Federal Register Extracts

Agency: "Nuclear Regulatory Commission."

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued an exemption in response to a request from Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC that would permit it, Holtec Indian Point 2, LLC, and Holtec Indian Point 3, LLC, to reduce the minimum coverage limit for onsite property damage insurance from $1.06 billion to $50 million for the Indian Point Nuclear Generating Unit Nos. 1, 2, and 3, collectively referred to as the Indian Point Energy Center (IPEC).

DATES: The exemption was issued on November 14, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2023-0175 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-2023-0175. 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: Karl Sturzebecher, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone: 301-415-8534, email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The text of the exemption is attached.

Dated: December 26, 2023.

For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Marlayna V. Doell,

Project Manager, Reactor Decommissioning Branch, Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery and Waste Programs, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.

Attachment--Exemption

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Docket Nos. 50-003, 50-247, and 50-286

Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC, Holtec Indian Point 2, LLC, and Holtec Indian Point 3, LLC; Indian Point Nuclear Generating Unit Nos. 1, 2, and 3; Exemption

I. Background

Indian Point Nuclear Generating Unit No. 1 (IP1) permanently ceased generation on October 31, 1974, and all fuel was removed from the IP1 reactor vessel by January 1976. In 1996, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC, the Commission) issued an order approving the safe-storage condition of IP1. In 2003, the NRC issued Amendment No. 52 to IP1's provisional operating license, which changed the expiration date of the provisional license to be consistent with that of the Indian Point Nuclear Generating Unit No. 2 (IP2) facility license at that time. Pursuant to title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) section 50.82(a)(2), the IP1 license no longer authorizes operation of the reactor or emplacement or retention of fuel into the reactor vessel. There is no IP1 spent fuel in wet storage at the Indian Point Energy Center (IPEC) site; IP1 spent fuel is stored onsite in dry cask storage at the independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI).

By letter dated February 8, 2017 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System Accession No. ML17044A004), Entergy Nuclear Indian Point 2, LLC, and Entergy Nuclear Indian Point 3, LLC (the IPEC licensees at that time, collectively, Entergy) certified to the NRC that they planned to permanently cease power operations at IP2 and Indian Point Nuclear Generating Unit No. 3 (IP3) by April 30, 2020, and April 30, 2021, respectively. By letters dated May 12, 2020, and May 11, 2021 (ML20133J902 and ML21131A157), Entergy certified to the NRC that power operations permanently ceased at IP2 and IP3 on April 30, 2020, and April 30, 2021, respectively. In the same letters, Entergy certified to the NRC that the fuel was permanently removed from the IP2 and IP3 reactor vessels and placed in the IP2 and IP3 spent fuel pools (SFPs) as of May 12, 2020, and May 11, 2021, respectively.

Based on the docketing of these certifications for permanent cessation of operations and permanent removal of fuel from the reactor vessels, as specified in 10 CFR 50.82(a)(2), the 10 CFR part 50 renewed facility licenses for IP2 and IP3 (Nos. DPR-26 and DPR-64, respectively) no longer authorize operation of the reactors or emplacement or retention of fuel in the reactor vessels. The facility is still authorized to possess and store irradiated (i.e., spent) nuclear fuel. At the time of the exemption request described below, spent fuel was stored onsite at the IP2 and IP3 facilities in the SFPs and in a dry cask ISFSI.

II. Request/Action

By letter dated March 18, 2022 (ML22077A132), Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC (HDI), one of the licensees of IPEC and an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Holtec International (Holtec), requested an exemption on behalf of Holtec Indian Point 2, LLC (a licensee of IP1 and IP2, referred to as Holtec IP2) and Holtec Indian Point 3, LLC (a licensee of IP3, and referred to as Holtec IP3), from the requirements of 10 CFR 50.54(w)(1) concerning onsite liability insurance. HDI, Holtec IP2, and Holtec IP3 are hereafter collectively referred to as the licensee. The exemption from 10 CFR 50.54(w)(1) would permit the licensee to reduce the required level of onsite property damage insurance from $1.06 billion to $50 million for IPEC.

The regulation at 10 CFR 50.54(w)(1) requires licensees to have and maintain onsite property damage insurance to stabilize and decontaminate the reactor(s) and reactor site in the event of an accident. The onsite insurance coverage must be either $1.06 billion or whatever amount of insurance is generally available from private sources (whichever is less).

The licensee states that the risk of an incident at a permanently shutdown and defueled reactor is much less than the risk from an operating power reactor. In addition, since reactor operation is no longer authorized at IPEC, there are no events that would require the stabilization of reactor conditions after an accident. Similarly, the risk of an accident that would result in significant onsite contamination at IPEC is also much lower than the risk of such an event at operating reactors. Therefore, the licensee requested an exemption from 10 CFR 50.54(w)(1) to reduce its onsite property damage insurance from $1.06 billion to $50 million, commensurate with the reduced risk of an incident at the permanently shutdown and defueled IPEC site.

III. Discussion

Under 10 CFR 50.12, "Specific exemptions," 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) any of the special circumstances listed in 10 CFR 50.12(a)(2) are present.

The financial protection limits of 10 CFR 50.54(w)(1) were established after the Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 2 accident out of concern that licensees may be unable to financially cover onsite cleanup costs in the event of a major nuclear accident. The specified $1.06 billion coverage amount requirement was developed based on an analysis of an accident at a nuclear reactor operating at power, resulting in a large fission product release and requiring significant resource expenditures to stabilize the reactor and ultimately decontaminate and cleanup the site.

These cost estimates were developed based on the spectrum of postulated accidents for an operating nuclear reactor. Those costs were derived from the consequences of a release of radioactive material from the reactor. Although the risk of an accident at an operating reactor is very low, the consequences onsite and offsite can be significant. In an operating plant, the high temperature and pressure of the reactor coolant system (RCS), as well as the inventory of relatively short-lived radionuclides, contribute to both the risk and consequences of an accident. With the permanent cessation of reactor operations at IPEC and the permanent removal of the fuel from the reactor vessels, such accidents are no longer possible. As a result, the reactor vessels, RCS, and supporting systems no longer operate and have no function related to the storage of the irradiated fuel. Therefore, postulated accidents involving failure or malfunction of the reactors, RCS, or supporting systems are no longer applicable.

During reactor decommissioning, the largest radiological risks are associated with the storage of spent fuel onsite. In the exemption request dated March 18, 2022, the licensee discussed both design-basis and beyond design-basis events involving irradiated fuel stored in the SFPs. The licensee determined that there are no possible design-basis events at IPEC that could result in an offsite radiological release exceeding the limits established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) early phase Protective Action Guides (PAGs) of 1 roentgen equivalent man (rem) at the exclusion area boundary, as a way to demonstrate that any possible radiological releases would be minimal and would not require precautionary protective actions (e.g., sheltering in place or evacuation). The NRC staff evaluated the radiological consequences associated with various decommissioning activities and the design basis accidents at IPEC, in consideration of the permanently shutdown and defueled condition. The possible design-basis accident scenarios at IPEC have greatly reduced radiological consequences. Based on its review, the NRC staff concluded that no reasonably conceivable design-basis accident exists that could cause an offsite release greater than the EPA PAGs.

--This is a summary of a Federal Register article originally published on the page number listed below--

Notice; issuance.

Citation: "88 FR 90208"

Document Number: "Docket Nos. 50-003, 50-247, and 50-286; NRC-2023-0175"

Federal Register Page Number: "90208"

"Notices"