Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2011/03/28/2011-7102/list-of-approved-spent-fuel-storage-casks-hi-storm-floodwind-addition
Timestamp: 2015-08-28 12:49:10
Document Index: 56650782

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 72', 'art 72', 'art 72', 'art 71', 'art 72', 'art 72', 'art 50', 'art 72', 'art 51', 'art 71', '§ 72', '§ 72']

Federal Register | List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks: HI-STORM Flood/Wind Addition
Dates: The final rule is effective June 13, 2011, unless significant adverse comments are received by April 27, 2011. A significant adverse comment is a comment where the commenter explains why the rule would be inappropriate, including challenges to the rule's underlying premise or approach, or would be ineffective or unacceptable without a change. If the rule is withdrawn, timely notice will be published in the Federal Register.
-17022 (4 pages)
Shorter URL: https://federalregister.gov/a/2011-7102 Related Topics
The U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) is amending its regulations to add the HI-STORM Flood/Wind cask system to the “List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks.” This direct final rule allows the holders of power reactor operating licenses to store spent fuel in this approved cask system under a general license.
List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks--Holtec HI-STORM Flood/Wind Addition [NRC-2011-0007] 5 actions from March 28th, 2011 to June 2011
Direct Final Rule Confirmation Effective Date
The final rule is effective June 13, 2011, unless significant adverse comments are received by April 27, 2011. A significant adverse comment is a comment where the commenter explains why the rule would be inappropriate, including challenges to the rule's underlying premise or approach, or would be ineffective or unacceptable without a change. If the rule is withdrawn, timely notice will be published in the Federal Register.
Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for documents filed under Docket ID [NRC-2011-0007]. Address questions about NRC dockets to Carol Gallagher 301-492-3668; e-mail Carol.Gallagher@nrc.gov.
NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS): Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC are available electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this page, the public can gain entry into ADAMS, which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC's PDR Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr.resource@nrc.gov. An electronic copy of the proposed Certificate of Compliance (CoC), Technical Specifications (TS), and preliminary safety evaluation report (SER) can be found under ADAMS Package Accession Number ML103020135. The ADAMS Accession Number for the Holtec international, Inc. (Holtec) application, dated September 18, 2009, is ML092650747.
CoC No. 1032, the TS, the preliminary SER, and the environmental assessment are available for inspection at the NRC's PDR, Room O-1F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. Single copies of these documents may be obtained from Gregory Trussell, Office of Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone 301-415-6445, e-mail Gregory.Trussell@nrc.gov.
Section 218(a) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of 1982, as amended, requires that “the Secretary [of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)] shall establish a demonstration program, in cooperation with the private sector, for the dry storage of spent nuclear fuel at civilian nuclear power reactor sites, with the objective of establishing one or more technologies that the [Nuclear Regulatory] Commission may, by rule, approve for use at the sites of civilian nuclear power reactors without, to the maximum extent practicable, the need for additional site-specific approvals by the Commission.” Section 133 of the NWPA states, in part, that “the Commission shall, by rule, establish procedures for the licensing of any technology approved by the Commission under Section 218(a) for use at the site of any civilian nuclear power reactor.”
To implement this mandate, the NRC approved dry storage of spent nuclear fuel in NRC-approved casks under a general license by publishing a final rule in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) part 72, which added a new Subpart K within 10 CFR part 72, entitled “General License for Storage of Spent Fuel at Power Reactor Sites” (55 FR 29181; July 18, 1990). This rule also established a new Subpart L within 10 CFR part 72, entitled “Approval of Spent Fuel Storage Casks,” which contains procedures and criteria for obtaining NRC approval of spent fuel storage cask designs.
This rule will add the Holtec HI-STORM Flood/Wind (FW) cask system to the list of approved spent fuel storage casks in 10 CFR 72.214. Following the procedures specified in 10 CFR 72.230 of Subpart L, Holtec submitted an application for NRC approval, together with the Safety Analysis Report (SAR) entitled “Safety Analysis Report on the HI-STORM FW System.” The NRC evaluated the Holtec submittal and issued a preliminary SER and a proposed CoC for the HI-STORM FW System.
The HI-STORM FW System provides the following: (1) The ability to store and transport Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) fuel with high initial enrichment (up to 4.8 weight percent uranium-235 planer average) without reliance on burnup or gadolinium credit; (2) the ability to load and store spent nuclear fuel from the longest to the shortest currently, and expected to be produced, in the United States without requiring site crane upgrades; (3) a reduction in the 10 CFR part 71 burnup credit requirement for the Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) basket allowing transportation of 5 weight percent uranium-235 fuel with moderate burnup; (4) enlarged storage cell opening sizes in both PWR and BWR multipurpose canisters (MPC) to ensure distorted irradiated fuel will fit without difficulty and to permit canisterized fuel to be stored in certain designated locations; (5) greater heat rejection capacity with lower peak fuel cladding temperature than the HI-STORM 100 cask system, CoC No. 1014; and (6) a variable weight (HI-TRAC VW) transfer cask that will allow use of the full capacity of a facility's cask crane. The HI-STORM FW System consists of the following major components: HI-STORM FW Overpack, PWR MPC-37, BWR MPC-89, and HI-TRAC VW Transfer Cask.
The NRC finds that the HI-STORM FW System, as designed and when fabricated and used under the conditions specified in its CoC, meets the requirements of 10 CFR part 72. Thus, use of the HI-STORM FW System, as approved by the NRC, will provide adequate protection of public health and safety. With this final rule, the NRC is approving the use of the HI-STORM FW System under the general license in 10 CFR part 72, subpart K, by holders of power reactor operating licenses under 10 CFR part 50. Simultaneously, the NRC is issuing a final SER and CoC that will be effective on June 13, 2011. Single copies of the CoC and SER are available for public inspection and/or copying for a fee at the NRC's Public Document Room, Room O-1F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland.
This direct final rule amends 10 CFR 72.214 by adding CoC No. 1032 to the list of approved spent fuel storage casks.
The HI-STORM FW System, when used under the conditions specified in CoC No. 1032, the TS, and NRC regulations, will meet the requirements of part 72; thus, adequate protection of public health and safety will continue to be ensured.
CoC No. 1032 is added to the list of approved spent fuel storage casks.
The NRC is using the “direct final rule procedure” to add CoC No. 1032 to the list of approved storage casks because the Holtec HI-STORM FW cask system is considered to be similar to other previously approved storage casks and, therefore, is expected to be noncontroversial. Adequate protection of public health and safety continues to be ensured. The amendment to the rule will become effective on June 13, 2011. However, if the NRC receives significant adverse comments on this direct final rule by April 27, 2011, then the NRC will publish a document that withdraws this action and will subsequently address the comments received in a final rule as a response to the companion proposed rule published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register. Absent significant modifications to the proposed revisions requiring republication, the NRC will not initiate a second comment period on this action.
The National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-113) requires that Federal agencies use technical standards that are developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standards bodies unless the use of such a standard is inconsistent with applicable law or otherwise impractical. In this direct final rule, the NRC is adding the HI-STORM FW System to the list of NRC-approved cask systems for spent fuel storage in 10 CFR 72.214. This action does not constitute the establishment of a standard that contains generally applicable requirements.
Under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended, and the NRC regulations in Subpart A of 10 CFR part 51, the NRC has determined that this rule, if adopted, would not be a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment and, therefore, an environmental impact statement is not required. The NRC has prepared an environmental assessment and, on the basis of this environmental assessment, has made a finding of no significant impact. The rule will add the CoC for the HI-STORM FW System, CoC No. 1032, to the list of approved spent fuel storage casks that power reactor licensees can use to store spent fuel at reactor sites under a general license. The HI-STORM FW System provides the following: (1) The ability to store and transport BWR fuel with high initial enrichment (up to 4.8 weight percent uranium-235 planer average) without reliance on burnup or gadolinium credit; (2) the ability to load and store spent nuclear fuel from the longest to the shortest currently, and expected to be produced, in the United States without requiring site crane upgrades; (3) a reduction in the 10 CFR part 71 burnup credit requirement for the PWR basket allowing transportation of 5 weight percent uranium-235 fuel with moderate burnup; (4) enlarged storage cell opening sizes in both PWR and BWR MPCs to ensure distorted irradiated fuel will fit without difficulty and to permit canisterized fuel to be stored in certain designated locations; (5) greater heat rejection capacity with lower peak fuel cladding temperature than the HI-STORM 100 cask system, CoC No. 1014; and (6) a variable weight (HI-TRAC VW) transfer cask that will allow use of the full capacity of a facility's cask crane. The HI-STORM FW System consists of the following major components: HI-STORM FW Overpack, PWR MPC-37, BWR MPC-89, and HI-TRAC VW Transfer Cask.
2.In § 72.214, Certificate of Compliance 1032 is added to read as follows: § 72.214 List of approved spent fuel storage casks.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 8th day of February 2011.
[FR Doc. 2011-7102 Filed 3-25-11; 8:45 am]