday, December 20, 2024 / Notices 

IV. Availability of Documents 

The documents identified in the 

following table are available to 

interested persons through one or more 

of the following methods, as indicated. 

Document description 

ADAMS Accession No. or 

Federal Register 

notice 

CEG’s request for exemption, dated September 19, 2024 ............................................................................................ ML24263A206. 

Certificate of Compliance No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1, dated February 10, 2016 ............................ ML16041A233 (Package). 

Holtec International, Inc.—Notice of Violation; The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspection Report No. 

07201014/2022–201, EA–23–044, dated January 30, 2024.

ML24016A190. 

10 CFR part 72 amendment to allow spent fuel storage in NRC-approved casks, July 18, 1990 ............................... 55 FR 29181. 

EA for part 72 amendment to allow spent fuel storage in NRC-approved casks, March 8, 1989 ................................ ML051230231. 

Final rule for List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks: Holtec International HI–STORM 100 Cask System, Certificate of Compliance No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision 1, dated August 18, 2015.80 FR 49887. 

Safety Determination of a Potential Structural Failure of the Fuel Basket During Accident Conditions for the HI– 

STORM 100 and HI–STORM Flood/Wind Dry Cask Storage Systems, dated January 31, 2024.

ML24018A085. 

NRC email to IL–IEMA–OHS, ‘‘State’s review of EA/FONSI for LSCS Exemption,’’ dated November 22, 2024 ......... ML24337A059. 

IL–IEMA–OHS email, ‘‘State’s response regarding EA/FONSI for LSCS Exemption,’’ dated November 27, 2024 ..... ML24337A057. 

Dated: December 16, 2024. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Yoira Diaz-Sanabria, 

Chief, Storage and Transportation Licensing 

Branch, Division of Fuel Management, Office 

of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. 

[FR Doc. 2024–30364 Filed 12–19–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

[NRC–2024–0001] 

Sunshine Act Meetings 

TIME AND DATE: Weeks of December 23, 

30, 2024 and January 6, 13, 20, 27, 2025. 

The schedule for Commission meetings 

is subject to change on short notice. The 

NRC Commission Meeting Schedule can 

be found on the internet at: https://

www.nrc.gov/public-involve/publicmeetings/schedule.html. 

PLACE: The NRC provides reasonable 

accommodation to individuals with 

disabilities where appropriate. If you 

need a reasonable accommodation to 

participate in these public meetings or 

need this meeting notice or the 

transcript or other information from the 

public meetings in another format (e.g., 

braille, large print), please notify Anne 

Silk, NRC Disability Program Specialist, 

at 301–287–0745, by videophone at 

240–428–3217, or by email at 

Anne.Silk@nrc.gov. Determinations on 

requests for reasonable accommodation 

will be made on a case-by-case basis. 

STATUS: Public. 

Members of the public may request to 

receive the information in these notices 

electronically. If you would like to be 

added to the distribution, please contact 

the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 

Office of the Secretary, Washington, DC 

20555, at 301–415–1969, or by email at 

Betty.Thweatt@nrc.gov or 

Samantha.Miklaszewski@nrc.gov. 

MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED: 

Week of December 23, 2024 

There are no meetings scheduled for 

the week of December 23, 2024. 

Week of December 30, 2024—Tentative 

There are no meetings scheduled for 

the week of December 30, 2024. 

Week of January 6, 2025—Tentative 

There are no meetings scheduled for 

the week of January 6, 2025. 

Week of January 13, 2025—Tentative 

Tuesday, January 14, 2025 

9:00 a.m. Strategic Programmatic 

Overview of the Decommissioning 

and Low-Level Waste and Nuclear 

Materials Users Business Lines 

(Public Meeting), (Contact: Araceli 

Billoch Colon: 301–415–3302) 

Additional Information: The meeting 

will be held in the Commissioners’ 

Hearing Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, 

Rockville, Maryland. The public is 

invited to attend the Commission’s 

meeting in person or watch live via 

webcast at the Web address—https://

video.nrc.gov/. 

Week of January 20, 2025—Tentative 

There are no meetings scheduled for 

the week of January 20, 2025. 

Week of January 27, 2025—Tentative 

There are no meetings scheduled for 

the week of January 27, 2025. 

CONTACT PERSON FOR MORE INFORMATION: 

For more information or to verify the 

status of meetings, contact Wesley Held 

at 301–287–3591 or via email at 

Wesley.Held@nrc.gov. 

The NRC is holding the meetings 

under the authority of the Government 

in the Sunshine Act, 5 U.S.C. 552b. 

Dated: December 18, 2024. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Wesley W. Held, 

Policy Coordinator, Office of the Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2024–30590 Filed 12–18–24; 4:15 pm] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

[Docket Nos. 50–354, 50–272, 50–311, 50– 

277, and 50–278; CEQ ID SEIS–429–00–000– 

1732152679; NRC–2024–0206] 

PSEG Nuclear, LLC; Hope Creek 

Generating Station; Salem Generating 

Station, Units 1 and 2; and Peach 

Bottom Atomic Power Station, Units 2 

and 3; Environmental Assessment and 

Finding of No Significant Impact 

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Notice; issuance. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC) is considering 

issuance of exemptions in response to 

the May 28, 2024, request from PSEG 

Nuclear, LLC (the licensee) for Hope 

Creek Generating Station (Hope Creek); 

Salem Generating Station, Units 1 and 2 

(Salem); and Peach Bottom Atomic 

Power Station, Units 2 and 3 (Peach 

Bottom). The exemptions would allow 

the licensee to periodically transfer 

earnings from funds dedicated for 

radiological decommissioning activities 

in its nuclear decommissioning trust 

(NDT) into separately maintained 

subaccounts within the NDT for certain 

activities not within the definition of 

‘‘decommission’’ in NRC regulations 

without prior NRC notification. The 

NRC staff is issuing an environmental 

assessment (EA) and finding of no 

significant impact (FONSI) associated 

with the proposed exemptions. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1