Nuclear Regulatory Commission 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

As required by Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations 10 CFR part 51, the NRC has prepared a final Environmental Assessment (EA) associated with its evaluation of a request by the TXU Generation Company, LP (subsequently renamed Luminant Generation Company, LLC, the licensee), for a license amendment to increase the maximum thermal power at the Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station (CPSES), Units 1 and 2, from 3458 megawatts thermal (MWt) to 3612 MWt at each unit. The NRC staff did not identify any significant impact from the information provided in the licensee's stretch power uprate (SPU) application for CPSES, Units 1 and 2 or from the NRC staff's independent review. The final EA and Finding of No Significant Impact are being published in the Federal Register. The NRC published a draft EA and finding of no significant impact on the proposed action for public comment in the Federal Register on April 30, 2008 (73 FR 23503). No comments were received.

The NRC has recently submitted to OMB for review the following proposal for the collection of information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). The NRC hereby informs potential respondents that an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and that a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The NRC published a Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period on this information collection on March 28, 2008. 1. Type of submission, new, revision, or extension: Extension. 2. The title of the information collection: 10 CFR Part 72, Licensing Requirements for the Independent Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste. 3. Current OMB approval number: 3150-0132. 4. The form number if applicable: Not applicable. 5. How often the collection is required: Required reports are collected and evaluated on a continuing basis as events occur; submittal of reports varies from less than one per year under some rule sections to up to an average of about 100 per year under other rule sections. Applications for new licenses, certificates of compliance (CoCs), and amendments may be submitted at anytime; applications for renewal of licenses are required every 20 years for an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) or Certificate of Compliance (CoC) and every 40 years for a Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS) facility. 6. Who will be required or asked to report: Certificate holders of casks for the storage of spent fuel; licensees and applicants for a CoC or a license to possess power reactor spent fuel and other radioactive materials associated with spent fuel storage in an ISFSI; and the Department of Energy for licenses to receive, transfer, package and possess power reactor spent fuel, high-level waste, and other radioactive materials associated with spent fuel and high-level waste storage in an MRS. 7. An estimate of the number of annual responses: 370 (320 responses + 50 recordkeepers). 8. The estimated number of annual respondents: 50. 9. An estimate of the total number of hours needed annually to complete the requirement or request: 25,551 (22,781 hours for reporting [71 hours per response] and 2,770 hours for recordkeeping [55 hours per recordkeeper]). 10. Abstract: 10 CFR Part 72 establishes mandatory requirements, procedures, and criteria for the issuance of licenses to receive, transfer, and possess power reactor spent fuel and other radioactive materials associated with spent fuel storage in an ISFSI, as well as requirements for the issuance of licenses to the Department of Energy to receive, transfer, package, and possess power reactor spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste, and other associated radioactive materials in an MRS. The information in the applications, reports, and records is used by NRC to make licensing and other regulatory determinations. A copy of the final 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: https:// www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comment/omb/. The document will be available on the NRC home page site for 60 days after the signature date of this notice. Comments and questions should be directed to the OMB reviewer listed below by July 23, 2008. Comments received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but assurance of consideration cannot be given to comments received after this date.

The NRC has recently submitted to OMB for review the following proposal for the collection of information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). The NRC hereby informs potential respondents that an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and that a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The NRC published a Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period on this information collection on March 24, 2008. 1. Type of submissionnew, revision, or extension: Revision. 2. The title of the information collection: 10 CFR Part 54, ``Requirements for Renewal of Operating Licenses for Nuclear Power Plants.'' 3. Current OMB approval number: 3150-0155. 4. The form number if applicable: Not applicable. 5. How often the collection is required: There is a one-time application for any licensee wishing to renew its nuclear power plant's operating license. There is a one-time requirement for each licensee with a renewed operating license to submit a commitment completion letter. All holders of renewed licenses must perform yearly record keeping. 6. Who will be required or asked to report: Commercial nuclear power plant licensees who wish to renew their operating licenses and holders of renewed licenses. 7. An estimate of the number of annual responses: 10 (six Part 54 respondents plus four commitment completion letter respondents). 8. The estimated number of annual respondents: 50 (10 responses plus 40 recordkeepers). 9. An estimate of the total number of hours needed annually to complete the requirement or request: 544,940 hours (504,940 hours reporting plus 40,000 hours recordkeeping). 10. Abstract: Title 10, Part 54, establishes license renewal requirements for commercial nuclear power plants and describes the information that licensees must submit to the NRC when applying for a license renewal. The application must contain information on how the licensee will manage the detrimental effects of age-related degradation on certain plant systems, structures, and components so as to continue the plant's safe operation during the renewal term. The NRC needs this information to determine whether the licensee's actions will be effective in assuring the plant's continued safe operation. Holders of renewed licenses must retain in an auditable and retrievable form, for the term of the renewed operating license, all information and documentation required to document compliance with 10 CFR Part 54. The NRC needs access to this information for continuing effective regulatory oversight. A copy of the final 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: https:// www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comment/omb/. The document will be available on the NRC home page site for 60 days after the signature date of this notice. Comments and questions should be directed to the OMB reviewer listed below by July 18, 2008. Comments received after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but assurance of consideration cannot be given to comments received after this date. Nathan J. Frey, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (3150-0155), NEOB-10202, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC 20503. Comments can also be e-mailed to Nathan_J._Frey@omb.eop.gov or submitted by telephone at (202) 395-7345. The NRC Clearance Officer is Margaret A. Janney, (301) 415-7245.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its regulations by revising the Holtec International HI-STORM 100 cask system listing within the ``List of approved spent fuel storage casks'' to include Amendment No. 5 to Certificate of Compliance (CoC) Number 1014. Amendment No. 5 includes deletion of the requirement to perform thermal validation tests on thermal systems; an increase in the design basis maximum decay heat loads, namely, to 34 kilowatts (kW) for uniform loading and 36.9 kW for regionalized loading, and introduction of a new decay heat regionalized scheme; an increase in the maximum fuel assembly weight for boiling water reactor fuel in the Multi- Purpose Canister (MPC)-68 from 700 to 730 pounds; an increase in the maximum fuel assembly weight of up to 1,720 pounds for assemblies not requiring spacers, otherwise 1,680 pounds; changes to the assembly characteristics of 16 x 16 pressurized water reactor fuel assemblies to be qualified for storage in the HI-STORM 100 cask system; a change in the fuel storage locations in the MPC-32 for fuel with axial power shaping rod assemblies and in the fuel storage locations in the MPC-24, MPC-24E, and the MPC-32 for fuel with control rod assemblies, rod cluster control assemblies, and control element assemblies; elimination of the restriction that fuel debris can only be loaded into the MPC- 24EF, MPC-32F, MPC-68F, and MPC-68FF canisters; introduction of a requirement that all MPC confinement boundary components and any MPC components exposed to spent fuel pool water or the ambient environment be made of stainless steel or, for MPC internals, neutron absorber or aluminum; the addition of a threshold heat load below which operation of the Supplemental Cooling System would not be required and modification of the design criteria to simplify the system; minor editorial changes to include clarification of the description of anchored casks, correction of typographical/editorial errors, clarification of the definitions of loading operations, storage operations, transport operations, unloading operations, cask loading facility, and transfer cask in various locations throughout the CoC and Final Safety Analysis Report; and modification of the definition of non-fuel hardware to include the individual parts of the items defined as non-fuel hardware. This final rule allows the holders of power reactor operating licenses to store spent fuel in this approved cask as specified in the revised conditions under the NRC's general license provisions.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is amending its regulations related to licensee reporting requirements for source material and special nuclear material (SNM) to the Nuclear Materials Management and Safeguards System (NMMSS). The amendments lower the threshold of the quantities of SNM and certain source materials that require the submission of material status reports to the NMMSS. Also, the amendments modify the types and timing of submittals of some transaction reports to the NMMSS. The amendments also require licensees to reconcile any material inventory discrepancies that NRC identifies in the NMMSS database. The amendments reduce some regulatory burden by reducing the current reporting requirements related to the export of certain source material and SNM. However, the annual reporting requirements are new requirements for licensees who possess 350 grams or less of SNM. These amendments are needed to improve the accuracy of the material inventory information maintained in the NMMSS.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is announcing the availability of and is seeking public comment on the draft NUREG-1886, ``Joint CanadaUnited States Guide for Approval of Type B(U) and Fissile Material Transportation Packages.''