Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 200 / Monday, October 18, 2010 / Notices 63867 

5. The number of annual respondents: 

372. 

6. The number of hours needed 

annually to complete the requirement or 

request: 89,465 hours (81,785 reporting 

+ 7,700 recordkeeping) or an average of 

125 hours per response (81,765 

reporting burden hours/655 responses) 

and an average of 13 hours per 

recordkeeper (7,700 recordkeeping 

burden hours/61 recordkeepers). 

7. Abstract: 10 CFR Part 70 establishes 

requirements for licenses to won, 

acquire, receive, possess, use, and 

transfer special nuclear material. The 

information in the applications, reports, 

and records is used by NRC to make 

licensing and other regulatory 

determinations concerning the use of 

special nuclear material. The revised 

estimate of burden reflects the addition 

of requirements for documentation for 

termination or transfer of licensed 

activities, and modifying licenses. 

Submit, by December 17, 2010, 

comments that address the following 

questions: 

1. Is the proposed collection of 

information necessary for the NRC to 

properly perform its functions? Does the 

information have practical utility? 

2. Is the burden estimate accurate? 

3. Is there a way to enhance the 

quality, utility, and clarity of the 

information to be collected? 

4. How can the burden of the 

information collection be minimized, 

including the use of automated 

collection techniques or other forms of 

information technology? 

A copy of the draft supporting 

statement may be viewed free of charge 

at the NRC Public Document Room, One 

White Flint North, 11555 Rockville 

Pike, Room O–1 F21, Rockville, MD 

20852. OMB clearance requests are 

available at the NRC worldwide Web 

site: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/

doc-comment/omb/index.html. The 

document will be available on the NRC 

home page site for 60 days after the 

signature date of this notice. Comments 

submitted in writing or in electronic 

form will be made available for public 

inspection. Because your comments will 

not be edited to remove any identifying 

or contact information, the NRC 

cautions you against including any 

information in your submission that you 

do not want to be publicly disclosed. 

Comments submitted should reference 

Docket No. NRC–2010–0322. You may 

submit your comments by any of the 

following methods. Electronic 

comments: Go to http:// 

www.regulations.gov and search for 

Docket No. NRC–2010–0322. Mail 

comments to NRC Clearance Officer, 

Tremaine Donnell (T–5 F53), U.S. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 

Washington, DC 20555–0001. Questions 

about the information collection 

requirements may be directed to the 

NRC Clearance Officer, Tremaine 

Donnell (T–5 F53), U.S. Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission, Washington, 

DC 20555–0001, by telephone at 301– 

415–6258, or by e-mail to 

INFOCOLLECTS.Resource@NRC.GOV. 

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, October 8, 

2010. 

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Tremaine Donnell, 

NRC Clearance Officer, Office of Information 

Services. 

[FR Doc. 2010–26151 Filed 10–15–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

NUCLEAR REGULATORY 

COMMISSION 

[Docket No. 50–16; NRC–2010–0328 

DTE Energy; Enrico Fermi Atomic 

Power Plant Unit 1, Exemption From 

Certain Security Requirements 

1.0 Background 

DTE Energy (DTE) is the licensee and 

holder of Facility Operating License No. 

DPR–9 issued for Enrico Fermi Atomic 

Power Plant, Unit 1 (Fermi 1), located 

in Monroe County, Michigan. Fermi 1 is 

a permanently shutdown nuclear reactor 

facility. The license provides, among 

other things, that the licensee is subject 

to the rules, regulations, and orders of 

the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC or the Commission) 

now or hereafter in effect. 

Fermi 1 was a fast breeder reactor 

power plant cooled by sodium and 

operated at essentially atmospheric 

pressure. In November 1972, the Power 

Reactor Development Company (PRDC), 

the licensee at that time, made the 

decision to decommission Fermi 1. The 

fuel and blanket subassemblies were 

shipped offsite in 1973. Most of the 

decommissioning of the Fermi 1 plant 

was completed in December 1975. The 

facility is permanently shut down and 

defueled and the licensee is no longer 

authorized to operate or place fuel in 

the reactor. The license for Fermi 1 

expires in 2025. 

Fuel for the Fermi 1 reactor was 

assigned to the project under an Atomic 

Energy Commission (AEC) lease 

agreement. At the time of 

decommissioning, consistent with the 

lease agreement, the AEC agreed to 

accept the fuel from Fermi 1 at its 

Savannah River Project (SRP) facility. 

The first shipment of fuel from the site 

was made on February 6, 1973. On May 

15, 1973, the last shipment of fuel 

arrived at the SRP. Disposal of all the 

blanket subassemblies, which contained 

special nuclear material (SNM), was 

accomplished by shipment to the Idaho 

Chemical Processing Plant. A letter 

dated November 6, 1975, from the 

PRDC, documented the completed 

removal from the site of the fuel and 

blanket material containing SNM. 

By letter dated November 26, 1996, 

the licensee requested that the NRC 

clarify the applicability of certain 

recently revised NRC regulations to 

Fermi 1, including 10 CFR 50.54(p), 

which addresses the safeguards 

contingency plan. In the NRC’s 

response, dated June 25, 1997, the staff 

determined that the physical protection 

for Fermi 1 was adequate without the 

safeguards contingency plan based on 

the prior removal of the SNM from the 

Fermi 1 site and the non-operational 

status of the facility, but the NRC did 

not specifically grant an exemption from 

10 CFR 50.54(p). 

Fermi 1 is currently licensed to 

possess not more than 15 grams of 

uranium-235, uranium-233 or 

plutonium, or any combination thereof, 

with plutonium activity totaling no 

more than 2 curies. The licensee is 

permitted to possess this nominal 

quantity of SNM due to material that 

may remain in plant systems or be 

associated with radioactive apparatus or 

equipment. The 15 gram and 2 curie 

limit was considered a minimal quantity 

and was below the criteria requiring 

emergency planning, criticality 

monitoring, or material status reports 

per 10 CFR Part 70 and 10 CFR Part 74. 

2.0 Action 

Section 50.54(p)(1) of Title 10 of the 

Code of Federal Regulations states, ‘‘The 

licensee shall prepare and maintain 

safeguards contingency plan procedures 

in accordance with Appendix C of Part 

73 of this chapter for affecting the 

actions and decisions contained in the 

Responsibility Matrix of the safeguards 

contingency plan.’’ 

Part 73 of Title 10 of the Code of 

Federal Regulations, ‘‘Physical 

Protection of Plant and Materials,’’ 

provides, ‘‘This part prescribes 

requirements for the establishment and 

maintenance of a physical protection 

system which will have capabilities for 

the protection of special nuclear 

material at fixed sites and in transit and 

of plants in which special nuclear 

material is used.’’ In Section 73.55, 

entitled ‘‘Requirements for physical 

protection of licensed activities in 

nuclear power reactors against 

radiological sabotage,’’ paragraph (b)(1) 

states, ‘‘The licensee shall establish and 

maintain a physical protection program, 

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63868 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 200 / Monday, October 18, 2010 / Notices 

to include a security organization, 

which will have as its objective to 

provide high assurance that activities 

involving special nuclear material are 

not inimical to the common defense and 

security and do not constitute an 

unreasonable risk to the public health 

and safety.’’ 

The NRC revised 10 CFR 73.55, in 

part to include the preceding language, 

through the issuance of a final rule on 

March 27, 2009. The revised regulation 

stated that it was applicable to all Part 

50 licensees. The NRC became aware 

that many Part 50 licensee’s with 

facilities in decommissioning status did 

not recognize the applicability of this 

regulation to their facility. Accordingly, 

the NRC informed licensees with 

facilities in decommissioning status and 

other stakeholders that the requirements 

of 10 CFR 73.55 were applicable to all 

Part 50 licensees. By letter dated August 

4, 2010, the NRC informed DTE of the 

applicability of the revised rule and that 

it would have to comply with the 

revised rule or request an exemption. 

Subsequent discussions with the 

licensee indicated that it believed that 

the June 25, 1997, letter from the NRC 

had relieved DTE of the requirement to 

implement the security requirements of 

10 CFR Parts 50 and 73 due to the 

removal of SNM from the site. Because 

the licensee reasonably and in good 

faith believed that the staff had relieved 

DTE from the SNM security 

requirements through the June 25, 1997, 

letter; the logic and conclusions of the 

June 25, 1997, letter still apply today; 

and the licensee’s security programs 

meet the baseline requirements of the 

previous version of Section 73.55 and 

the requirements in subsequent security 

orders; the NRC staff is considering, 

upon its own initiative, the issuance of 

an exemption from the security 

requirements of 10 CFR 50.54(p) and 10 

CFR Part 73 for Fermi 1 to clarify the 

record and avoid further confusion. 

3.0 Discussion 

Pursuant to 10 CFR 50.12, the 

Commission may, upon application by 

any interested person or upon its own 

initiative, grant exemptions from the 

requirements of 10 CFR Part 50, when 

(1) the exemptions are authorized by 

law, will not present an undue risk to 

public health or safety, and are 

consistent with the common defense 

and security; and (2) when special 

circumstances are present. Special 

circumstances are present when 

application of the regulation in the 

particular circumstances would not 

serve the underlying purpose of the rule 

and when compliance would result in 

costs significantly in excess of those 

incurred by others similarly situated. 

Also, pursuant to 10 CFR 73.5, ‘‘Specific 

exemptions,’’ the Commission may grant 

exemptions from the regulations in this 

part 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. 

The security requirements of 10 CFR 

Part 73, as applicable to a 10 CFR Part 

50 licensed facility, presume that the 

purpose of the facility is to possess and 

utilize SNM. With the completion of the 

spent fuel transfer to the AEC in 1973, 

there is no longer any SNM located 

within the Fermi-1, 10 CFR Part 50 

licensed site other than that contained 

in plant systems as residual 

contamination. With the removal of the 

fuel and blanket material containing 

SNM, the potential for radiological 

sabotage or diversion of SNM at the 10 

CFR Part 50 licensed site was 

eliminated. Therefore, the continued 

application of the 10 CFR Part 73 

requirements to the Fermi 1 facility 

would no longer be necessary to achieve 

the underlying purpose of the rule. 

Additionally, as has been noted at other 

decommissioning nuclear power 

facilities, with the removal of the spent 

nuclear fuel and blanket material from 

the site, the 10 CFR Part 50 licensed site 

would be comparable to a source and 

byproduct licensee that uses general 

industrial security (i.e. locks and 

barriers) to protect the public health and 

safety. The continued application of 10 

CFR Part 73 security requirements 

would cause the licensee to expend 

significantly more funds for security 

requirements than other source and 

byproduct facilities. Therefore, 

compliance with 10 CFR Part 73 would 

result in costs significantly in excess of 

those incurred by others similarly 

situated. Based on the above, the NRC 

has determined that the lack of the fuel 

and blanket material containing SNM at 

the 10 CFR Part 50 licensed site 

constitutes special circumstances. The 

possession and responsibility for the 

security of the SNM was transferred to 

the AEC and is no longer the 

responsibility of the licensee. Therefore, 

protection of the SNM is no longer a 

requirement of the licensee’s 10 CFR 

Part 50 license. With no SNM to protect, 

there is no need for a safeguards 

contingency plan or procedures, 

physical security plan, guard training 

and qualification plan, or cyber security 

plan for the Fermi-1, 10 CFR Part 50 

licensed site. 

4.0 Conclusion 

Accordingly, the Commission has 

determined that, pursuant to 10 CFR 

50.12(a), an exemption is authorized by 

law, will not present an undue risk to 

the public health and safety, and is 

consistent with the common defense 

and security based on the continued 

maintenance of appropriate security 

requirements for the SNM. Additionally, 

special circumstances are present based 

on the removal of the spent nuclear fuel 

and blanket material from the 10 CFR 

Part 50 licensed site. Therefore, the 

Commission hereby grants DTE an 

exemption from the requirements of 10 

CFR 50.54(p) at Fermi 1. 

Accordingly, the Commission has 

determined that, pursuant to 10 CFR 

73.5, an exemption is authorized by law, 

will not endanger life or property or the 

common defense and security, and is 

otherwise in the public interest based 

on the security requirements for the 

spent fuel and blanket material 

containing SNM no longer being the 

responsibility of the licensee. Therefore, 

the Commission hereby grants DTE an 

exemption from the physical protection 

requirements of 10 CFR Part 73 at Fermi 

1. 

The Commission has determined that 

this licensing action meets the 

categorical exclusion provision in 10 

CFR 51.22(c)(25), as this action is an 

exemption from the requirements of the 

commission’s regulations and (i) there is 

no significant hazards consideration; (ii) 

there is no significant change in the 

types or significant increase in the 

amounts of any effluents that may be 

released offsite; (iii) there is no 

significant increase in individual or 

cumulative public or occupational 

radiation exposure; (iv) there is no 

significant construction impact; (iv) 

there is no significant increase in the 

potential for or consequences from 

radiological accidents; and (v) the 

requirements from which an exemption 

is sought involve safeguard plans. 

Therefore, this action does not require 

either an environmental assessment or 

an environmental impact statement. 

These exemptions are effective 

immediately. 

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, October 8, 

2010. 

For The Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Keith I. McConnell, 

Deputy Director, Decommissioning and 

Uranium Recovery Licensing Directorate, 

Division of Waste Management and 

Environmental Protection, Office of Federal 

and State Materials and Environmental 

Management Programs. 

[FR Doc. 2010–26155 Filed 10–15–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7590–01–P 

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