83 FR 15420 - Northern States Power Company-Minnesota; Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant; Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation; Correct Inspection Intervals Acceptance Criteria

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 69 (April 10, 2018)

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reconciled an error in the Northern States Power Company--Minnesota (NSPM) Renewed License No. SNM-2506. Under this license, NSPM is authorized to receive, possess, store, and transfer spent nuclear fuel and associated radioactive materials at the Prairie Island Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation.

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 69 (Tuesday, April 10, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15420-15421]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2018-07304]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 72-10; NRC-2018-0057]


Northern States Power Company--Minnesota; Prairie Island Nuclear 
Generating Plant; Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation; Correct 
Inspection Intervals Acceptance Criteria

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: License amendment application; issuance.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reconciled an 
error in the Northern States Power Company--Minnesota (NSPM) Renewed 
License No. SNM-2506. Under this license, NSPM is authorized to 
receive,

[[Page 15421]]

possess, store, and transfer spent nuclear fuel and associated 
radioactive materials at the Prairie Island Independent Spent Fuel 
Storage Installation.

DATES: April 10, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2018-0057 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 http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2018-0057. Address 
questions about NRC dockets to Jennifer Borges; telephone: 301-287-
9127; 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 http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select ``ADAMS Public Documents'' and 
then 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, 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: You may examine and purchase copies of public 
documents at the NRC's PDR, Room O1-F21, One White Flint North, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John-Chau Nguyen, Office of Nuclear 
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-0262; email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: After receiving Renewed License No. SNM-
2506, the NSPM staff began to review it and prepare procedures to 
implement new requirements. NSPM submitted an email on February 9, 2016 
(ADAMS Accession No. ML17324B332), requesting the NRC to, among other 
things, address an apparent error in License Condition 22(a) of Renewed 
License No. SNM-2506 so that NSPM could establish procedures containing 
the correct inspection intervals acceptance criteria for Renewed 
License No. SNM-2506. License Condition 22(a) set inspection intervals 
to be ``not less than'' those in the American Concrete Institute (ACI) 
Code; however, NRC-issued documents demonstrated the NRC had intended 
the intervals ``not to exceed'' those in the ACI Code.
    As a result of its review, the NRC staff determined that License 
Condition 22(a) should read ``not to exceed'' instead of ``not less 
than'' and has amended the license to correct this error. When the NRC 
staff evaluated visual inspection intervals in its Safety Evaluation 
Report (SER) dated December 2015 (ADAMS Accession No. ML15336A230) for 
Renewed License No. SNM-2506, Section 3.5.1.3 of the SER clearly 
articulated the staff's expectation that accessible areas of the 
concrete pads would be visually inspected at intervals ``not to 
exceed'' 5 years. Further, the SER states the staff determined that the 
specific inspection intervals and areas of inspection coverage in the 
Aging Management Program (AMP) for concrete pads are appropriate based 
upon the technical references pertinent to age-related degradation of 
concrete in similar environments, including American Concrete Institute 
guides (ACI) 349.3R-02 (ACI, 2002), ACI 201.1R-08 (ACI, 2008), American 
National Standards Institute/American Society of Civil Engineers 
guidelines (ANSI/ASCE) 11-99 (ASCE, 2000), and reactor renewal guidance 
provided in NRC NUREG-1801 (NRC, 2010b). The ``not less than'' language 
included in error is inconsistent with the NRC staff's SER and has the 
unintended consequence of preventing NSPM from conducting more frequent 
inspections.
    Accordingly, based on the staff's findings, the NRC made the 
necessary change and issued Amendment No. 10 to License No. SNM-2506 to 
correct License Condition 22(a). Amendment No. 10 was effective as of 
its date of issuance. The NRC staff's findings are documented in a SER 
dated March 6, 2018 (ADAMS Accession No. ML18057A284), which determined 
that the amendment complies with the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as 
amended, and NRC regulations. The issuance of Amendment No. 10 
satisfies the criteria specified in Sec.  51.22(c)(11) of title 10 of 
the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) for a categorical exclusion. 
Therefore, the preparation of an environmental assessment or an 
environmental impact statement is not required.
    In accordance with 10 CFR 72.46(b)(2), the NRC has determined that 
Amendment No. 10 does not present a genuine issue as to whether the 
public health and safety will be significantly affected. Therefore, the 
publication of a notice of proposed action and an opportunity for 
hearing or a notice of hearing is not warranted. Notice is hereby given 
of the right of interested persons to request a hearing on whether the 
action should be rescinded or modified.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 4th day of April, 2018.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
John McKirgan,
Chief, Spent Fuel Licensing Branch, Division of Spent Fuel Management, 
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2018-07304 Filed 4-9-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7590-01-P