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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 4 (Tuesday, January 7, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1198-1201]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-00116]

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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; Exemption

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice; issuance.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued an 
exemption to Constellation Energy Generation, LLC, permitting LaSalle 
County Station (LSCS) to maintain four loaded and to load four new 68M 
multi-purpose canister with continuous basket shims in HI-STORM 100 
Cask System at its LSCS Units 1 and 2 independent spent fuel storage 
installation in a storage condition where the terms, conditions, and 
specifications in the Certificate of Compliance No. 1014, Amendment No. 
8, Revision No. 1, are not met.

DATES: The exemption was issued 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: [email protected]. 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 [email protected]. The ADAMS accession number for 
each document referenced (if it is available in ADAMS) is provided the 
first time that it is mentioned in this document.
     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 
[email protected] 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: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The text of the exemption is attached.

    Dated: January 2, 2025.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Yen-Ju Chen,
Acting Chief, Storage and Transportation Licensing Branch, Division of 
Fuel Management, Office of Nuclear Material Safety, and Safeguards.

Attachment--Exemption

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Docket Nos. 72-70, 50-373, and 50-374

Constellation Energy Generation, LLC; LaSalle County Station Units 1 
and 2; Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation

I. Background

    Constellation Energy Generation, LLC (CEG), is the holder of 
Renewed Facility Operating Licenses Nos. NPF-11 and NPF-18, which 
authorize operation of the LaSalle County Station, (LSCS) Units 1 and 2 
in Marseilles, Illinois, pursuant to Part 50 of Title 10 of the Code of 
Federal Regulations (10 CFR), ``Domestic Licensing of Production and 
Utilization Facilities.'' The licenses provide, among other things, 
that the facility is subject to all rules, regulations, and orders of 
the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) now or hereafter in 
effect.
    Consistent with 10 CFR part 72, subpart K, ``General License for 
Storage of Spent Fuel at Power Reactor Sites,''

[[Page 1199]]

a general license is issued for the storage of spent fuel in an 
Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) at power reactor 
sites to persons authorized to possess or operate nuclear power 
reactors under 10 CFR part 50. CEG is authorized to operate nuclear 
power reactors under 10 CFR part 50 and holds a 10 CFR part 72 general 
license for storage of spent fuel at the LSCS ISFSI. Under the terms of 
the general license, CEG stores spent fuel at its LSCS ISFSI using the 
HI-STORM 100 Cask System in accordance with Certificate of Compliance 
(CoC) No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1.

II. Request/Action

    By a letter dated September 19, 2024 (Agencywide Documents Access 
and Management System [ADAMS] Accession No. ML24263A206), CEG requested 
an exemption 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 that require 
LSCS to comply with the terms, conditions, and specifications of the 
CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1 (ML16041A233). If 
approved, CEG's exemption request would accordingly allow LSCS to 
maintain four loaded and to load, in the future loading campaign 
beginning in June 2025, four Multi-Purpose Canisters (MPCs) with an 
unapproved, variant basket design with continuous basket shims (CBS) 
(i.e., MPC-68M-CBS) in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System, and thus, to 
maintain and load the systems in a storage condition where the terms, 
conditions, and specifications in the CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, 
Revision No. 1, are not met.
    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 MPC-68M at the LSCS ISFSI. Holtec International (Holtec), the 
designer and manufacturer of the HI-STORM 100 Cask System, developed a 
variant of the design with CBS for the MPC-68M, known as MPC-68M-CBS. 
Holtec performed a non-mechanistic tip-over analysis with favorable 
results and implemented the CBS variant design under the provisions of 
10 CFR 72.48, ``Changes, tests, and experiments,'' 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 is not the type of change allowed without a CoC amendment. For 
this reason, the NRC issued three Severity Level IV violations to 
Holtec (ML24016A190).
    Prior to the issuance of the violation, CEG had loaded four MPC-
68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System, which are safely in storage at 
the LSCS ISFSI. CEG's future loading campaign for the LSCS ISFSI 
includes loading four MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System 
beginning in June 2025. While Holtec was required to submit a CoC 
amendment to the NRC to seek approval of the CBS variant design, such a 
process will not be completed in time to inform decisions for this 
future loading campaign. Therefore, CEG submitted this exemption 
request in order to allow for the continued storage of the four already 
loaded MPC-68-CBS, and future loading of four MPC-68M-CBS, beginning in 
June 2025, at the LSCS ISFSI. This exemption is limited to the use of 
MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System only for the four already 
loaded canisters and the specific planned loading of four new canisters 
beginning in June 2025.

III. Discussion

    Pursuant to 10 CFR 72.7, ``Specific exemptions,'' the Commission 
may, upon application by any interested person or upon its own 
initiative, grant such exemptions from the requirements of the 
regulations of 10 CFR part 72 as it determines are authorized by law 
and will not endanger life or property or the common defense and 
security and are otherwise in the public interest.

A. The Exemption Is Authorized by Law

    This exemption would allow CEG to maintain four loaded and to load 
four MPC-68M-CBS in the future loading campaign beginning in June 2025, 
in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System at its 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. CEG is 
requesting an exemption from the provisions in 10 CFR part 72 that 
require the licensee to comply with the terms, conditions, and 
specifications of the CoC for the approved cask model it uses. Section 
72.7 allows the NRC to grant exemptions from the requirements of 10 CFR 
part 72. This authority to grant exemptions is consistent with the 
Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and is not otherwise 
inconsistent with NRC's regulations or other applicable laws. 
Additionally, no other law prohibits the activities that would be 
authorized by the exemption. Therefore, the NRC concludes that there is 
no statutory prohibition on the issuance of the requested exemption, 
and the NRC is authorized to grant the exemption by law.

B. The Exemption Will Not Endanger Life or Property or the Common 
Defense and Security

    This exemption would allow CEG to maintain four loaded and to load 
four MPC-68M-CBS in the future loading campaign beginning in June 2025, 
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. In support of 
its exemption request, CEG asserts that issuance of the exemption would 
not endanger life or property because the administrative controls the 
applicant has in place prevent a tip-over or handling event, and that 
the containment boundary would be maintained in such an event. CEG 
relies, in part, on the approach in the NRC's Safety Determination 
Memorandum (ML24018A085). The NRC issued this Safety Determination 
Memorandum to address whether, with respect to the enforcement action 
against Holtec regarding this violation, there was any need to take an 
immediate action for the cask systems that were already loaded with 
non-compliant basket designs. The Safety Determination Memorandum 
documents a risk-informed approach concluding that, during the design 
basis event of a non-mechanistic tip-over, the fuel in the basket in 
the MPC-68M-CBS remains in a subcritical condition.
    CEG also provided site-specific technical information, including 
information explaining why the use of the approach in the NRC's Safety 
Determination Memorandum is appropriate for determining the safe use of 
the CBS variant baskets at the LSCS ISFSI. Specifically, CEG described 
that the analysis of the tip-over design basis event that is relied 
upon in the NRC's Safety Determination Memorandum, which demonstrates 
that the MPC confinement barrier is maintained, is documented in the 
updated final safety analysis report (UFSAR) for the HI-STORM 100 Cask 
System CoC No. 1014, Amendment 8, Revision No. 1, that is used at the 
LSCS site. CEG also described its administrative controls for handling 
of the HI-STORM 100 Cask System at the LSCS ISFSI to prevent a tip-over 
or handling event. Those controls include operational procedures that 
demonstrate the system is handled with a single failure proof device in 
accordance with NUREG-0554 (ML110450636), ``Single-Failure-Proof Cranes 
for Nuclear Power Plants, NUREG-0612, ``Control of Heavy Loads

[[Page 1200]]

at Nuclear Power Plants'' (ML070250180), and ANSI N14.6, ``for 
Radioactive Materials--Special Lifting Devices for Shipping Containers 
Weighing 10 000 Pounds (4500 kg) or More,'' and employing redundant 
drop protection features which comply with CoC No. 1014, Amendment 8, 
Revision No. 1, Appendix A.
    Additionally, CEG provided specific information from LSCS's 72.212 
Evaluation Report, Revision 9, indicating that during the design basis 
event of a non-mechanistic tip-over, LSCS's ISFSI would meet the 
requirements in 10 CFR 72.104, ``Criteria for radioactive materials in 
effluents and direct radiation from an ISFSI or MRS,'' and 10 CFR 
72.106, ``Controlled area of an ISFSI or MRS.'' Specifically, CEG 
described that, in the highly unlikely event of a tip-over, any 
potential fuel damage from a non-mechanistic tip-over event would be 
localized, the confinement barrier would be maintained, and the 
shielding material would remain intact. Coupled with the distance of 
the LSCS ISFSI to the site area boundary, CEG concluded that compliance 
with 72.104 and 72.106 is not impacted by approving this exemption 
request.
    The NRC staff reviewed the information provided by CEG and 
concludes that issuance of the exemption would not endanger life or 
property because the administrative controls that CEG has in place at 
the LSCS ISFSI sufficiently minimize the possibility of a tip-over or 
handling event, and that the containment boundary would be maintained 
in such an event. The staff confirmed that these administrative 
controls are documented in the technical specifications and UFSAR for 
the HI-STORM 100 Cask System CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision 
No. 1, that is used at the LSCS site. In addition, the staff confirmed 
that the information provided by CEG regarding LSCS's 72.212 Evaluation 
Report, Revision 9, demonstrates that the consequences of normal and 
accident conditions would be within the regulatory limits of the 10 CFR 
72.104 and 10 CFR 72.106. The staff also determined that the requested 
exemption is not related to any aspect of the physical security or 
defense of the LSCS ISFSI; therefore, granting the exemption would not 
result in any potential impacts to common defense and security.
    For these reasons, the NRC staff has determined that under the 
requested exemption, the storage system will continue to meet the 
safety requirements of 10 CFR part 72 and the offsite dose limits of 10 
CFR part 20 and, therefore, will not endanger life or property or the 
common defense and security.

C. The Exemption Is Otherwise in the Public Interest

    The proposed exemption would allow the four already loaded MPC-68M-
CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System to remain in storage at the LSCS 
ISFSI, and allow CEG to load four MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask 
System in the future loading campaign beginning in June 2025, at the 
LSCS ISFSI, even though the CBS variant basket design is not part of 
the approved CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1. According 
to CEG, the exemption is in the public interest because being unable to 
load fuel into dry storage in the future loading campaign would impact 
CEG's ability to offload fuel from the LSCS reactor units, consequently 
impacting continued safe reactor operation.
    CEG stated that further delaying the future loading campaign would 
impact its ability to effectively manage the margin to full core 
discharge capability in the LSCS Units 1 and 2 spent fuel pools. The 
low spent fuel pool capacity would make it difficult to refuel and 
present potential risks to fuel handling operations. In addition, a 
crowded spent fuel pool would challenge the decay heat removal demand 
of the pool and increase the likelihood of a loss of fuel pool cooling 
event and a fuel handling accident. Furthermore, CEG loading campaigns 
are scheduled based on availability of the specialized work force and 
equipment that is shared throughout the CEG fleet. These specialty 
resources support multiple competing priorities, including refueling 
outages, loading campaigns, fuel pool cleanouts, fuel inspections, fuel 
handling equipment upgrades and maintenance, fuel sipping, new fuel 
receipt, and crane maintenance and upgrades. Therefore, the available 
windows to complete cask loading campaigns are limited, and any delays 
would have a cascading impact on other scheduled specialized 
activities. CEG also considered requesting that Holtec provide eight 
(8) 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 19 of the HISTORM 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.
    For the reasons described by CEG in the exemption request, the NRC 
agrees that it is in the public interest to grant the exemption. If the 
exemption is not granted, in order to comply with the CoC, CEG would 
have to unload MPC-68M-CBS from the HI-STORM 100 Cask System at the 
LSCS ISFSI and reload into the older design MPC-68M to restore 
compliance with the terms, conditions, and specifications of the CoC. 
This would subject onsite personnel to additional radiation exposures 
and increase the risk of a possible fuel handling accident. 
Furthermore, the removed spent fuel would need to be placed in the 
spent fuel pool until it can be loaded into another storage cask or 
remain in the spent fuel pool if it is not permitted to be loaded into 
CBS casks for the future loadings. As described by CEG, this scenario 
would affect CEG's ability to effectively manage the margin to full 
core discharge capacity and present a potential reactivity management 
risk to fuel handling operations during pre- and post-refueling outages 
at LSCS. In addition, the rescheduling of the specialized resources for 
the future loading campaign would impact the operations of LSCS.
    Therefore, the staff concludes that approving the exemption is in 
the public interest.
Environmental Consideration
    The NRC staff also considered whether there would be any 
significant environmental impacts associated with the exemption. For 
this proposed action, the NRC staff performed an environmental 
assessment pursuant to 10 CFR 51.30. The environmental assessment 
concluded that the proposed action would not significantly impact the 
quality of the human environment. The NRC staff concluded that the 
proposed action would not result in any changes in the types or amounts 
of any radiological or non-radiological effluents that may be released 
offsite, and there would be no significant increase in occupational or 
public radiation exposure because of the proposed action. The 
environmental assessment and the finding of no significant impact was 
published on December 20, 2024 (89 FR 104234).

IV. Conclusion

    Based on these considerations, the NRC has determined that, 
pursuant to 10 CFR 72.7, the exemption is authorized by law, will not 
endanger life or property or the common defense and security, and is 
otherwise in the public interest. Therefore, the NRC grants CEG an 
exemption from the

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requirements of Sec. Sec.  72.212(a)(2), 72.212(b)(3), 72.212(b)(5)(i), 
72.212(b)(11), and 72.214 with respect to the ongoing storage of four 
MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System and a future loading in the 
HI-STORM 100 Cask System of four new MPC-68M-CBS beginning in June 
2025.
    This exemption is effective upon issuance.

    Dated: December 20, 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. 2025-00116 Filed 1-6-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
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