[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 114 (Wednesday, June 14, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31331-31332]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-14503]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 50-267; License No. DPR-34]
Public Service Company of Colorado, (Fort St. Vrain Nuclear
Generating Station); Exemption
I
The Public Service Company of Colorado (PSC or the licensee) is the
holder of Possession-Only License (POL) No. DPR-34, which authorized
possessions and maintenance of the Fort St. Vrain Nuclear Generating
Station (FSV). The license provides, among other things, that the plant
is subject to all rules, regulations, and Orders of the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) now or hereafter in effect.
FSV is a high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor that is located at
the licensee's site in Weld County, Colorado. FSV operated from January
31, 1974, to August 18, 1989. PSC shut down FSV because of control rod
drive failures and subsequently made the shutdown permanent because of
a discovery of degradation of the steam generator ring headers. On
November 5, 1990, PSC submitted a Decommissioning Plan (DP) pursuant to
Sec. 50.82 of title 10, Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR 50.82) that
proposed the dismantling of FSV. On May 21, 1991, the NRC revised
License No. DPR-34 to a POL, which allows possession but not operation
of FSV. The DP was approved by NRC Order dated, November 23, 1993. PSC
is actively dismantling FSV and decommissioning is approximately 65
percent complete. In addition, FSV has been defueled and all fuel was
transferred to the PSC independent spent fuel storage installation
(ISFSI). The ISFSI (Materials License No. SNM-2504) is licensed under
10 CFR part 72.
II
By letter dated February 16, 1995, PSC requested an exemption in
accordance with 10 CFR 50.12 from the requirements of 10 CFR 50.54(w)
to maintain onsite property damage insurance. This rule states the
following:
* * * Each electric utility licensee under this part for a
production or utilization facility of the type described in 10 CFR
50.21(b) and 10 CFR 50.22 shall take reasonable steps to obtain
insurance available at reasonable costs and on reasonable terms from
private sources or to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the
Commission that it possesses an equivalent amount of protection
covering the licensee's obligation in the event of an accident at
the licensee's reactor, to stabilize and decontaminate the reactor
and the reactor station site at which the reactor experiencing the
accident is located, provided that: * * *.
III
The justification presented by the licensee for the exemption
request is that FSV is not authorized to operate, all nuclear fuel has
been removed from the reactor facility and transferred to the ISFSI,
decommissioning of FSV is approximately 65 percent complete, and the
risk of accident resulting in a radiological release is now
considerably less than during plant operation. The licensee contends
that with all nuclear fuel removed from the reactor facility, and with
the activated graphite blocks removed from the reactor building and
disposed of at an authorized low-level waste disposal facility, the
potential accidents as evaluated in the FSV DP only involve events such
as fires, electrical power outages, and the dropping of activated or
contaminated materials during dismantling. PSC concludes that any
events at the facility would only result in doses to individuals
located at the emergency planning zone boundary. In addition, PSC
concludes these doses would be orders of magnitude below 10 CFR part
[[Page 31332]]
100 guidelines and are a small fraction of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA) ``Protection Action Guidelines'' (PAG). The
NRC staff's Safety Evaluation of the FSV DP (NRC Decommissioning Order
dated November 23, 1992) confirmed PSC's conclusion. Because the risk
of an accident requiring reactor stabilization or extensive
decontamination of the reactor facility does not exist at FSV, the
annual cost of $250,000 per year for insurance is unwarranted and poses
an undue hardship on FSV.
The NRC will not consider granting an exemption unless special
circumstances warrant it. In the licensee's letter of August 2, 1993,
these special circumstances were addressed as follows:
* * * (ii) Application of the regulation in the particular
circumstances would not serve the underlying purpose of the rule; or
(iii) Compliance would result in undue hardship or other costs that
are significantly in excess of those incurred by others similarly
situated * * *.
In addition, for the FSV worst-case accident previously analyzed in
Section 3.4.10 of the NRC approved Decommissioning Plan, the
radiological release from the accident would result in a whole-body
dose to an individual of 8.30 mrem. This dose is considerably less than
1 percent of the EPA PAG dose of 1000 mrem that requires protective
action.
IV
The staff has reviewed the licensee's requests and finds that
sufficient bases have been presented for NRC's approval of the request
for exemption from 10 CFR 50.54(w) requirements to continue to maintain
onsite property insurance.
The staff finds that the special circumstances presented by PSC
satisfy the requirements of 10 CFR 50.12(a)(2) (ii) and (iii), and it
would serve no purpose to meet a requirement that relates primarily to
an operating reactor, where costs to stabilize and decontaminate a
facility are significant in contrast to a defueled reactor such as FSV
that is 65 percent decommissioned. To continue to maintain onsite
property insurance would result in undue hardship to the licensee and
costs in excess of those contemplated when the regulation was adopted.
Based on the above evaluation, the NRC has determined that pursuant
to 10 CFR 50.12(a)(1), this exemption is authorized by law, will not
present an undue risk to the public health and safety, and is
consistent with the common defense and security.
Accordingly, NRC hereby grants an exemption from 10 CFR 50.54(w).
The exemption deletes the requirement to continue to maintain onsite
property damage insurance.
Pursuant to 10 CFR 51.32, NRC has determined that the granting of
this exemption will not have a significant effect on the quality of the
human environment (May 22, 1995, 60 FR 27140).
A copy of the licensee's request for the exemption and supporting
documentation dated February 16, 1995, and the NRC staff's Safety
Evaluation, included in the exemption, are available for public
inspection at the NRC's Public Document Room, 2120 L Street, NW.,
Washington, DC 20037, and at the Weld Library District--Downtown
Branch, 919 7th Street, Greeley, CO 80631.
This exemption will become effective on issuance.
Dated at Rockville, MD, this 7th day of June, 1995.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
John T. Greeves,
Director, Division of Waste Management, Office of Nuclear Material
Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 95-14503 Filed 6-13-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-M
