Washington Public Power Supply System; Washington Nuclear Project Unit 3; Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact

[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 6 (Monday, January 11, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1644-1645]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-507]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 50-508]


Washington Public Power Supply System; Washington Nuclear Project 
Unit 3; Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the Commission) is 
considering issuance of an order terminating Construction Permit No. 
CPPR-154, which authorized construction of the Washington Nuclear 
Project Unit 3 (WNP-3), located at Satsop, Washington. This 
construction permit (CP) is held by the Washington Public Power Supply 
System (WPPSS) and includes all remaining WNP-3 structures and the 
Washington Nuclear Plant Unit 5 (WNP-5) structures that were subsumed 
in the WNP-3 construction permit following expiration of the WNP-5 
Construction Permit No. CPPR-155, which was issued on April 11, 1978, 
Docket No. 50-509.
    Termination of the CP was requested by WPPSS by letter dated August 
8, 1996, as supplemented by letters dated June 15 and November 5, 1998. 
In a related matter, on August 16, 1998, WPPSS filed a motion for 
withdrawal of its application for an operating license (OL) for WNP-3 
and for termination of the proceeding on that application before the 
Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB). The ASLB approved the 
withdrawal of the OL application and terminated the proceeding on 
October 16, 1996, noting that the staff would prepare an adequate EA on 
the CP termination and that the impacts addressed there would encompass 
the OL termination impacts, thus obviating the need for a separate EA 
on OL termination, 44 NRC 134 (1996).

Environmental Assessment

Identification of the Proposed Action

    The proposed action is issuance of an order that would terminate 
Construction Permit No. CPPR-154 for WNP-3. WPPSS has decided to 
terminate the CP of the partially completed, and previously deferred, 
WNP-3 project. Recent changes in Washington State law (RCW 80.50.300) 
have made it possible to transfer ownership of WNP-3 and WNP-5 to an 
interlocal agency, the Satsop Redevelopment Project (SRP), formed by 
Grays Harbor County, the Port of Grays Harbor, and the Grays Harbor 
Public Utilities District. This new agency will not complete the 
project as a nuclear power plant; rather, SRP plans to own and operate 
the site and certain structures for economic development purposes.
    WPPSS has entered into an agreement to transfer ownership of the 
1600-acre Satsop site to the SRP, or its successor, for conversion of 
the site to an industrial, business, or research park. Under the 
agreement, 22 acres (with an option to acquire an additional 20 acres) 
are to be maintained under the ownership of WPPSS for a combustion 
turbine energy facility project.
    The plant island area of the site includes the cooling towers, 
reactor auxiliary buildings, reactor buildings, turbine building, and 
the administration building for WNP-3 and WNP-5. None of these 
structures are scheduled for demolition. The WNP-3 reactor building and 
reactor auxiliary building will be secured by the installation of 
permanent doors and the closure of building openings. The equipment 
located within these buildings will be removed to the extent practical. 
Service systems, such as lighting, communications, fire protection, and 
electrical service, will remain operational. The partially complete 
WNP-5 reactor auxiliary building is planned to be enclosed by the 
completion of the grade-level floor slab. The WNP-5 reactor building 
will be reconfigured to serve as the site's raw water supply storage 
facility. The WNP-3 and WNP-5 turbine building will be cleared of the 
turbine generator and related systems. Service systems within the 
turbine building will remain operational. The disposition of the 
cooling towers is uncertain; current plans are to keep them as they 
are. The administration building, fire protection building, water 
treatment facility, blowdown building area, north and south tank farms, 
and the 230 kV electrical supply system will be retained for future 
use. Warehouses, buildings, material storage yards, and parking lots 
that were developed to support the construction of the plant are 
supplied by service systems and will be retained or upgraded to support 
future commercial development. Any temporary buildings and facilities 
not identified for potential future use will be removed along with 
their foundations. Developed property and laydown yards will be 
cleared. The existing raw water well will be maintained as a source of 
potable water and the Ranney well field will remain as a source of 
process water for the Satsop site, including the Combustion Turbine 
Project. The barge unloading facility will remain for use by the SRP.
    The staff inspected the Satsop site on October 27-28, 1998, to 
determine if possession of source, byproduct, or special nuclear 
material was controlled as authorized and if the site is being 
maintained in a safe and stable manner, and to assess key environmental 
aspects of the site. The inspectors observed selected portions of the 
Ranney wells, barge slip, cooling towers, and other site buildings. The 
inspectors also observed that erosion controls were being maintained.
    The site cannot be used as a utilization facility. No nuclear fuel 
was ever received on site. The Satsop site is in an environmentally 
stable condition that poses no significant hazard to persons on site, 
and the plant cannot be operated in its present condition.

Need for the Proposed Action

    WPPSS has terminated construction of the nuclear power plant and 
has disabled the facility so that it cannot be operated as a 
utilization facility. WPPSS intends to transfer the site to the SRP for 
use as an industrial, business, or research park, with the exception of 
22 acres and an option to acquire an additional 20 acres for use as an 
energy facility operated by WPPSS. This action would terminate the 
construction permit.

Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action

    This is a simple administrative action of terminating the 
construction permit to reflect the fact that there are no longer 
utilization facilities under construction at the Satsop site and that 
the site has been adequately stabilized. This action has no 
environmental impact.

Alternatives to the Proposed Action

    There are no viable alternatives with respect to the proposed 
action.

[[Page 1645]]

Alternative Use of Resources

    This action, for which there are no appropriate alternatives, does 
not involve the use of, and therefore will not affect, available 
resources.

Agencies and Persons Consulted

    In accordance with its stated policy, on October 28 and November 3, 
1998, the staff consulted with the Washington State official, Deborah 
J. Ross of the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, regarding the 
environmental impact of the proposed action. The State official had no 
comments.

Finding of No Significant Impact

    On the basis of the environmental assessment, the Commission 
concludes that the proposed action will not have a significant effect 
on the quality of the human environment. Accordingly, the Commission 
has determined not to prepare an environmental impact statement for the 
proposed action.
    For further details with respect to the proposed action, see the 
licensee's request for termination of Construction Permit No. CPPR-154, 
dated August 8, 1996, additional information submitted by letter dated 
June 15, 1998, WPPSS's ``Satsop Power Plant Scope of Restoration'' 
transmitted by letter dated November 5, 1998, and the NRC staff's 
inspection report dated November 2, 1998. These documents regarding the 
NRC staff's environmental assessment of the proposed action are 
available for public inspection at the Commission's Public Document 
Room, The Gelman Building, 2120 L Street, NW., Washington, DC.

    Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 4th day of January 1999.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Seymour H. Weiss,
Director, Non-Power Reactors and Decommissioning Project Directorate, 
Division of Reactor Program Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor 
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 99-507 Filed 1-8-99; 8:45 am]
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