Nuclear Regulatory Commission June 6, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The NRC staff will hold a public meeting to discuss the proposed release for unrestricted use of the off-shore portion of the circulating water system from SONGS Unit 1, and to accept public comments on the proposed action. The proposed release is requested in accordance with NRC regulations at 10 CFR 50.83, Release of Part of a Power Reactor Facility or Site for Unrestricted Use. The public meeting will be held on June 11, 2008, at the Dana Point Marina Inn, 24800 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point, CA 92629. The meeting will convene at 6 p.m. and will continue until 8 p.m., as necessary. The meeting will include: (1) An overview of the NRC review and inspection processes; (2) a presentation of the proposed action; and (3) the opportunity for interested government agencies, organizations, and individuals to provide comments on the SONGS plan. To be considered, comments must be provided either at the transcribed public meeting or in writing. Persons may pre-register to attend or present oral comments at the meeting by contacting Mr. James Shepherd, the NRC Project Manager at 1- 800-368-5642, extension 6712, or by e-mail at James.Shepherd@nrc.gov no later than June 9, 2008. Members of the public may also register to provide oral comments within 15 minutes of the start of the meeting. Individual, oral comments may be limited by the time available, depending on the number of persons who register. If special equipment or accommodations are needed to attend or present information at the public meeting, the need should be brought to Mr. Shepherd's attention no later than June 9, 2008, to provide the NRC staff adequate notice to determine whether the request can be accommodated.

The NRC is providing notice that the NRC staff will conduct a meeting to discuss and accept public comments on the Zion Nuclear Power Station, Units 1 and 2 (Zion) proposed license transfer and Zion Solutions (ZS) draft Post Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) on Wednesday, June 18, 2008, at 7 p.m. in a meeting room at the Illinois Beach Resort and Conference Center, 1 Lake Front Drive, Zion, Illinois (https://www.ilresorts.com/). Zion began commercial operation in December 1973 for Unit 1, and September 1974 for Unit 2. Unit 1 permanently shut down on February 21, 1997, and Unit 2 permanently shut down on September 19, 1996. All fuel was removed from the reactor and placed in the spent fuel pool on April 27, 1997, for Unit 1 and February 25, 1998, for Unit 2. In accordance with 10 CFR 50.82(a)(1)(i), the licensee certified in a letter dated February 13, 1998, that operations have ceased at Zion. In accordance with 10 CFR 50.82(a)(1)(ii), the licensee certified in a letter dated March 9, 1998, that all fuel had been removed from the Zion reactor vessels and committed to maintain them permanently defueled. The NRC acknowledged the certification of permanent cessation of power operation and permanent removal of fuel from the reactor vessels in a letter dated May 4, 1998. Pursuant to 10 CFR 50.82(a)(2), the 10 CFR 50 facility operating licenses for Zion no longer authorize operation of the reactors or emplacement or retention of fuel in the reactor vessels. Also, pursuant to 10 CFR 50.51(b), ``Continuation of license,'' the facility licenses remain in effect until the NRC notifies the licensee that the licenses have been terminated. On January 25, 2008, Exelon, the Zion licensee, submitted a request for a license transfer. The proposal is to transfer the licensed ownership, management authorities, and decommissioning trust fund of the facility to ZS a subsidiary of Energy Solutions. ZS was formed for the purpose of decommissioning the Zion site. The title to the site real estate and the spent nuclear fuel will remain with Exelon. ZS will construct and transfer the spent fuel to an ISFSI as part of the decommissioning. Following the decommissioning, currently scheduled for 10 years, the license for the spent fuel will be transferred back to Exelon. On March 18, 2008, ZS submitted an amended PSDAR for Zion. The PSDAR represents the ZS plan of activities to become effective if the application for license transfer is approved. The PSDAR describes the planned decommissioning activities, provides a schedule for the planned decommissioning activities, includes a cost estimate for the decommissioning, and assesses the environmental impacts.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending the licensing, inspection, and annual fees charged to its applicants and licensees. The amendments are necessary to implement the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (OBRA-90), as amended, which requires that the NRC recover approximately 90 percent of its budget authority in fiscal year (FY) 2008, less the amounts appropriated from the Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF), amounts appropriated for Waste Incidental to Reprocessing (WIR) activities, and amounts appropriated for generic homeland security activities. The required fee recovery amount for the FY 2008 budget is approximately $779.1 million. After accounting for carryover and billing adjustments, the total amount to be billed as fees is approximately $760.7 million.