23820 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 85 / Tuesday, May 4, 2010 / Notices 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

[Docket No. 72–10; NRC–2009–0534] 

Notice of Docketing of Amendment 

Request for Materials License No. 

SNM–2506; Northern States Power 

Company, a Minnesota Corporation; 

Prairie Island Independent Spent Fuel 

Storage Installation 

AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission. 

ACTION: Notice of docketing of 

amendment request for materials license 

No. SNM–2506. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Pamela Longmire, Ph.D., Project 

Manager, Licensing Branch, Division of 

Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation, 

Office of Nuclear Material Safety and 

Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission, Washington, DC 20555– 

0001. Telephone: (301) 492–3562; fax 

number: (301) 492–3350; e-mail: 

Pamela.Longmire@nrc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Introduction 

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC or Commission) is 

considering an application dated March 

28, 2008, as supplemented by letter 

dated August 29, 2008, from Nuclear 

Management Company, LLC (NMC; now 

Northern States Power Company, a 

Minnesota Corporation) to amend its 

Special Nuclear Materials License No. 

SNM–2506, under the provisions of 10 

CFR part 72, for the receipt, possession, 

storage and transfer of spent fuel, 

reactor-related Greater than Class C 

waste and other radioactive materials 

associated with spent fuel storage at the 

Prairie Island Independent Spent Fuel 

Storage Installation (ISFSI), located at 

the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating 

Plant (PINGP), Unit Nos. 1 and 2, site in 

Goodhue County, Minnesota. 

The TN–40 cask is currently used at 

the Prairie Island ISFSI for storage of 

spent fuel with characteristics defined 

in the existing technical specifications. 

The fuel characteristics limit the fuel 

that can be stored in the TN–40 cask to 

a maximum enrichment of 3.85 weight 

percent (w/o) U–235 and a maximum 

burnup of 45,000 MWd/MTU. Since the 

early 1990s, NMC has used fuel with 

initial enrichment up to 5.0 w/o U–235. 

These higher enriched fuels received 

burnup up to 60,000 MWd/MTU while 

in the PINGP reactor. After being 

removed from the PINGP reactor, these 

higher enriched, higher burnup spent 

fuels must be placed in, and must 

remain in, the reactor’s spent fuel pool 

(i.e., wet storage) as the TN–40 cask 

design does not allow for dry storage of 

such higher enriched, higher burnup 

spent fuel. If granted, the amendment 

will approve the NMC’s proposed 

modification of the TN–40 cask design 

(to be known as the TN–40HT) for dry 

storage of the higher enriched, higher 

burnup spent fuel used in the PINGP 

reactor as well as associated changes to 

the ISFSI’s technical specifications and 

the reformatting of those technical 

specifications. The TN–40HT casks, 

once loaded with the higher enriched, 

higher burnup spent fuel, will be placed 

in the Prairie Island ISFSI. 

There are currently 23 loaded TN–40 

casks at the Prairie Island ISFSI. The 

ISFSI is licensed for a maximum of 48 

casks. Roughly, 250 spent fuel 

assemblies meeting the TN–40 

parameters remain in wet storage, so an 

additional 6 casks of the TN–40 design 

could still be loaded and placed on the 

ISFSI pad. At that point (in 2013, when 

the Unit 1 license, and the ISFSI license, 

are scheduled to expire), NMC would 

need a new cask design to accommodate 

additional dry storage of the higher 

enriched, higher burnup fuels used at 

Prairie Island to support continued 

plant operation. The dry storage of 

higher enriched, higher burnup spent 

fuel in the modified TN–40HT cask is 

also necessary to support continued 

operation of the PINGP following plant 

license renewal, if granted. 

This application was docketed under 

10 CFR 72.16; the ISFSI Docket No. is 

72–10 and will remain the same for this 

action. The NRC inadvertently failed to 

promptly publish this notice of 

docketing in the Federal Register after 

the NRC’s receipt of the NMC March 28, 

2008, license amendment request. All 

other procedural requirements in Part 

72 will be met as the NRC continues to 

process this license amendment request 

(see section II of this notice, 

‘‘Opportunity to Request a Hearing’’). 

On November 24, 2009, the 

Commission issued a ‘‘Notice of 

Availability of Environmental 

Assessment and Finding of No 

Significant Impact,’’ for this action. This 

notice was published in the Federal 

Register on December 4, 2009 (74 FR 

63798). The Commission will approve 

the license amendment if it determines 

that the application meets the standards 

and requirements of the Atomic Energy 

Act of 1954, as amended (the Act) and 

the Commission’s regulations, and 

pursuant to 10 CFR 72.58, the findings 

required by 10 CFR 72.40. These 

findings will be documented in a Safety 

Evaluation Report. 

II. Opportunity To Request a Hearing 

The Commission may issue either a 

notice of hearing or a notice of proposed 

action and opportunity for hearing in 

accordance with 10 CFR 72.46(b)(1) or, 

if a determination is made that the 

amendment does not present a genuine 

issue as to whether public health and 

safety will be significantly affected, take 

immediate action on the amendment in 

accordance with 10 CFR 72.46(b)(2) and 

provide notice of the action taken and 

an opportunity for interested persons to 

request a hearing on whether the action 

should be rescinded or modified. 

III. Further Information 

Documents related to this action, 

including the application for 

amendment and supporting 

documentation, are available 

electronically at the NRC’s Electronic 

Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/ 

reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, 

you can access the NRC’s Agencywide 

Documents Access and Management 

System (ADAMS), which provides text 

and image files of NRC’s public 

documents. The ADAMS accession 

numbers for the documents related to 

this notice are ML081190039, 

ML081190040, ML081230257, 

ML101170260, ML101170254, 

ML082970575, ML090840025, 

ML090840028, ML101170235, 

ML093310293, ML093310303, and 

ML093080332. If you do not have access 

to ADAMS or if there are problems in 

accessing the documents located in 

ADAMS, contact the NRC Public 

Document Room (PDR) Reference staff 

at 1–800–397–4209, 301–415–4737 or 

by e-mail to pdr.resource@nrc.gov. 

These documents may also be viewed 

electronically on the public computers 

located at the NRC’s PDR, O1 F21, One 

White Flint North, 11555 Rockville 

Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR 

reproduction contractor will copy 

documents for a fee. 

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 27th day 

of April 2010. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Pamela Longmire, 

Project Manager, Licensing Branch, Division 

of Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation, 

Office of Nuclear Material Safety and 

Safeguards. 

[FR Doc. 2010–10398 Filed 5–3–10; 8:45 am] 

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